If you still long for the days when smartphone batteries were removable, it is time to let go of the past. Removable smartphone batteries are gone for good and are not coming back. And it is not because phone manufacturers want to keep you buying new phones by making sure current models become unusable after a year or two.

There are some very valid reasons removable batteries are no longer utilized. Three such reasons are described in this post. Before getting to them however, it must be understood that smartphone batteries are essentially USB rechargeable batteries.

Functionally speaking, a phone battery is no different than a rechargeable Pale Blue Earth AA battery. Both are lithium-ion based. Both can be recharged over and over again. Both provide plenty of energy capable of powering electronic devices.

With that out of the way, let us get to the previously mentioned reasons explaining the demise of removable phone batteries.

1. They Are No Longer Necessary

The removable phone batteries of the 90s and early 2000s were removable for a reason: they didn’t last very long. If you got a year out of a battery back then, that was a lot. Your typical phone user would go through three or four batteries before buying a new phone.

That is not the way things are now.  employee scheduling software app  A Pale Blue Earth USB rechargeable can be charged more than 1,000 times. So can most phone batteries. Even if you estimate on the low side, charging your phone once per day suggests that the battery will last about three years. Many phone batteries last even longer.

In simple terms, removable batteries are no longer necessary. So why sacrifice the benefits of getting rid of the removable battery just to give phone owners a bit of the nostalgic past?

2. Greater Emphasis on Durability

Manufactures have put a lot of time and effort into improving phone durability over the years. They have adopted things like metal cases and watertight construction. Here’s the thing about removal batteries: they reduce durability exponentially.

For example, putting a removable battery in a smartphone also requires installing a removable back. This immediately causes concern whenever the phone is exposed to moisture. Switch to a hard-wired battery and you no longer need the removable back. Now you can seal the phone and make it watertight.

3. Greater Emphasis on Standardization

Along with wanting to improve the durability of their phones, manufacturers have also had an eye on standardizing internal components. In the old days, removable phone batteries were not all the same size. They were not all the same shape. Form factor was a big problem because every manufacturer wanted to design its phones differently.

Getting rid of the removable battery changes things. Now manufacturers can go with a single, standard format and work their designs around it. They can know, in advance of each new design, just how big the battery is. And because they no longer worry about battery size and shape, they can concentrate on more important things.

There was a time and place for removable phone batteries. But those days are long gone now. It no longer makes sense to design phones with removable batteries when modern USB rechargeable batteries are so long-lasting and reliable.

If you still want the thrill of removable batteries, ditch the NiMH and single use batteries that power your electronics. Replace them with lithium-ion USB rechargeable batteries instead. You will discover that you save money and enjoy longer battery life. And you’ll still have the thrill of changing out batteries from time to time.