My point is that, in the modern day with these battery technologies, the difference in battery capacity between two nearly identical devices, one with a replaceable battery and the other with one glued in, is now negligible.
It’s a bit like the push for eSIMs, where Apple recently released phones with slightly more mAH in their eSIM only phones for the U.S. market. Many people argued that the removal of a physical SIM slot (and usually the microSD slot we all love) is needed for larger battery capacities in smartphones, but in reality, the actual difference in the iPhones was very small.
And the existence of Framework, Fairphone, Lenovo, etc. who produce devices with easily replaceable batteries show that it is possible to do so without sacrificing battery life compared to the competition. A lot of the Lenovo Thinkpads have this feature, and compared to laptops with a similar size, weight, and processing power, there is no significant difference in battery life. Framework’s “13 Pro” (note that the screen size is around 13.5") can compete with the 14" MacBook Pro in battery life in a similar form factor, while also offering a replaceable battery and a repairable design. And for smartphones, Fairphone’s latest model can compete in battery life with other phones in the same price range, even with a replaceable battery.
The difference in the battery life of easily replaceable and glued-in batteries is very small, for both large corporations like Lenovo and relatively small companies like Framework or Fairphone. I believe this can be compared to the removal of the physical SIM slot (and the microSD slot), where the actual gain in battery capacity is negligible. In this case, we have a real “identical” product with and without the slot, and the battery capacity difference is very small.
My point is that, in the modern day with these battery technologies, the difference in battery capacity between two nearly identical devices, one with a replaceable battery and the other with one glued in, is now negligible.
It’s a bit like the push for eSIMs, where Apple recently released phones with slightly more mAH in their eSIM only phones for the U.S. market. Many people argued that the removal of a physical SIM slot (and usually the microSD slot we all love) is needed for larger battery capacities in smartphones, but in reality, the actual difference in the iPhones was very small.
And the existence of Framework, Fairphone, Lenovo, etc. who produce devices with easily replaceable batteries show that it is possible to do so without sacrificing battery life compared to the competition. A lot of the Lenovo Thinkpads have this feature, and compared to laptops with a similar size, weight, and processing power, there is no significant difference in battery life. Framework’s “13 Pro” (note that the screen size is around 13.5") can compete with the 14" MacBook Pro in battery life in a similar form factor, while also offering a replaceable battery and a repairable design. And for smartphones, Fairphone’s latest model can compete in battery life with other phones in the same price range, even with a replaceable battery.
The difference in the battery life of easily replaceable and glued-in batteries is very small, for both large corporations like Lenovo and relatively small companies like Framework or Fairphone. I believe this can be compared to the removal of the physical SIM slot (and the microSD slot), where the actual gain in battery capacity is negligible. In this case, we have a real “identical” product with and without the slot, and the battery capacity difference is very small.
The Switch 2 is new tech though.