Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
Bunnymad
Enthusiast - Level 2

My Samsung S7's battery stinks.  I need one with a spare battery more than I need a waterproof phone.  What good is a waterproof phone if the battery is dead and you can't use it? 

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
Bunnymad
Enthusiast - Level 2

Okay, battery sucking culprit identified.  Snapchat.  Installed it recently at the insistence of my grandkids but hadn't really used it much until a recent trip.  So I've set the preferences to "travel mode" and disabled the location setting on it.  We'll see if that helps.  In the meantime, bonus..... I now have a cool Anker portable battery charger. 

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
kathy65793
Master - Level 1

I totally agree I wish they never sealed the battery inside the phone. When your phone was working do you know what was using most of the power from the battery. Was it like the system or a certain app??

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
sprmankalel
Champion - Level 3

Portable battery packs are now very small and very powerful. Not to mention waaaaaaay cheaper than they used to be. See this on Amazon. It is cheaper than a cell phone battery (usually $39.99) and that doesn't take into account the stand-alone charger you'd need to buy.

Amazon.com: Poweradd Pilot X7 20,000mAh External Battery Compact Power Bank with Smart Charge for Sm...

This is 20,000 mah. The S7 is 3,000 mah. That is almost 7 full charges to your phone.

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

With how much I use my phone, I totally understand the need for extra power, Bunnymad. While the newest devices in our line up all have non-removable batteries, the option for a portable battery from sprmankalel is an excellent idea and one I just used for my family vacation. It gives you the protection of having the water resistance to your phone but allows you to have that extra charge when you need it. We offer a number of those portable power packs at http://spr.ly/65898UDUZ . We also have some great tips at http://spr.ly/65808UDUw* to help extend your battery life.

I’m concerned you’re running into battery trouble in the first place. How long does a full charge last on your phone? Are you still using the original Samsung charger? What changes occurred on the phone around the same time you noticed a change in your battery?

JenniferH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the 'Correct Answer' button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
Bunnymad
Enthusiast - Level 2

There wasn't any real obvious cause when I checked battery usage, and eliminating apps didn't seem to help.  Neither did restarting the phone or clearing the cache.

Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Bunnymad-

Having a good battery life is certainly important. I trust we can get to the root cause for the best solution. How long does a full charge last on your phone? Has there been any recent changes like a new app download or software update around the time your battery life changed?

CarmenT_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
Bunnymad
Enthusiast - Level 2

There was a new update which I downloaded and installed and battery life may have improved, but only very minimally.  No new apps, in fact I uninstall Facebook thinking that will help but it doesn't really.  It seems the battery life is worse when we are out of town, most recently in Seattle.  Signal strength did fluctuate a bit.  And I was stuck in a remote little shopping center with only 4% battery left mid-day and had to hurry up and order my Uber car even though I was nowhere near done shopping.  Not good. 

At the advice above I purchased an Anker battery charger and used it for the first time yesterday.  Very impressed with the quick charge.  It seems lightweight enough to carry in my purse when traveling.  This may be the answer at this point.  Though not as lightweight or small as a spare battery would be.  But that's okay at least I have somewhat of a solution.  My hubby is still using his LG G4 and probably will stick with that phone since he has two spare batteries. 

Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
Bunnymad
Enthusiast - Level 2

Okay, battery sucking culprit identified.  Snapchat.  Installed it recently at the insistence of my grandkids but hadn't really used it much until a recent trip.  So I've set the preferences to "travel mode" and disabled the location setting on it.  We'll see if that helps.  In the meantime, bonus..... I now have a cool Anker portable battery charger. 

Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
Tallman1979
Newbie

Yes, there are. However, they have to be purchased directly from China in most cases. The permanent battery issue in phones in the United States has two drivers. #1, people want a thin, lightweight phone that isn't destroyed by brief submersion in water. #2, when your phone is "dead" it is actually just turned off by the software as a response to reaching a certain point in discharge. If you deep discharge a lithium ion or LiPo or LiFePo4 battery to the point of truly dead or even below 40% of the actual capacity it will drastically reduce the life of the battery. However, that doesn't mean nobody can use it, it just means you can't. As was pointed out by Edward Snowden, anything you can do with your phone the government can do with your phone as long as your phone still has enough power to transmit and receive. Without your knowledge or consent regardless of whether or not the phone is on. I am actually shopping for phones that work in North America that have removable batteries because of the fact that the NSA spies on American citizens without their knowledge and consent and worse wireless carriers like Verizon know the government is violating your rights under the 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendments but they do nothing to protect their customers from ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING. The only freedom from the spying that W's henchmen made law, Obama made even worse and permanent, and despite the fact that it has been found to be 100% unconstitutional more than once higher courts have reversed the finding without citing a precedent or justification and the Supreme Court has been silent. 

Buy a $29 Chinese smartphone, swap out your SIM, sell the Verizon phone (provided you do not owe more money on it than you will get) and then you don't have to samash your phone with a hammer to enjoy the protections afforded to you by the Constitution.

One less drastic solution is to cover a box in fine wire mesh that is 100% tied together electrically. Very small hailscreen or the kind of mesh used to shield guitars would work. This creates a Faraday cage, and placing your device inside it should prevent your device from transmitting or receiving. Some people sell RF-blocking bags for devices that use NFC and RFID, which use the same principle but never having tested one I cannot vouch for them.

I'm not a tinfoil hat person, I am an advocate for speech and communication, and an FCC-licensed amateur radio operator and degreed technology enthusiast. My fear with devices is that people have become so dependent on what is essentially a really small touchscreen laptop that the suppression of any political movement in any country with telecommunications will be simple because companies like Britain's BAE Systems sell software that can target individual phones, read the data, listen to the mic, activate the camera and record the keystrokes and they sell it to repressive countries with brutal dictatorships. And, the NSA has similar software to circumvent privacy and access pretty much any internet-attached device. While the US has not used this technology for the targeting of groups on any large scale, its targeting of individuals led to an Oregon lawyer being implicated in the Madrid bombings when he had not been to Spain and the NSA and FBI had transcripts of every phone call, text, email he sent including privileged attorney-client documents (he was a lawyer). He was held in jail without bail until Spain was going to announce it had found the responsible party in the bombings and our government begged them to hold the story long enough to process the innocent man out of prison. Who sued, won, the judge ruled that the law was highly unconstitutional, appeals court reversed that finding without any supporting evidence just the words "national security."

Part of freedom of speech, assembly, religion, the press, communication, right to petition for redress, etc ends at the point where you cannot talk on the phone without divulging your location in latitude and longitude as well as tower triangulation and your rights under the 4th and 5th Amendments are compromised if you cannot communicate in regards to anything without people being able to listen to and record your call.

Wireless companies have let this happen. They used to be champions of the right to privacy of their customers but today they are more than willing to put the desires of an oppressive government program over the free speech and privacy rights of its patrons.

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Re: Are there any new phones with removable batteries?
alandlord
Enthusiast - Level 3

We need cell phones with removable batteries.  Cell phones without removable batteries are useless bricks.  A day in Disney World requires 3 full batteries.  You use your phone all day long and are no wheres near a charger.  A day at port in a foreign country is not safe with just one battery charge.  And phones mess up almost daily.  You have to pull a battery to restart the phone almost weekly.

The blockheads who refuse to make phones with removable batteries are doing so to save on quality and sell us junk we have to replace more often.

REFUSE TO BUY THESE BRICKS.  USE YOUR OLD PHONES UNTIL MANUFACTURERS GET A CLUE.  WE DONT WANT BRICKS!