There are an amazing amount of different phones to choose from. You have big phones that fold open, cheap phones that are built tough, and even flippy phones that get pocket-sized. There is something for everyone, even if you’re not interested in “just another glass slab.”
These phones also come with an array of features and price points. If you want a good camera, you can have one. If you want something fast and able to play games, you can have it. If you want both, you can have that too. The choices seem endless and that’s good for us all; we both get exactly what we want. There’s something we both need, though, even if we didn’t know we needed it: a battery that’s easily replaced.
Your phone will last a lot longer than its battery will
The batteries inside consumer electronics are disposable by design. A battery that lasts a decade or longer could be built, but the costs would be astronomical, so almost everything you buy that’s battery-powered comes with a battery that’s disposable by design.
This is because today’s “battery science” allows manufacturers to build a battery that’s efficient and easy to charge while still being relatively cheap to make but doesn’t have a very long lifespan. I’m not talking about the time between charges or your phone being able to last the full day on a single charge — I mean how long that battery is able to be charged and used.
Battery life is measured in charge cycles and not days or weeks, but you can say the battery inside a phone is designed to last about two years of normal use. Two years is forever in the tech world, and something bigger, stronger, and faster will come out by then, and you will want it. However, the rest of your phone is built to last a lot longer than two years. The life of a modern smartphone is dictated by how long a phone maker is willing to provide support and how long the battery will last.
If Samsung (for example) would still offer software support and provide replacement batteries, the Galaxy S10 could be a fantastic phone for a lot of people in 2025. But it does neither, so you’ve probably moved on by now.
I’m not picking on Samsung. They’ve actually made a huge advancement on this front with the Galaxy S25, and one of its best features that nobody (well, almost nobody — thanks, iFixit!) talks about is how easy it is to replace the battery.
You can’t change it but someone else can
Watch On
A phone like the Galaxy S25 Ultra or even something more user-serviceable like the HMD Skyline doesn’t magically give you some super secret technician powers. You’ll probably never tear your phone apart on the kitchen table and change its battery. That’s fine; we’re expected to be consumers and users, not field techs.
But there is always someone who can do it. Your local carrier store might have repair techs or maybe there is a shop at the local strip mall beside that Mongolian barbeque joint that fixes things like phones and PlayStations. Even a super complicated and difficult-to-repair phone can be serviced by someone determined and qualified.
This isn’t a good option for most of us because of one thing: the cost. Spending $250 to fix an old phone seems dumb when you can buy a new one for $99 down and $20 a month in the eyes of most people. So when the battery in a phone that is otherwise good as new finally wears out, we just buy a new one.
This is a mindset that needs to change. I’m not suggesting that everyone thinks as I do — I used my old BlackBerry until I couldn’t find parts for it on eBay because I’m cheap — but it’s simply not disposable when something costs upwards of $1,000. Maintenance should be done so the product can continue to be used.
Think of changing the battery in your phone like an oil change for a car or truck. Older models were easy — turn a wrench to drain the old oil or pop off the back cover to remove an old battery and replace what needs to be replaced. Anyone can do it, and it only takes a few minutes.
Newer phones (and newer cars) require a bit more skill to service and you’re likely to take them to someone else so it can be done right. The price you will pay for that service depends on how hard it is to perform; getting another two years of life from a product like a phone can be so expensive that we don’t want to do it.
This is why products that have a serviceable battery inside are important, even 100% mainstream products like the Galaxy S25 series of phones. You might not tear it apart on the coffee table, but knowing someone else can do it cheaply is one of the best features the S25 has to offer.
Ultra reparable
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is Samsung’s latest flagship, with all the bells and whistles you think you might need, like a powerful chipset, a 200MP quad-camera system, and a built-in stylus. Plus, the phone is easier to repair then past Samsung flagships, making it good for the long run