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Power Android Cellphones Technology

Samsung's Galaxy XCover Pro Brings Back the Removable Battery (arstechnica.com) 35

Posted by BeauHD from the what's-old-is-new-again dept.
Samsung's "Galaxy XCover Pro" rugged smartphone includes a feature that all but disappeared from the market: a removable battery. "There are a handful of very low-end smartphones that still have removable batteries, but as a mid-ranger, this would be the highest-end removable-battery phone on the market," reports Ars Technica. From the report: It's hard to say if the XCover Pro is currently official or not. Samsung's Nordic division posted a CES press release that detailed the never-before-seen XCover Pro, complete with specs and pictures, alongside several other previously announced phones. A later update scrubbed all mention of the XCover from the press release. The release said the phone would be for sale in Finland on January 31 for $554, but since the release was pulled, it's unclear if that is still accurate.

Samsung Nordic listed the phone with a Samsung Exynos 9611 SoC, an eight-core, 10nm chip with four Cortex A73 cores and four Cortex A53 cores. This would make it a mid-range phone on par with the "Galaxy A" series. The phone has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage that's expandable thanks to a microSD slot, and that sweet 4050mAh removable battery. The display design is... interesting. The display is a 6.3-inch 2400x1000 LCD, which is strange, as most Samsung phones use the company's OLED panels. Like most modern Samsung phones, this device also has a circular cutout in the display for the camera, and while this makes sense on devices with slim top bezels, the XCover's top bezel seems like it would have had plenty of room for a camera. As far as the "rugged" features go, the device features an IP69 water- and dust-resistance rating. There's also a push-to-talk button, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, two rear cameras (25MP + 8MP sensors), and a 13MP front sensor. Strangely, it appears to be running Android 9 Pie instead of the newer Android 10 OS.
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Samsung's Galaxy XCover Pro Brings Back the Removable Battery More

Samsung's Galaxy XCover Pro Brings Back the Removable Battery

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  • Case (Score:5, Interesting)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday January 09, 2020 @08:07PM (#59605014)

    They ought to make a version of high end phones .. even the flagship .. that is thin with a 45 minute battery. Rely on the case to be the battery. You can swap out the case all you like. Reality is that 80% of phone owners have cases, so gives more control to the user and lets the user decide the battery life versus thinness battle.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dtphoto ( 449146 )

      Fully agree!!!!

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday January 09, 2020 @10:09PM (#59605222)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Or, integrate the protection so you don't need a separate case - which is what this phone is. It's basically the next in their "Active" series. I have an S8 Active right now, it's great, no need for a case, but I wish it had a user-replaceable battery, like my S5 Active did before. Actually I'm still using that phone as a dedicated GPS on my motorcycle handlebars, and because of the fresh battery I recently put in, it works just fine.

      • Well Iâ(TM)m curious just how waterproof itâ(TM)s going to be with a removable battery compartment. Isnt IPX69 like barely splash proof? I thought the most common water damage to a phone was them falling into the toilet. That is full submersion. If you have a removable battery compartment will that not short out the battery terminals? I understand that you could put gaskets and seals on there, but you have to understand that when people open and close those waterproof compartments they run a signi

        • That is all true. I've bought at least one used S5 Galaxy Active that had a bad gasket on the battery door, and you have to be really careful to keep the gasket and mating area clean when you close it.

      • If they made a reinforced phone with a case, it may look uglier than the competition and that won't sell .. sadly. Furthermore, at minimum, the screen protector would have to be removable so why not just let the user buy a case of their choice and dress the phone the way according to their own preference. If the phone itself was like a case and you want to customize its look that would add bulk.

    • just make a battery case that does wireless charging (to make it work with current flagship phones)

  • Except for 99.9% of the population doesn't need that now because of this "brand new invention". It's called a battery pack, they're actually better in most ways as they can hold far more than just 1 replaceable battery, can charge any device, can charge multiple devices at once, and don't take any super finicky opening of a back panel. Maybe the engineers and Samsung could check them out! [amazon.com]
    • You miss the point. Batteries go stale after a couple years. They are the shortest-lived component of the phone. Being able to replace them cheaply and easily greatly extends the life of the phone. For one thing, I would never buy a used phone with a built-in battery.

      • Re:So? (Score:5, Informative)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Thursday January 09, 2020 @11:20PM (#59605382) Homepage

        There is a second feature of lithium batteries, when they go bad they expand. Mine did in a Note 3 enough to push the back cover off. Now guess what would have happened with a built in battery and no place for the expansion to go, a crack main board, cracked back, cracked screen, definite phone killer. Now that's the big tech psychopath bonus. Not only does the battery die, often on failure it will actively destroy the phone and you can bet this design feature was not by accident.

        • I had a macbook pro that did that.

        • Now guess what would have happened with a built in battery and no place for the expansion to go, a crack main board, cracked back, cracked screen, definite phone killer.

          I don't have to guess: I've seen a working iPhone who's case had been opened by its battery expanding. It just split the case apart instead.

        • Reminds me of Mission Impossible.

          This phone will now self-destruct

  • Hmm.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday January 09, 2020 @10:53PM (#59605326)

    Many low end phones have swap-outable batteries, but high cost phones do not. I can see a logic that says it should be the other way around. The more expensive a phone is, the longer people may want it to last. Cheaper phones cost nearly as much as a new battery, so they should be the ones with the fixed battery.

    Obviously the market doesn't work that way. Probably has something to do with disposable income.

    • Waterproofing. When you take the back off those cheap plastic low end phones, it is fairly obvious that there is no way in hell that is going to survive submersion. Unless your battery is held in place by a cover that includes a gasket and screw tension, it is never going to be waterproof.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rhipf ( 525263 )

        Waterproof the rest of the case so that even if the battery cover is off the rest of the phone is waterproof. There would be a risk that the battery would short when submerged but if it is isolated from the rest of the phone that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

    • I've had one XCover 3 VE for five years; often referred to as my "secondary hammer" - I still see them a lot on construction sites, along the similar CAT-versions. It has survived its share of falling/splashing/dusting and sparks, but still quite usable. The screen is even without any serious scratches or dents. Unfortunately development of a decent ROM for these (that is the "VE" or "Value Edition" version) never really took off, so I can only root it but not load any Google-free OS on the phone.

  • I am incredibly encouraged by this development. I was convinced that removable batteries were never to return - but alas, here we are and this phone ticks many other boxes, too. So yes, this is on my shopping list. Removable battery is the highest priority, for me, in a smartphone.

  • My wife got the original ruggedised Galaxy Xcover almost a decade ago, but quickly exchanged it for a Galaxy S3. It was running Gingerbread when the contemporary Galaxy S3 was on Ice Cream Sandwich, and it didn't support video calls. The S3 later received a Jellybean update, but the Xcover never got a major OS update. I wouldn't expect much different this time. It'll be a rugged phone, but with an old OS, and limited features.

  • The display design is... interesting. The display is a 6.3-inch 2400x1000 LCD, which is strange, as most Samsung phones use the company's OLED panels.

    Not strange at all.

    All OLEDs die after a few years, whether you use them or not. Why would you combine a replaceable battery with a limited-lifespan screen? An LCD screen means this thing can be working decades from now.

    • Not strange at all.

      All OLEDs die after a few years, whether you use them or not. Why would you combine a replaceable battery with a limited-lifespan screen? An LCD screen means this thing can be working decades from now.

      What is this nonsense? No they don't die. I still have the original OLED HTC Desire that not only works, but has barely any burn-in. There are millions of OLED phones and TVs out there, if the screens were just dying randomly we would've noticed by now.

      • Who said anything about "random"? OLEDs fade away with time. It's a fact.

        Gases leak, moisture gets in. It doesn't matter if they're switched on or not.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        LCDs don't.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by labawi ( 2931497 )

          You can tell your BS to my 6 and 10 year old OLED phones. Both show no visible display degradation.

          From your reference, lowball numbers on use degradation are 10,000 hours at 100% brightness, giving about 2 years at 100% brightness for 12h a day. Is that not enough? With moderate use and moderate predictions it becomes decades.

          As for moisture etc, which are a separate issue, it should not be a problem on a quality build, if you take reasonable care of the device. Most other components are susceptible to dam

    • Two years? Shit I was considering getting one of those OLED TVs. I am pretty sure I have had my plasma TV for 10 years now. Iâ(TM)ve been waiting for a screen to give me true black with a picture that looks as good. I was under the impression that OLED was the actual plasma killer. It is disappointing to learn that my TV would have died in a couple of years. That panasonic viera VT25 65â is heavy as fuck when you have to take it off the wall mount bracket to make an adjustment or connect up a new

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      OLED screens don't "die", they fade over time.
      After a few years, they won't look as good. A bit less bright, the colors may be off (blue subpixels fade faster), and you may get a bit of burn-in, especially on the notification area, but otherwise, they will stay usable for way longer than the battery.

      A friend of mine just retired his Galaxy S2 after 8 years, and the AMOLED screen was the least of his problems. Of course, it wasn't on its first battery...

  • It has a replaceable battery - good.
    It has a SD slot - good.
    Does it have a headphone socket?

    Two out of three ain't bad, but it wouldn't be good enough to make me give up my Note 4.

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