All businesses love to highlight key selling features about their products and services to the world at large and there are a number of ways to do this. Twitter is a great example of a way a business can send a small message and reach a massive audience very quickly, and Samsung recently reminded its Twitter followers that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ can go “from zero to full in just 90 minutes.” This is a reminder of the S6 Edge+’s fast charging abilities; LG were clearly watching Samsung’s Twitter stream and responded with a reminder that their V10 features a removable battery. The response was, “Go from zero to full instantly with a removable battery,” together with a link to the official LG V10 page. LG didn’t remind Samsung that the V10’s fast charging abilities work quicker than Samsung’s, with the 3,000 mAh battery in the V10 able to go from zero to full in a little over an hour according to PhoneArena’s testing.
Of course, the argument for built-in and non-easily replaceable batteries versus easily swapped batteries has been ongoing for a number of years now. Built-in batteries can make a device smaller and lighter for a given capacity, as the designers do not need to accommodate a space-robbing battery door. Batteries may also be sandwiched between components, perhaps moved closer to the screen to maximize the internal space rather than putting them at the back of the device, which means a handset may be a different shape. Against this, a replaceable battery may quickly and easily be removed should it wear out or run down. However, having another fully charged battery handy ready to go either means investing in another battery charger or recharging all batteries in a shift pattern. One issue here is that all of Samsung’s flagship devices from the Galaxy S to the Galaxy S5 had a removable battery, but with the S6, the company claimed that it no longer needed this concession to battery life and therefore integrated the battery into the device.
In the Android world, we are lucky in that we have devices that can have a readily replaceable battery, but the number of manufacturers offering this feature has steadily been reduced over the years. We’ll wait and see if LG decide to integrate the battery of a future flagship into the chassis and should they do this, if they will be reminded of their decision – just as Samsung were following the announcement of the Galaxy S6 last year.