Life Expectancy of Cellular Phone "Permanent" Batteries?

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So I have a Moto X2 which I bought new and put into service January 2016. It does not feature a removable battery. I believe there are some DIY guides on how to replace the battery but it involves disassembly and possibly fine soldering equipment, and I would imagine a fine solder vacuum too.

So I am beginning to have battery glitches and issues and figure that the phone's days are numbered. It will be showing, say, 49% charge but power itself off and upon powering it back up it will show 20% or less charge and refuse to boot until connected to charging cord. The other evening it charged to only 49% overnight. I did a procedure that resets the battery "meter" or whatever on the Moto X phones, which is with it plugged into charging cord you hold power button for at least 7 seconds and it reboots, and a status led at top above the ear speaker flashes green momentarily before boot-up screens are displayed. Supposedly that signals that battery calibration mode has been triggered and you then leave it on charger until 100% charge is achieved. It worked and so far the phone is behaving again. But clearly the battery is beginning to exhibit some aging issues.

I am on Republic Wireless's legacy refund plan and typical monthly bill is $14 - 20 never higher, that's with 1 gig LTE cellular data which I rarely exhaust since most data use on the phone happens when connected to WiFi, which is just how I roll.

I can bring any unlocked android phone to Republic and use it but I'd lose the legacy refund plan and have to transition to their current plan which would raise monthly to around $25 - 30 for the same 1 gig LTE data limit. You can buy much more LTE data as needed. Republic utilizes Sprint/T-Mobile and the coverage is fine for my usage.

So is 3 and a half to 4 years about the limit for lithium cell phone batteries?
 
If you buy a cell with a non-replaceable battery well just sayin don't go buying any 40-60K cars.
Replaced my own battery in my Samsung S4 for $9.
Its now 5 and half years old and works fine. I don't have $700 to a $1000 plus to shell out every four years. But says its your money and your doing your part to keep the economy going.
 
I paid $70 for a Moto E4 in 2017 and so far the permanent battery is doing fine. If I get 3 years out of it I'll be happy. I'd be leary of an expensive phone with a non-replacable battery. Of course, I don't believe in expensive phones, only my broke kids do.
 
Originally Posted by LoneRanger
I can bring any unlocked android phone to Republic and use it but I'd lose the legacy refund plan and have to transition to their current plan which would raise monthly to around $25 - 30 for the same 1 gig LTE data limit. You can buy much more LTE data as needed. Republic utilizes Sprint/T-Mobile and the coverage is fine for my usage.



Why can't you get a different unlocked phone and just swap your Sim Card into the new phone and continue with your existing plan? I've done that with phone's that my 16 YO son broke. No issues with my provider.
 
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
If you buy a cell with a non-replaceable battery well just sayin don't go buying any 40-60K cars.
Replaced my own battery in my Samsung S4 for $9.
Its now 5 and half years old and works fine. I don't have $700 to a $1000 plus to shell out every four years. But says its your money and your doing your part to keep the economy going.

Who said anything about spending $700-$1000 on a phone?
 
My wife and I have el cheapo Motorola Moto-G phones with the original batteries. They are a bit over 5 years old. Both are still going strong. But they are plugged in most all the time.
 
As far as I know nobody solder their battery to the circuit board because it would be hard to manufacture / test / assemble. Replacing a battery may take you 20-30 mins, just buy one from ebay / amazon that has a good reputation and comes with tools (screw drivers, adhesive tape, scraping tool and / or guitar pick). For iPhone it is usually around $20 or so shipped. They usually last 3-5 years for me.
 
i would suggest you dump that phone plan and get something more flexible. this red pocket plan is for one year and you get more data and you can choose sprint or ATT. i would go ATT over sprint . take your sim card out and stick it in any compatible phone.

replacing the battery is not too hard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKO66ecOcro



https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-Mo-Red-Pocket-Prepaid-Wireless-Phone-Plan-Kit-Unlmtd-Everything-5GB-LTE/133058350672?var=432360045436&hash=item1efae54e50:m:miDdkaWuFc6I7lSgxE_wXfg
 
Originally Posted by mk378
If you're getting decent run time after the re-calibration the battery has some life left.
Replacement looks like there's no soldering, but quite a bit of delicate prying and unsticking and a bunch of T4 screws.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Motorola+Moto+X+2nd+Generation+Battery+Replacement/40717
Like JC1 said switching the SIM card to another phone should not affect your plan.


To be on the legacy plan that refunds unused data in money credit against your next bill you can only use one of the three phones they originally offered with that plan: Moto E, Moto G, or Moto X. It's because the phones are locked to Republic's setup by ROM inside the phone, not by sim card. They are bricks as far as trying to use them on another carrier, they're hardwired (ROM) for Republic Wireless's wifi calling protocol. I've contacted Republic about this and they confirmed it. But they've retired that refund plan while allowing charter customers with those phones to remain on it with their original Moto E, G or X. Their new plan launched in late 2017 allow you to bring any unlocked phone onto all their plans except the legacy refund plan-- it's locked down and will sunset out as the original phone's locked to it by ROM die off.

But I will say it has been one heck of a great ride at what has to be the lowest cost. So the below billing summary is why I want to keep this phone going a bit longer !!

[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by Imp4
I expect 3 years out of a cell phone battery.
Anything else is a bonus....


I expect a phone battery to last around 3 years as well.
 
Had that phone and replaced it a couple years ago. Actually replaced the battery too. You can just follow the youtube videos on it. It's pretty straight forward. Has a glue sticker on the back so you just slowly pry the whole thing apart and then unscrew it. When I got the battery many of them cake with a screwdriver kit. I think it used special screws though so I got a screwdriver kit with the right sized bits, forget what it was. Anyway only tricky thing was that at one point I reassembled it and then the buttons didn't work, had to take it apart and reattach one of the ribbon cables that came loose when I was taking it apart. New battery was fine but then there was a deal on a Samsung S8 so I ended up dumping it. I think you just pick up a battery, the backing on it and a glue sticker, total for me at the time was under $40. I took the back off very carefully so I didn't even need to use the backing cover I bought.
 
Im unsure how techy you are, but you can keep or switch to any of the 4 major carriers ATT, Verizon, Sprint, TMobile at a cost of no greater then $20 a month for more service with red pocket and if you dont need more then a 1000 talk minutes, you can make it $15 a month.
Also unlike many carriers there is almost ZERO added costs, you pretty much pay the price it says.

Click here for the plan pricing


_______
 
The life of Li-Ion batteries is not really a matter of how old, but how many charging cycles they have gone through. A rule of thumb is about 1000 charging cycles for quality batteries, which equates to about 3 years for most people who charge their battery once a day.
 
I recently replaced a "sealed" battery on an old iPhone 5s for about $11 or $12 off of Amazon. It was actually a kit that included the apple proprietary screw driver and some prying tools to get the screen off.
Yes, it wasn't as easy as lifting the back cover and popping off the battery, like it was on most older smartphones, but it was also not some daunting task, requiring advanced skill set and tools.

The new flagships that are water and dust resistant are tougher because everything is glued shut, but again, not impossible for the DIY types like me. For those that are afraid to DIY things like this, yes, stay away from these phones or be prepared to replace the entire phone once the battery dies.


Also, to extend battery life, avoid fast charging on regular basis. For this very purpose I keep some old charging bricks and use them to charge my S8 overnight. I only use fast charging when needed, which is quite rare since my S8 can easily last a full day.
 
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Typically 3 years but like others stated charging cycles is what matters. My 13 year old burned up on iPhone 7 in 1.5 years because of the social media apps and heavy usage alongside heavy load on battery requiring constant charging.

I lucked out that Apple replaced battery no charge during a recall related to cellular modem (quit connecting).
 
My iphone SE was 2 years old in June I still have 94% maximum capacity remaining. My guess is 3-4 years is going to be tops for it.
 
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