About 18 months ago I bought a new mobile phone. From an Australian company called “Kogan”. They simply buy cheap Chinese stuff and have their own brand added. They only sell online They are also currently Australia’s biggest seller of TV’s.
So I bought this phone; an Agora 8. It was $200. 5 inch screen, Android, excellent camera, after 18 months, I still love it. No, it ain’t a $600 phone for $200, but it’s pretty good. Same company does a prepaid deal of unlimited calls and texts for $146 (the carrier is Vodaphone)
My techie mate pointed out to me that the the battery cannot be removed. I had simply assumed that I could replace the battery when needed. Nooooo, youse has to buy a whole new fracking phone. I’m peeved.
As far as I can tell, the same goes for even top end phones. My mate can’t think of a technical reason for doing this. It seems the companies do it because they can, and because they are aware that a very large proportion of their customers buy a new phone every couple of years. I will not be buying another Kogan. Seems there are still perfectly OK phones at the lower end with replaceable batteries.
Serves me right for not shopping around.