For some reason I am unable to paste a link to this article.
The EU has passed a law requiring phones to have replaceable batteries. I am pleased that my phone does, and can see no reason why phones are no longer made to accept replaceable batteries.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the differences between a phone [all else being the same] having a replaceable vs fixed battery would be cost, longevity, IP rating build capabilities, & durability.
I can see OEMs making the changes, & then pricing the replacement battery to be outrageously expensive. Like replacement batteries for cordless tools...

My phone with replaceable batteries is about six years old and still works great. But some apps won't install on the older Android version. I am keeping it for as long as I can, I think I paid about $10 each for each spare battery. My batteries are after market ones.

For camping trips I can carry spare batteries, not bother with cables and powerbanks.

That said, water resistance is not as good when you can pop the back off the phone with a thumbnail.

You aren't trying hard enough.

(You don't have to agree with the practice but it's not hard to find reasons to not have replaceable batteries.)

Anyway, it doesn't seem there are any phones that have batteries that can't be replaced. (There are some that don't have user replaceable batteries, which is a somewhat-different thing.)

It seems that one can replace the battery on any phone. You might have to have a shop do it but that doesn't make it not replaceable.

Historically, user replaceable batteries haven't been that expensive.

When apple updated to a version of their phone os that burned up batteries on older phones, they offered a battery replacement service. A friend tried to take advantage of it and sent in his phone. They told him thanks for the $40, but they couldn't replace the battery on his phone, and helpfully offered to dispose of it for him. So he had the local place that works on phones replace the battery. There are a lot of people that can replace batteries.

The batteries often last longer than most people keep their phones.

Consumer removable/replaceable batteries cause a phone to be larger and more heavy.
Splash/waterproofing also becomes more of a problem.
There is also an addition to the purchase cost, but likely not enough to deter the buyer.

Barry

i didnt specify consumer DIY using OEM directions, but that is what my post was implying.

This has certainly been the case for me and I don’t change phones very often. I’ve only had 3 different phones since 2009. My current iPhone is from 2019, although the battery is struggling a bit now. When phone batteries were replaceable I don’t recall ever replacing one.

My wife loves her old Iphone 7 so I replace the battery in it when needed. It's not the simplest thing to do, but it can be done and the bats are only like 7 bucks. My Android is a non-replaceable battery according to Samsung, but the battery lasts several days between charges with a lot of heavy use. I can't say the same about the Iphone. And I would never attempt to change an Iphone battery in the wilderness.

The only phones I ever had battery issues with were the phones that had user replaceable batteries.

Usually what people claim as being bad batteries not holding a charge is the many apps they've loaded on their phone that all want a piece of the battery since many don't actually close and shutdown when swiped away.

this is true if developer mode is not enabled.
I use that feature to close out apps that, when i close it, it stops all activity.
I'll set specific apps to allow background use, for those apps I often use that I deem necessary. [Mostly bicycle apps, OS updating apps]

I've noticed a huge impact.

When I want to stop an app from running on my android phone,

• select settings,
• might have to select general,
• select apps,
• select the app I want to stop,
• select force stop. And that is it.

I have added very few apps to my phones so I rarely find it necessary to shut off an app. But one app was added by the phone company that keeps popping up at inconvenient times, can't remove it, so I have to force stop on it. And one app, every time I use it I get flooded with ads so I have to force stop that one when I am done using it.

I have an app on my android phone called Accubattery Pro, that app estimates that my battery was designed for 2,125 mAh and is down to 1,993 mAh capacity. I can live with that.

That app allows me to get an audible warning when my charge is up to 80 percent so I can stop charging at that point, keeping the charge between 20 and 80 percent theoretically extends battery life.

When I go camping, I bring spare batteries so I have no clue which of several batteries have had the most use, phone is six years old.

You thought I didn't know?