Except this is a bullshit exception because not only is it 100% possible to make waterproof devices with replaceable batteries, they have existed for years already. There is absolutely no technical reason for this, and the exception probably only exists because the corporations influenced the legislators to effectively gut the law.

I don't think a phone counts as that since it's not something that's expected to be regularly subject to water

We had phones with replaceable batteries for a long time. Many of them were waterproof, but none of them exploded on contact with water.

Yes they have, which tells me no engineers were consulted for this statement. Waterproofing and replaceable batteries is a trivial combination.

"Apple engineers" lol

Get the Apple out of your ass

Waterproof phones with replaceable batteries are most certainly possible and have existed for over a decade at least. Sorry, but that argument is total bullshit.

AppleCare is not warranty (but is an equivalent), while AppleCare+ is the equivalent of insurance. I've edited my post to clarify this a little better.

Since Apple make no distinction between "malicious damage" and "accidental damage", then everything is called accidental. However, there are times where accidental damage is covered under warranty (or rather, a "service program") when there's an issue that's widespread enough that is attributed to a manufacture or design defect -- the warping of the plastic on the bottom of the Late 2009 Macbook comes to mind.

Nah, an overbearing parent smashing a phone to "teach them a lesson" isn't an "accident"

I don't need to be careless or have any real danger of dropping my phone in water to worry about water protection; humidity, sweat, rain, accidental splashes from a sink, spilled drinks, children, etc. are all very real often unpredictable water risks I might have very little opportunity to realistically avoid. I've seen those water detection stickers indicate water on devices that I know for a fact have been babied and never dunked for even a moment. Often humidity and a sweaty pocket were the only likely culprit.

I get caught outside in the rain unexpectedly about a dozen times a year living in a tropical city where it can go from dry to raining so heavy you can't see the other side of the street with about 30 seconds warning.

Those powerful storms are often very small and they might only rain for a minute or two. It's impossible to predict when they will pass over, the city might be hit by 50 or so of them in a single day, but they're so small most of the city won't see any rain even though it technically rained 50 times somewhere in the city.

Despite being small they it can be heavy enough to cause flash flooding. The city has pumps that can force 70,000 litres of water per second out of the city and into the ocean (before that, it was near impossible to live here).

I carry a dry bag for my laptop and headphones everywhere I go, I guess I'd be putting my phone in there too, which will be annoying.

About 20 yeses ago - pre-smartphones - my sister lost a phone to water damage. It was in a backpack pocket during a camping/hiking trip and the backpack got rained on a lot. Everyone else's phone was fine because they were kept either in waterproof backpack compartments or in trouser/waterproof coat pockets.

Around the same time, I also had a friend whose phone was broken when we were rafting and the raft capsized. The rest of us on the raft had left our phones at home because _why would you risk bringing a mobile phone on a homemade raft?!_

Those are the only two instances I know of personally where someone's phone has been destroyed by water damage and it hasn't just been an "oops I dropped it in the toilet" situation (I'm still not sure how people manage that). And even the second example was still due to stupidity, I think - there's a reason the rest of us didn't rake our phones on the raft. My sister's phone being damaged in the backpack is the only one that didn't feel preventable, and where a water resistance phone would genuinely have been a good thing.

I swim with my galaxy phone. It's nice to be able to take pics of my son anywhere in the water park.

People read their phones on the toilet - probably every single modern phone user has done it at least once. It is not inconceivable that a small, but significant, number of them have fumbled the phone and it has fallen into the bowl.

Likewise, pools, beaches, and boats are places people are very likely to go with their phones in tow and in use. It is not unlikely some of those - one can assume - millions of instances have produced some contacts between phone and water.

I ride a motorcycle and mount my phone on the handlebars for guidance. I spend a lot of effort keeping it dry and have actually lost a couple of USB cables (but not the phone, thankfully) to damp.

The Magic iRing™ is a cutting edge, replaceable* sealing appartus for your new iPhone 18, made of military grade special compound and sleek design to ensure your new iPhone with replaceable* battery stays sealed to IP67 Standart.

Magic iRing sold separately starting at $99 *replaceable by authorized dealers only, needs to be serialized to your phone, Magic iRing™ must be replaced after every use.

The magic retina pro max rings. Available at an extra $29.99

I don't think anybody really cares about an extra half millimetre of thickness, especially if it means that you can save hundreds in replacement costs and extend its life by a few years. Nobody's buying an iPhone and busting out the calipers to compare it to their previous phone.

I don't think so. They would still need a way to connect to the phone for diagnosis reasons and all that, or to connect to it via iTunes.

That's still wired, so they can't get rid of it entirely.

This is wrong btw.

Since the Hero 5, Go Pros have been waterproof without the case. The current GoPro is waterproof to 10 meters without a case or 60 meters with the case.

Compared to the current iphone which is only water resistant, so can be submerged for 30 minutes, upto 6 meters.

I mean if you remove the waterproof case you have a naked circuit board, if they could make that waterproof we wouldn't be talking about this.

or are you thinking about ancient gopros that needed an extra sealed case?

They are if i recall correctly(at least the newer ones) waterproof till about 30ft without the extra case and with it till 150ft or so. But the extra case is very thick and sturdy

Apple charges $99 for a battery replacement.

It’s not cemented into the chassis lol, Apple replaces it for $99 or you can just buy the part from ‘em and replace it yourself.

Yeah I agree, it's better to be able to change them than not.

Either way that price point still hurts for a battery (when an original standard enterprise laptop battery is usually less than half the price)

Being "good at engineering" doesn't change the laws of physics.

Those Nokia phones were not waterproof. Also, I'm pretty sure they were thicker.

An o-ring only works if the battery cover is rigid enough that it will not flex at all even if, for example, you drop the phone in cold water rapidly cooling the battery cover while the internals stay warm for a minute or two.

The battery cover will change size slightly with the temperature change and no screw can be strong enough to stop that. Covering the entire battery cover in glue and attaching it to the battery though.. that will eliminate the movement.

Perhaps Apple can find a water proof battery. But there's no way they can keep water out of the battery compartment while being user serviceable.

It’s always amusing when people who aren’t engineers assume something must be simple to make. Please show me a Nokia phone that was as thin as a current iPhone, with auto focusing video cameras (aka moving parts), and had a user-replaceable battery. I’ll wait. Samsung’s galaxy phones caught fire because they tried to make it just as thin with a user-replaceable battery (leading to short circuits), so that’s yet another thing you have to prevent in your hypothetical “it’s easy!” phone. Oh and it has to be rugged enough to withstand multiple drops like current phones AND not lose any of that thinness.

Edit: okay the galaxy battery wasn’t replaceable but you still need to make higher tolerances in a user-replaceable item to prevent that, meaning it cannot be too thin for safety reasons.