How can the tech industry think we’re okay with the battery being dead?

We are all aware that a smartphone becomes largely unusable after a few years.

Assuming you didn’t break it yourself, there’s a good chance the battery is dying. It may not die completely, but it will have deteriorated to the point where it becomes annoying to constantly have a power bank in your bag.

Same with computers. Although my old MacBook Pro from 2019 is still fast enough for what I do in my daily work, the battery does not last more than 45 minutes. Essentially it’s completely useless unless you’re near a power source.

I had a period two or three years ago where I collected Ryobi gadgets. I bought a bunch of very expensive 18V batteries and soon the garage was full of tools, fans, lights and cleaning machines that all depended on my battery collection.

How do you think things are going three years later? Not good. Two batteries recently failed completely and I’m dreading this summer’s off-grid renovation project. I was also stupid enough to buy some cheaper battery copies on Amazon. They all died within a year…

But the worst thing in my house is still all the IP cameras that start falling off the hook one after another.

My Arlo cameras suddenly won’t hold charge. We are talking about 8-9 of them, all of which have become completely unusable after only 2-3 years.

Some because the seal cannot withstand the Scandinavian weather (resulting in water leakage). One that suddenly didn’t want to talk to the base station anymore. But the rest due to battery death. And then I didn’t let the batteries fully discharge, which I had to learn the hard way, which was the right thing to do.

I forgot one of my two drones for six months and wanted to recharge the four batteries I had. Two of them were dead and couldn’t be restarted.

Now I have to put reminders in the calendar and have a recharge party at home once a quarter. My wife can’t believe it when I hang 50-60 batteries in different stations and charge them like there is no tomorrow. But apparently that’s what you have to do to keep the batteries alive, which in many cases is one of the most expensive components of a product. It’s not easy being an early adopter of new technology.

It seems like the entire electronics industry takes it for granted that we’re okay with buying something new every 2-3 years. I understand that battery technology limits many products, but this should be made clear when we purchase the products. Like how to care for your lithium-ion darlings.

I buy new Arlo batteries more often than laser toner for my printer. That’s not okay!