I think 90% chance of apple going for the EU-Specific model just like they did for Digital markets act, 10 chance of screws, 0% chance of actually popping the back cover off with bare hands.
For Samsung, 50% chance EU-Specific models 40% chance screws, 10% chance back cover tool-less removal. (Edit: typo)
As for other smaller manufacturers, probably just 50%/50% either screws or tool-less back cover removal.
I had a phone with a back cover that popped off without screws. It was the stupidest fucking design.
Drop your phone? Phone explodes and battery falls out.
Put your phone in your tight pants pocket wrong? Back cover comes off.
Toolless designs are great for things you access frequently. The only time I had to open the back of that phone was to put a sim card in it. Phones should be more repairable, but I want them to be held together with screws so they don’t fall apart during the 99.9999% of the time they’re not being opened.
Not to mention that a removable back plate would eliminate the waterproof and dust-proof seals that I have come to appreciate quite a bit over the years.
I’m glad I didn’t have that experience. I think I had cases on those phones, so that might have been what made the difference.
The exploding phone was actually a lot less likely to break. Making the phone a rigid bar of glass and aluminum makes it more likely to be destroyed when you drop it.
I used to carry 2 batteries. Though that’s probably not a large market. But if made around that idea it could be done well.
Either having hibernation or some power source to keep the RAM powered during main battery swap (small supercapacitor, small regular Li-Ion battery, thin lithium ceramic battery, I don’t know what’s best), and a dock for battery charging.
Kind of like LG G5.
Preferably, the battery would have integrated charger so you don’t have to carry around a dock. Just what you do now, just with the spare battery replacing a power bank in more convenient way. Maybe it could come off with the charging port just like LG G5, but it would be built-in rather than being something you pop a different battery into.
Not to invalidate your experience but I have never seen one with screws yet I have never heard of a back cover accidentally popping off (aside from extreme falls). My current one isn’t removable but each one before this was, and I would for years fidget with it by popping the cover on and off, and even after that it held on just fine. Though screws would regardless be more secure and that is good, I agree.
I still have a Samsung Galaxy S2, which has such a cover. From the beginning, the phone would lose its back cover (and the battery would fall out) whenever it hit the ground, even just from a table. I solved it with getting a thin plastic phone case, and even after 14 years the phone works just fine.
We would visit family abroad multiple times a year, and so we had SIM cards for both countries. This meant popping the phone open at least 6 times a year, so it got worn down plenty. It happened very frequently that my phone spilled open when dropped, but I’m happy for you that you didn’t have the same result!