[post_break]

I've never heard of someone needing a phone to stay on while changing the battery.

[jshevek]

Few people may _need_ for a phone to stay on while changing the battery, but is a huge plus. I spent over a year on a phone that could hot swap a battery if you do the swap smoothly, and avoiding the need for a reboot was definite pleasure.

[XorNot]

My last iPaQ could do this trick. There was a button cell NiMH next to the LiIon cell to keep it going.

[goda90]

Well as the article points out, adding modules involves taking out the battery. There might be other design options besides an extra battery/super capacitor, but it kinda weakens the utility of quick change modules.

[sangnoir]

> Well as the article points out, adding modules involves taking out the battery

Are those modules hot-swapable? If the hardware and/or software does not support hot swap, there is a distinct possibility that they intentionally designed it this way: i.e. you have to power down before replacing modules. It would not be much more difficult to switch to "push-to-eject" battery mechanism which would make powering down optional when changing modules. Food for thought.

[maxerickson]

I bet a huge majority would prefer it. It's just not really been a sensible compromise, so no one even thinks about it.

[hammock]

Of course they would prefer it, if there were no trade-offs. But as you point out it's not currently sensible.

[jschwartzi]

It's pretty common in enterprise-grade handhelds like Windows Embedded devices to include a little bridge battery.

[kalleboo]

I switched from Android to iPhone and hence had to switch from swapping out batteries to plugging in an external battery. Now I'd never go back, the whole reboot/swapping procedure is kind of a PITA