I did swap an iPhone 8 battery not so long ago, really just to see how bad it was and whether I'd risk it on a newer device (which I didn't do in the end, after reading about 'non genuine battery' warnings on newer devices)
And while that replacement was a success, it was a ridiculous amount of effort for a battery change, involving special tools, heat, an unreasonable amount of disassembly, scraping adhesive off, the 'stretch to release' battery adhesive being utterly useless, so having to risk applying force to a potentially fiery battery, and so on.
Yes, iFixit are doing great work, and it's certainly possibly for a hobbyist-level 'tinkerer' to successfully change the battery. But it shouldn't be close to that difficult. I remember it being a fairly trivial job in the iPhone 5 era.
More modern iPhones (14 onward and 15pro onward) are a lot easier to replace the battery. No need to remove the screen anymore, it can all be done from the back side. Apparently the pull tabs for the batteries are a lot better, as well.
Still requires heat, but I’m not sure I’d call a little heat and some pry tools particularly “special” tools.
It’s a compromise being made to achieve better rigidity and waterproofing. Seems like a reasonable trade off, honestly, for something that needs to be changed maybe every few years.
The S7 (S6 for some reason didn’t get an IP rating?) got an IP68, 1.5m for 30 mins.
Samsung seems to have stalled at 1.5m/30mins.
iPhones on the other hand have steadily crept up their listed ratings for water resistance:
8: IP67 1m/30m
11: IP68 2m/30m
12: 68 6m/30m
Seems that you’re actually getting some advantage. 1 meter isn’t really good enough for dropping in, say, a pool or a lake. 6 meters on the other hand… should cover most scenarios.
Literally the same argument could be made for easy user replaceable batteries.
A vanishingly small fraction of users take advantage of replacing their battery and instead just pass it along either in trade in, or in passing down to a family member/friend. This wasn’t any different when batteries were easily user replaceable.
You’re optimizing for an event that happens every few years instead of optimizing for something that is felt every single day (form factor, ergonomics, etc).
I'm old enough to still have a (working) 2004 PowerBook which lets you change batteries as easily as with a flashlight. No tools. Bonus: You can switch batteries on the fly and the computer stays on a while so you don't have to mess around shutting down and restarting. That's one heavy machine.
And while that replacement was a success, it was a ridiculous amount of effort for a battery change, involving special tools, heat, an unreasonable amount of disassembly, scraping adhesive off, the 'stretch to release' battery adhesive being utterly useless, so having to risk applying force to a potentially fiery battery, and so on.
Yes, iFixit are doing great work, and it's certainly possibly for a hobbyist-level 'tinkerer' to successfully change the battery. But it shouldn't be close to that difficult. I remember it being a fairly trivial job in the iPhone 5 era.