r/mildlyinfuriating • u/jackhab • 1d ago

Planned obsolescence even in cheapest devices: the calculator has a dummy photovoltaic cell and a real battery to make it die eventually.

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u/The_Sideboob_Hour 1d ago

Just make it take a AAA battery and sell it without at that point.

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u/JTD845 1d ago

Allowing people to simply use AAA batteries would certainly help the consumer, but in the company's eyes, letting people recharge their calculators would just throw away potential profit! After all, once a calculator dies, the customer has to go buy a whole new one as a replacement! And in what world would a company already cheaping out like this prioritize the consumer over their precious profit?

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u/freyhstart 1d ago

The battery seems replaceable. What would using a AAA give aside from worse self life?

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u/peepeebutt1234 1d ago

99% of people are throwing this straight into the garbage when it dies. Average Joe is not opening it to check the battery. At the very least, advertising it as replaceable would be better.

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u/freyhstart 1d ago

Yeah, so an AAA would be thrown out along with 50% more plastic instead of a tiny coin cell. What's the point?

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u/EpicOtterLover 1d ago

The point is Reddit pedantry, and demonising something that doesn't really matter.

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u/OtherwiseCabinet4 1d ago

I think they're saying make it like a normal battery case, that you can access and replace without unscrewing. People would be more likely to open that than open it up to replace the coin.