Does the fact that the battery isn't user replaceable disturb you?

Personally I would prefer replaceable battery all other things being equal, but it isn't that high on my list.

It is certainly an indisputable fact that batteries lose capacity as they age, but whether it is significant under normal use during normal life of the phone is up for debate. I tend to believe it's not a big factor for most. Considering all the other good things about this phone, I personally am not bothered by lack of replaceable battery or for that matter external sd.

I don't think it is planned obsolesence. I think there is some compromise among features and making battery replaceable would affect price or size etc since you have to build in a mechanism to open / close the phone and arrange the components so they're not disturbed when phone is opened.

I did have an oddball experience with my old Samsung S4 where replaceable battery was a lifesaver. Was kayaking in salt water bay, put phone in dry bag, forgot to close end of bag, looked down in middle of trip and noticed bag half full of salt water (must have been that way awhile).. Turned off. When got home disassembled and put it in rice for 24 hours when got home. Upon restart, everything works except the usb port (no way to charge my phone rendered it useless). Ordered spare battery and external charger by next day delivery. Charged battery externally and swapped battery routinely for a few months until I figured out my next step (that was the life saver part). Next step bought cheap phone to use while sending s4 off by mail for 2 weeks to replace usb port). That s4 seemed to work fine for another year as my daily driver other than some memory problems upon upgrade to lollipop which i think we're unrelated to the water. In fact I would still be using it today except the nexus 6 seemed too good to pass up. Needless to say, I don't plan on leaving my dry bag open again.

There are replacement batteries on eBay and instructions on Youtube. If it's built by someone, it can be repaired.

The battery is replaced fairly easily.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+6+Teardown/32877

http://www.repairsuniverse.com/moto...dF9gxRUAAm8Aa9r1COwQouDfUnf4vlKMJxhoC0W3w_wcB

Battery replacement is certainly doable, but I do understand why not everyone would be comfortable doing it. Having said that though, what do you expect the useful life of the phone to be? I've had my N6 for over a year now - battery life seems to be just as good as it was on day 1. I skipped the N6p for the same reason that you stated. But I do expect I'll get the next year's Nexus - not because of battery concerns, but for better processor and for continued OS upgrade support.

I would be surprised if the battery life dropped too much (less than 75% of original charge) in 2 years

CliffordS said:

The https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+6+Teardown/32877 doesn't look very easy for a battery replacement. I'm not saying it's not doable, but not a five minute job.
I hope the battery last the useful life of the phone but new phones (Nexus 6p for example) are incremental not revolutionary in terms of improvement. I see (for me, YMMV) no reason to upgrade to the Nexus 6P.
Nexus phones, similar to other manufactures, have their good and bad points. The nexus non-removable battery is a downer.

Click to expand...

Sure, its not as simple as a swap on a replaceable battery, but if you need to replace the battery because the one in yours goes bad - it can be done with OEM parts readily available.

Its just a matter of taking off the back, unscrewing the torx screws, and disconnecting the battery/charging coil. (Steps 4-7 at https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+6+Teardown/32877)