Lithium-ion and lead-acid battery technologies are very different. A lead-acid battery performs extremely well so long as power keeps flowing through it - my first car was 12 years old when written off and had its original battery, because it was driven often and kept charged.

Lithium-based batteries suffer chemical degradation of their electrodes related to time as well as charge cycles. Even an unused lithium-ion battery can die before it's ever installed in a product. The electrode damage is what causes the capacity to decline.

For the record, lead-acid batteries can suffer similar degradation due to sulphur build-up on their internal plates, but regular use keeps this at bay and a well-maintained battery will just keep working. Part of the problem is that it's nearly impossible to maintain modern batteries as they're all sealed by design.

I’m talking about a lithium ion battery in an EV, not a lead-acid battery.

Ah, my bad.

Eh, I'm sure I could have made that a bit more explicit.

Your cars battery is cooled instead of being abused as a heat sink, is nearly never emptied, and uses a battery chemistry that doesn't degrade when fully charged.

Smartphone battery degradation is indeed a consequence of design choices, but I think those choices are reasonable. I prefer battery power and processor power now over long term battery life, as long as the battery is replaceable.

If they’d just make it bigger they’d solve a lot of things for both of us.

Except people tend to vote with their wallets for thinner lighter phones. Probably I’d prefer a slightly thicker phone myself but I’m probably not typical.

People's purchases aren't 'votes' in some context-less void.

Many folks (most in the last couple of years?) are firmly entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. Wanting a nicer camera and nicer screen, while not having to worry about migrating data and apps, forces the 'lighter/thinner' option on people. People moving from an iphone 5s to a 7 aren't necessarily "voting" for a thinner phone. They are more likely "voting" for a better camera or more storage, but are forced in to 'thinner' as a byproduct.

I've never met anyone in the last 5 years who's upgraded to a new phone based on their current device being 'too thick'. Camera, storage, speed and screen size are factors; thickness has never been a motivating factor I've heard from people.

Indeed. I really wish Apple would offer an option to have a phone that's twice as thick as their current offerings, with the extra space filled with extra battery. Keep the thin ones available for people who prefer those. But I'm not getting my hopes up for such a thing.

(And to preempt the typical responses to this: I know battery cases exist, but they're a substantially inferior solution.)

It's not just us geeks. My wife and kids (at least, the daughters who are full-time snapchat users) would definitely select the larger phone with bigger battery.

If you had both choices before you in the store, who wouldn't start to wonder if they'd regret the thinner/lower capacity choice?

I would love it if they came out with a real Pro version of their products. Call them the "Pro Black" edition or something.

Imagine a "Black Edition" of the iPhone that's thicker, has a headphone jack and an integral rubberized case. The aesthetic would be similar to military style watches.

Imagine a thicker MacBook Pro that doesn't require dongles. Don't announce them initially but show it in some hacker movies. Make them special order initially. I can dream...

I have somewhat mixed feelings myself. On the one hand I would like to have true all day battery life for those relatively rare days when I’m really hammering on the battery. OTOH maybe I really do prefer less thickness and weight for the 90% case and just top it off with an external battery on the other days.

Geeks (illustrated by those of us reading HN) tend to value function over form. Unfortunately this is not the market Apple appeals to. They have successfully managed to appeal to enough people that 'thin is good' at the expense of everything else, and here we are with laptops and phones you can practically shave with.

The problem is Apple doesn't sell a thicker iPhone 8, so we don't know if it would sell better or worse than the thinner version.