All you folks who miss having a replaceable battery in your high-end smartphone, your ride is here.

LG’s new flagship, the LG G5, has as its signature feature a slide-out replaceable battery. It’s not the only interesting thing about the phone, but it’s the most obvious — and LG’s decision to zag when the entire rest of the world is zigging will get most of the attention. The question is: Does the phone as a whole rate as a high-end device?

About the battery

Batteries that could be swapped out by customers have been an endangered species since the first iPhone came out, and last year’s Samsung Galaxy 6 was the last top-end phone to join the party. Over the years, phone battery life has steadily improved, although generally not reaching a full day under more than moderate use — and what constitutes “moderate” has been a subject of some discussion.

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