TmoNews managed to nab an internal T-Mobile memo, urging managers and floor salespeople to halt sales of the Zmax through both T-Mobile and its prepaid subsidiary, MetroPCS. Even though no reasons were given in the memo, sources close to ZTE told PCMag that the suspended sales are due to people, for some reason, deciding to remove the non-removable battery on the Zmax.
It turns out that the back cover of the Zmax is not glued on, it’s just clipped on to the point where you can use “a knife and a screwdriver” to remove it. Of course, this carries the potential danger of puncturing the battery and hurting the user in the process, but apparently most people don’t really care about self-injury.
Rationally, there has to be a reason as to why people are resorting to removing the not-non-but-still-dangerous-to-handle removable battery. Most modern-day smartphones don’t allow their owners to remove the batteries. Even the Samsung Galaxy S6, whose predecessors had removable batteries, now has a sealed-in battery.
We’ll probably never know whether there was some sort of battery issue with the Zmax, but according to PCMag’s sources, T-Mobile complained to ZTE about this weird problem. According to those same sources, the battery debacle shouldn’t have any bearing on the relationship between T-Mobile and ZTE.
T-Mobile also recently halted sales of the Sony Xperia Z3, albeit in a more permanent manner. Fortunately, it wasn’t because people were popping the non-removable battery, but, unfortunately, it’s likely due to low sales.
