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Soldered-on RTC batteries (with type covered as a bonus)
(i.imgur.com)
This battery lasts the life of the router under the operating environmental conditions specified for the router, and is not field-replaceable.
But who determines its lifespan?
Knowing there is a battery set to fail and I can't simply replace it makes me physically uncomfortable. Enough so that I'd rather it not have RTC.
Thanks Cisco.
Its not about knowing everything. You can know a lot but don't have the skills. Cisco doesn't make cheap products and screwing it up, it not good. Especially it can be easily done at the factory. Its not like it would cost them much more. I can get a holder for like 0.50 to 1€ per piece. There you must subtract 19% VAT and think in bigger quantities. On a per device basis, its not adding much.
They do this, because it adds up and they can save a lot of money. They make more money when a customer pays for a replacement or when a customer screw things up and needs to buy a new device. Its not something companies should be allowed to do. Also it would be even better if we don't need to tell companies what they should do and they do it themselves. In fact a lot do this, because it doesn't add much to the total cost of one device, but it makes the product better.