A local woman says she is genuinely concerned about her phone’s battery life, after not being away from her charger for more than an hour in over six months. Rebecca Laughlin had the damning realisation over the weekend after heading out for a picnic that lasted almost four hours.

Speaking to The Watsonia Bugle about her ordeal, Laughlin said, “It was frightening. With working from home for most of the year, and strict rules around leaving my house, I realised that Friday’s outing was the longest I’d been away from both my charger and a reliable source of electricity since March. My phone was actually fine, but it made me realise that I hadn’t experienced that shuddering phone battery anxiety for most of this year. Lockdown wasn’t all bad.”

To further complicate things, Laughlin also said her phone was nearing its second birthday, which inevitably means it starts to pack it in. She said, “You know how it is, most contracts last two years, so phones are only really designed to last for that time period. It’s the basic economic theory of planned obsolescence. And I’m about to enter that dangerous zone. Looks like it’s back to carrying my charger with me everywhere I go like some unwashed backpacker at an airport.”

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