I can understand that you need a full battery to update, but the worst thing that can happen is that the update fails and you need to reboot your wallet, not buy a new one. Failure in this way means it's bad and should be avoided.
He probably bricked the device, so it can be rebooted and turned on anymore.
Ellipal hardware wallet is closed source crap that is based on modified android os, and I hope he didn't waste money purchasing that device again.
I generally think hardware wallets should have external power, not integrated batteries that can't be removed easily.
