All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 1789 points –
All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU
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All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU::undefined

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All we need now is a headphone jack

We need SD cards more. They removed them so they can charge you 300 $ to upgrade 128gb and to force you into shitty cloud service.

Again, just anti consumer bullshit spearheaded by Apple and gargled by Samsung.

I have flashbacks to using external storage on Android. It was such a shit show of an API. That being said, external storage, to break away from cloud storage is the next needed thing. We need to own the data.

When you design an OS to pretend there's no such thing as a file, it ends up being bad at handling files.

Yeah, even today, browsing through files on Android is a fucking mess. And there isn't an SD card.

So the SD card wasn't the problem

I was trying to figure out recently how do I copy files into application user data directory, it turns out you just can't, lol.

You can with very basic root tools, but really that just solidifies your point. It's an easy thing to do, but they've intentionally taken away the ability for no good reason

It's perfectly fine on Sony Xperia.

Which did away with the headphone jack and asks €400 for crap performance.

Nah I'm sticking to my Samsung XCover

Xperia IV aren't crap performance but they are 3x €400

It was the SOC that wasn't great. Nothing to do with the manufacturers.

Ah, I had the Experia XZ Compact before, the performance was awful, even when I didn't have high expectations.
It even had trouble just web browsing static, textual webpages.

The camera was really good, but that was the only thing I was happy with.

Either way, the fact that your good Sony phone is around € 1200 speaks volumes.

Either way, you could spend the same amount on an iPhone or a Samsung. Failing to see your point here.

That those are also either overpriced or bad, and don't have audio jacks, replaceable batteries or normal screens, either.

Again, just anti consumer bullshit spearheaded by Apple and gargled by Samsung.

Samsung was actually one of the later Android manufacturers to drop it is my recollection.

Definitely. Never understood why some manufacturers removed jacks

I personally prefer my bluetooth headphones, but it's not like bluetooth and jacks can't exist on the same device..

Plus, pairing bluetooth in a car can be annoying as fuck. Looking at you, Nissan

Yeah I want a headphone jack, but the truth is that I can't remember the last time I used mine. I have an old phone plugged into an old amp that I can play Spotify through, otherwise I use bt.

Yeah, they could coexist. I'm partial to non-bluetooth, but only because they come in shapes that I find more comfortable, and I've yet to find bluetooth ones that don't make my ears hurt

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Money from selling true wireless earbuds was too enticing. Even Fairphone made them and removed headphone jack and spat nonsense that it was a "point of failure."

The argument was saving space for other parts. That's true in a way. But if things needed we should have this space. What's next? Saving the space of the charger? /s

Headphone jacks are a 19th century invention, if having them restricts innovation then I am all for removing them.

We can't only consider innovation today, we also have to consider its ecological impact. Jack plugs and headphones are way more durable than Bluetooth equivalent. I have 16 yo jack headset that still works perfectly, I only had to change the cushions twice.

It's specifically the wire that always breaks first. How can they be more durable?

You can repair a broken cable fairly easily.

When you buy wireless headphones you know upfront that they will die within a few years and you will not be able to replace the tiny glued in, oddly shaped batteries they come with.

I like the convenience of BT at times, but I really miss having headphone jacks and hate having to bring adaptors with me.

If you can financially, buy (second-hand) higher-end material, it will come with stronger wires and stronger connections.
For example, see the difference in the constraints damper on these connectors:

vs Apple's:

Jack being simple technology, it's also very easy to get it repaired by the nearby tech enthusiast armed with a soldering iron.

To add to that, many IEMs (and many other headphones too probably) come with removable cables.

So stop making any technological advancement because of the potential impact of e-waste? Not saying it’s a bad thing but it will have have its own environmental implications. No new energy development, we have to rely on existing oil and nuclear technology rather than investing in making renewable energy sources cheaper and more efficient.

It's not an either-or situation, we can do both at the same time, we just have to consider environmental impact as an essential component of innovation.

At the point we are at, yes we have to make a major change, e-waste is an immense problem for many years and we are only starting to fight it.

Inventions not thinking about e-waste at all shouldn't be allowed anymore.

So are speakers and batteries.

True, but we don’t have any practical alternatives for them.

What's the practical alternative to headphone jacks? Bluetooth is crap and carrying around extra dongles is annoying.

Bluetooth headphones are more practical due to not having wires. Jack is better for latency.

Practical for some scenarios, but impractical in others. A headphone jack also offers better sound quality overall and a less flaky connection, with no audio cutouts. It's not just latency, it's a superior and more reliable way to transmit high quality audio. And there's no battery to worry about charging. And a standard set of wired headphones can last for DECADES while a Bluetooth headset will start to die in about five years or less because the battery is non-replaceable lithium-ion. And there's no concern about whether your wired headphones are optimized for Android or iPhone, it's a standardized connector with an identical experience on both. And there's no issue with wireless interference on the 2.4GHz band that Bluetooth operates on.

I can come up with more if you want.

Technically 20th century, if I'm not mistaken? I just don't see how they would restrict innovation, I guess

Apparently it’s based on a plug invented in 1878, according to the BBC.

Interesting! It's cool to know how stuff we use/used was developed

By that logic let's just replace the most superior household plug. The 3 pin UK plug.

Unless there's an alternative, no it's not restricting innovation.

A "19th century" technology that objectively produces better sound quality and uses less energy. And I already have wired earbuds and headsets.

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I'd be almost ready to say that we don't need them any more if Bluetooth headphones were about 100x better and cheaper

At the same time, wired earphones/headphones are already just as good with a lot less parts/complexity.

You don't need batteries, radios, and chips for coding/decoding a signal coming out of a headphone jack. You can just plumb it straight into the speakers. No need to mess with controls and all of that, which would make them a lot cheaper.

Don’t forget how new Bluetooth headphones require that you download an app to set up the headphone. So a whole new data harvesting broker forces itself right where an audiojack used to be.

Check on the AppStore’s the kind of personal data one has to handover to tune the headphones. Total fuckery!

Still too much lag. I love my QC45s, but there's still just enough lag to bother me

Bluetooth 5+ definitely made wired headphones obsolete for me.

But now you have to charge two things rather than one. Some people would prefer not to have to do that.

Bluetooth headphones are solid now, as long as you have something that supports aptx HD and LL (HD for music, LL for movies/games). But yeah they're not cheap.

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