All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU
mashable.com
All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU::undefined
All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU::undefined
Thank fucking god for the EU, for fighting for global digital rights where nobody else does.
According to republicans Europe is hell on Earth tho
Anywhere that isn’t a fascist theocracy is hell on Earth to many republicans
It’s funny how many of them unironically praise the Taliban. At least, it’s funny from my perspective looking in. I’m sure for a fellow citizen that’s a scary thought.
mostly cuz EU gives rights and protections to consumers, not corporations
They’re still liberal and give a lot more to corporations than they do people.
And yet to us Americans, we see that the EU does a billion times more for its citizens and we wish our country could be half as good about the things the EU does right.
I understand. Unless you're lining billionaire pockets and actively hurting the poor, Republicans are PISSED
-for Republicans that is.
Fine by me. Nice and cozy 🤗
We have a fake economy. All investments, researching and efforts could be decided by state (we/public). Protecting society interests and not "investors" interests is an obligation
Apple in 2027: This is not a battery, it's a.....umm ....... Ultra High Density Low Current Super Capacitor.
EU: Ok, then in addition to that UHDLCSC you also need a removable battery.
Yay! Another dongle!
And apple consumers will celebrate it.
they'll find a place to shove one of these
Introducing the UHDLCSC portable charger (which it technically a battery you can attach via USB-C-iLightningSpec©)
It might actually force them to develop inductively powered devices or some similar magic
I came across this insane opinion piece the other day: https://www.laptopmag.com/features/mind-eurown-business-for-the-sake-of-the-iphone-apple-needs-to-fight-back
It's so surreal, it feels satirical
What the actual fuck?
You swear this isn't satire?
Nobody tell this guy what the EU's Digital Markets Act means for Apple and iMessage...
I haven't heard of this. What does it mean?
Messaging services need to be interoperable.
I love how higher IP rating is always the argument, it looks like everybody in this planet is doing daily deep diving and needs its smartphone to do that 😅
Phones with IP67 or even IP68 exist with easily replaceable batteries.
My Galaxy XCover 6Pro has a removable battery (and headphone jack) and is ip68 rated
You'd think they'd figure out a way to have those high IP ratings and have removable batteries (they have afaik)
Are you sure it isn’t satire? I prefer to believe it is.
I sure hope it’s satire, but that pun!
“Mind EUROwn business?” chef’s kiss
I... Couldn't even make it through the whole article. Absolutely insane.
Man, Tim Apple sounds pissed.
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
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
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
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.
Can't imagine that getting mandated unfortunately
The fact that some of the gen Z crowd think it will be horrible have forgotten that it was much easier to carry 2 batteries and swap them out vs carrying a charger and cable with you everywhere. Pop in the new battery, power it on and carry on with you now full battery phone. Being tethered to a wall so you can have 10% from 20 minutes of charging is crazy.
Don't forget the option to carry a 30lb battery bank everywhere with you so you're at least tethered to something marginally more movable than a wall.
Seriously though, I miss my phone+battery in one charger and the ability to restart with full battery at around 4pm.
I know you are intentionally exaggerating a bit, but they do make pretty small portable chargers. I have an Anker PowerCore 5000, it has 1-2 full charges depending on your phone, and easily fits in a pocket
Yeah, definitely joking. Mine is 24,000 mAh and weigh less than 1.5lb allegedly.
I used to do this. I thought it was awesome but I was literally the only person I ever knew who did this. It was not a popular thing to do.
Zero lemon had them so cheap that I had 4 extra batteries (they also had the extended batteries that would last forever but the cases were janky). I would keep one at work, one by the door to take with me and two at home if you include the one in my phone that I would swap out. I rarely charged my phone at all, just the batteries. I loved it.
The main reason I'm thinking of upgrading my mid-range phone now is the battery is on its last legs.
In fairness it's lasted 6 years, which is two years more than my Nexus 4 got. Pokemon Go eventually killed that.
I don't know when we all just collectively accepted that batteries should last one day and not a second more. Sure, it's doing more than a Nokia 3310 ever did, but sometimes you really do need it to last more than that, like when travelling.
I'd much rather just have a bigger battery. Replacement is more useful for longevity for me.
It will also likely mean easier repairs. Louis Rossman just did a video on this
This. People read this and think about the removable batteries of Nokia bricks and plastic hardshells, but this would really hamper with IP68 rating. It probably just means the users must be able to replace the battery themselves, instead of artificially locking it down with DRM. And maybe provide some documentation. Otherwise phones would become so much worse, than they have been for more than a decade.
Louis was saying 'Does everyone have collective amnesia?? We had IP68 phones with removable batteries already!'
I only remember the Samsung rugged ones, which do not look great. Some compromise will be needed to get removable batteries into phones. Compromises the buyer of a gold iPhone Pro Max to flex their wealth won’t appreciate. Not DRMing batteries and giving users access to documentation and tools for replacing the battery requires almost no compromise from no one (except a tiny dent in Apple‘s balance sheet, which they will recover from, I’m sure).
The Samsung galaxy S5 were IP67 rated with removable battery.
They also featured optional wireless charging, despite you being able to pop open the back and replace the battery.
It's NOT just phones.
It's EVERYTHING with a battery. Including cars, laptops, e-bikes, video game controllers, headphones etc. (im not even sure if there are exceptions, such as tiny tiny "airpod" like things.. ?)
And they must be (with a few exceptions) replacable by a "layman", without the use of special tools - which means no heat pads, to soften up glue etc etc. (and for gods sake, i hope it also means apple can't hardwareID lock a battery)
an exception mentioned in the EU document about the law says, high power batteries for example in an electric car, must be done by a profesional - but of course it still has to be "replacable" and not.. tear the whole car apart and rebuild it using new batteries.
replacable batteries in headphones, bluetooth mice, laptops etc, is gonna be awesome.
and lets not forget, they have to recycle the old ones - and produce new batteries using recycled materials.
in fact, i will try to hold on replacing my current (2 year old) phone, and wait to get one before 2027. Usually the battery turns to shit in 3ish years.
Gonna make a guess here and assume that the EU probably wants to increase lithium recycling. Removable batteries would probably make that goal a bit more achievable
I’m having a hard time finding the actual regulation text with all these details. Anyone have that?
Stand back everyone, I'm going to attempt nuance.
Industrial design is about tradeoffs. Making the battery easily replaceable will come with drawbacks. Maybe it'll be size, or water resistance, or durability, but something will have to be compromised. The extent of the compromises remains to be seen, and people will have different opinions about whether it's worth it.
Ordinarily I'm not a fan of regulators making product design decisions, because that's exactly the kind of thing market forces are supposed to be good at. In this case, though, there's a demand that's clearly not being met, and companies clearly have a vested interest in pushing consumers toward replacing their old hardware rather than repairing it, which creates externalities markets are unable to account for. Market failures like this are exactly the kind of situation where government regulation is needed.
If by size you mean it's going to become fatter, I'm all for it. PSP Slim was basically as slim as I need for things which go into my pocket. Laptops don't, so these can be twice fatter than that.
About "market failures" ... This particular "market failure" is strongly connected to patent law, which cuts down most of the potential competition. So maybe it's not a "market failure" at all if you have monopolies and oligopolies because of patents. Because patent law is not a market mechanism, obviously.
definitely size at the least. We'll probably have to go back to removable backs so I imagine water proofing will be difficult without adding at least a little size.
Considering Samsung during their cost cutting days designed Galaxy Xcover Pro 2 without drawback just fine, I think everyone will be able to do it without drawback just fine as well.
My current device and the two before that all have had removable batteries. I've always thought built in batteries are stupid and it's nice to finally notice that other people agree. Hopefully they next mandate that it has to be able to be taken apart with a screwdriver and spare parts must be able to be purchased straight from the manufacturer.
Coming soon from Apple. Screws that require a 4D tesseract shaped screwdriver to undo.
But if you can undo them, feel free to change the battery.
The EU defines user replaceable as you can remove the batteries with common tools. Common tools is defined as a Phillips or flathead screwdriver. So even Nintendo and their stupid try-force screw thing won't be acceptable.
If that's really the definition, it's an awful definition and exactly why we shouldn't regulate stuff like this. Torx are objectively better than Philips or flathead in every possible way.
As long as the tool isn't proprietary it's acceptable. If I can go to a hardware store and buy the interface tool then it's fine, but it's not fine if I have to get it from a special manufacturer or if it's proprietary.
In the case of Nintendo I gave; Nintendo have their proprietary tri-headed screw. They do not make The tri-headed screwdriver publicly available, of course companies have copied them and so you can get one that way, but they're not official, so my understanding is that that would not be acceptable. Nintendo would have to officially release the tri-headed screw design, and they're probably just more likely to switch to a different already public screw design.
I also think they are allowed to just glue the batteries in as long as they have pull tabs. Which is probably the better option.
My point is Apple won't be allowed to just come up with some brand new screw design that no one else has ever seen before. Unless they open source the screw head. In which case I guess it doesn't matter. But they're not going to do that because there would be no point.
That's the reason I bought a set of screwdrivers for apple and there was also the tri-headed included. It was just 5 bucks and I am really happy with them.
Anyway, I just hope they go further in their law like a replacement without any screws. Why not just use the way a laptop battery will be changed? Just click it out easy.
It's pre-drilled holes and small screws, Phillips is perfectly fine.
Most batteries are currently held in with some sticky glue, so I'm sure 4 random off the shelf screws would be sufficient. We're not mounting plasma screen TVs to plasterboard here.
As someone who works with small electronics, Phillips is NOT perfectly fine at small sizes. Below a PH1, the torque required to unscrew a long thread and the torque required to cam-out and strip the head get very close together.
I agree that Torx might be better for things that require a lot of torque, but mobile phones?
I just stripped half the screw head in my steam deck because none of my bits would fit just exactly right. I'd have been thrilled about finding torx there.
Ahh yes, screws that can only be unscrewed using The Force
Honestly good. Usb C is so good.
I have a couple of 100w chargers around the house, no messing about can charge nearly everything at full speed.
Pesky EU throwing their weight around giving consumers more rights! --Brexiteer logic
Oh well hopefully we'll (UK) still benefit from it. Easier to design one phone than "EU" and "Rest of world" versions after all.
I mean ... sometimes those companies consider it preferable to actually have two versions.
That's already happening though. The US version of the IPhone doesn't have a physical Sim while the "rest of the world" version does.
I'm glad they got specific. I wonder where Apple's self-service battery replacement program falls under this? AFAIK it's not free. They charge a fee to rent the specialized tools, which are also proprietary.
This gives Apple a few choices:
I'm not sure that #1 and #2 are options, I think Apple's tools would still be considered "Specialized" or "proprietary" since they can't have any proprietary rights or restrictions, so I don't think that they can get away with selling them at a huge markup. I'm no lawyer, but to me that reads like they either need to give the tools away for free, or change the iPhone so it can be disassembled with regular screwdrivers. Given those choices, I'm thinking #2 sounds a lot more likely unless they can weasel out of some loophole
The current tools are not even close. Very proprietary, very specialized, not commercially available. Check out this video or this one. These things are rental only because they are exorbitantly expensive and only really useful to iPhone, and IIRC they differ for some lines/models.
This law absolutely will require an iPhone redesign, which I think is going to be somewhat controversial. If you check out the iFixit teardown it's pretty obvious there is not a lot of space. Even the larger Pro Max is tight because I think in the case of the larger phones, they tend to fill the space with battery. What I think would be the easiest is make it more like the iPhone 4. In that version, there were like two security screws on the bottom, and then you could remove the whole back plate. Some battery would have to be sacrificed to add space for connectors and a retaining system of some sort.
I say controversial because this is probably going to mean less day-to-day battery, but I think I'm in favor of that rather than having to deal with going through Apple to do a battery replacement and get another year or two out of the device. If they make it more like the hot-swappable old days of Nokia's and Motorola's past, I can't really see anyone being pissy. In practice these days, I don't worry about battery life anyway, so it's hard to not see this being a win.
As someome who was able to disassemble and repurpose multiple iphone 4's.
This was the way.
This needs to be true of notebooks too. I love my 2015 Macbook Air, but the battery lasts about five minutes and I use it way too much to take the time to get it replaced. Especially when it's old enough to not be supported soon. But if I could just spend $50 and replace the battery myself without fucking things up, which I totally would as things stand now, I would be able to use it without keeping it plugged in all the time like I used to.
Good news, it applies to all battery operated devices, not just phones
Will literally anyone in the EU help me immigrate? ill do anything to get out of Murica.
I should make a business out of that lol
You can literally do that with any business. Start up a business and hire people from abroad to work for you in the country and just sponsor their visa while they go through the process. That's one of the more common ways that people use, that and marrying a native.
That sounds like work.. I'll go the marrying route instead, there's more butt stuff that way
I'll marry you. How much?
Edit: fuck I'm not EU anymore.
Not a bad idea but there are flaws and this also doesn't seem to address the issue of pricing or availability.
The your last point the text specify that batteries can be safely removed and replaced using “basic and commonly available tools” and “without causing damage to the appliance or batteries.”
We already have regulations about spare parts availability and pricing for some devices (mainly household appliances) - and it is planned to slowly enforce regulation for other device types over time. They'll watch the market, and if apple decides to be stupid that'll come pretty quickly.
Just like with the appliances where some vendors had their shops ready way before regulation we already have some phone vendors prepare for that - like Nokia selling some spares via ifixit. So if apple decides to play stupid games it'll be up against vendors that'll be completely fine pushing regulation through quickly as hurting apple will only benefit them.
I had a washing machine where the price of the replacement motherboard (ludicrous this is this even a thing, btw) was triple the price of the entire washing machine.
Making parts available doesn't make it realistic to repair stuff.
A lot of energy and water savings in modern machines are due to the electronics used. Also, replacement of weight to keep the machine from wandering around during spin cycles with sensors and attempts to rebalance laundry, if necessary.
The EU commission is aware of that, though for now hopes their ecodesign initiative for repairable products will be enough to push vendors in the right direction. Given that all of this is pretty new it's quite impressive to see how some vendors are embracing it already - I first noticed it when replacing an ancient kitchen oven, and in the shop next to spare sheets I could get all electronic components used in that thing.
I imagine they'll monitor the situation, and will have a chat with problematic companies based on that, or consumer protection complaints - like they did with the switch joycon drift thing, which I think was one of the first instances where eco design was referenced as reason for taking action.
Information like this gives hope for a better tomorrow.
You mean like Apple’s Self Service Repair, which has been available for a few years now?…
https://support.apple.com/self-service-repair
The neat thing about EU regulations is that they are iterated over constantly, so even if they don't get it 100% right the first time, they're able to nail things down in subsequent iterations. Look at how quickly they struck down any fantasies Apple had of still fucking people over with their own type c implementation fuckery. The direction the EU is taking is already doing plenty good for the entire world.
This insufferable shit is exhausting
Back in 2014 you just bought a spare and replaced it, nowadays they all want to play the same bullshit games Apple innovated on. It was was about time an authority that ruled over a market with significant purchasing power made a decision against it.
Is the glass half full or half empty? For you, I guess it's half empty.
Rules can be updated and tightened if needed. This is a good step, another could be taken if they don't play nice.
If i remember right, all those shitholes are addressed?
They could start selling tiers of battery quality which TBH sounds awful if they make the best battery life duration paywalled.
Making them easily replaceable will create a market, a better one than we have today, almost any battery you can buy today as end-user are trash-tier.
Quality 3rd party batteries will rise up if the phone manufacturers fuck around.
Yeah, that's possible. I'm more worried about a built in battery chip preventing users from sharing batteries, like once it's installed, it's activated and it's locked to that device. Meaning you'd have to buy only from that manufacture and the price will be higher.
I'm hopeful that the EU would put a stop to this. They are pretty progressive on that front generally.
It needs to meet spec though.
So tempted to wait until 2027 to buy my next iPhone
Lol
Looking forward to seeing If companies will just do the bare minimum to pass or if we'll see some actual innovation. It would be cool to be able to buy spare batteries, that are quick to replace and easy to carry around along with a charging station or something so you can always have a full battery with you.
I bet The Apple battery, just a replacement or a dedicated module like I said above, will be starting at like $249
Apple will figure out a way to DRM batteries so that no one but them can sell them and they'll cost as much as a new phone.
Well, uhm… - it’s been designed in California, you know?!
Modern batteries have a thin polymer shell. Sit down with that spare battery in the same pocket as your keys, and your leg is going to catch on fire.
My old Nokia had a swappable battery - but that battery was thicker than an entire iPhone.
EU is killing it right now. Charging port regulation and now removable batteries in everything. If companies are forced to produce different models for the EU maybe just maybe it will be cost effective to just make all their phones with removable batteries. One can hope, cause you know the US wont pass that type of consumer protection regulation.
Honestly, I'm all for it if it means bringing back ridiculously sized phone batteries with huge bumps that can act as a finger shelf. My note 2 with a 4200mah battery was a beast in 2013.
Or the Zero Lemon 9000mAh battery back for that phone. Insane capacity, but a "tad" bulky.
The Note 2 was my favorite phone. The replaceable back with the cover option was the best. Want your phone to look brand new? That'll only cost $20.
I never replaced the battery though.
EU citizenship is a dream.
I tried Ctrl+F searching to see whether anyone here had pasted the link to the law, and didn't find anything, so I went to Presearch and found this, which appears to be the official European Union log for it, and has attached PDFs at the end with what seem to be the nitty-gritty for further reading...
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/07/10/council-adopts-new-regulation-on-batteries-and-waste-batteries/
If I've found an errant page that just looks official, please link something better for those looking for the legalese
You can already replace your own iPhone battery without any technical expertise. I hope the law is more specific than that, because there are many things OEMs can do to comply and still make it a giant pain in the ass to do.
Press x to doubt. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've replaced multiple iPhone batteries with only a YouTube video. The problem is that the glue and placement can be a complete pain in the ass and user replacement voids warranty. Hopefully the law specifically states that user replacement should have a certain level of ease and does not void warranty.
I believe it says the battery has to be replaceable by the end-user without any kind of tools or heat.
Common screw drivers are ok, or they include the specialised screw driver in the package. Heat is a no go though, which makes me very happy.
Source
So if I understand this correctly:
Hex screws are pretty standard. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd imagine they would be acceptable.
That being said, I never understood the reason to have 5 different types of screws around. Can we just have one type for everything?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Can you, though? No, you can’t. Its really hard to get right and super easy to fuck up. Source: Me.
So is changing out any part on your car. It remains to be seen how this is applied.
Most people can't put on a screen protector properly. I wouldn't perhaps go as far as claiming replacing iPhone battery takes no technical expertise. It's not hard but not quite easy either. In the case of iPhone there's also that even if you do it properly the device still detects it's not the original Apple approved battey so they limit functions on your phone such as battery health, true tone etc. New MacBooks does this aswell.
They probably need additional legislation to stop companies from locking down products when non own parts are used.
With my shaky hands and clumsiness? I'd kill my phone just by touching the innards.
God bless the European union, doing the kind of consumer protection that America won't.
Now will companies also offer this in the usa or will they have 2 models for sale
I think that would depend on how much EU citizens care about being fully waterproof. I assume there will be focus groups.
If that is a high priority for EU customers, then it will cause Apple to have to do an entire redesign. If they ended up doing that, then I don't see any reason why they would make a separate US model line. If EU citizens don't care about waterproof and are fine with it being water resistant, then I could see them having a waterproof non removable US version and an EU version that has removable, but is only water resistant.
There is a real risk that the US eventually follows suit, and there is no reason to re-tool twice if you don't need to.
Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro with removable battery and IP68 entered the chat
Wasn't the S5 like 67?
I doubt most companies would bother. Apple is probably the only one with the volume to bother.
True epically since they have a huge share of the American market
I see something like this every few years.EU has to make a fine so heavy that it's impossible to just pay as a tax of doing business.
Unless that's all it really is.
The EU has a good track record on making companies adopt these standards.
Unless fines hurt the company financially, they are fees. I used to work for a nursery owner who filled his water truck from the hydrant because the fine cost less than the water from the water company.
As the parent comment said, the EU is quite good at enforcing things like this when it wants to. The USB-C thing is literally going to be "you literally can't sell it", but they can throw big fines around too
https://www.eqs.com/compliance-blog/biggest-gdpr-fines/#:~:text=Less%20severe%20infringements%20can%20result,depending%20on%20what%20is%20higher.
I think apple will comply by including a dongle battery that can be replaced but no one will actually carry with their phone
The law says, "Designing portable batteries in appliances in such a way that consumers can themselves easily remove and replace them;"
Key part being "in appliances".
They know with whom they are dealing
When Apple want to, they can design amazing things. So I look forward to see if they come up with a clever Apple-like way to do this. Or maybe they just make it easier to remove the back.
If you buy each iphone components individually through Apple service center, the cost added up to equal multiple brand-new iphone (and you still not have enough components to assemble a full iphone).
This is nothing new. If you buy all the parts to a car from a car manufacturer it adds up to several cars.
Battery DRM?
Then they wouldn't be able to sell their phones in the EU. Regulators may be stupid, but even they can see that it's a blatant disregard to the rule of replaceable batteries.
I mean, Bosch eBikes already do this. You can only use official batteries with them
I'm afraid they will still find ways to make replacements expensive
Waterprood Devuces do not need a Changeable Batterie because its a Loophole in the Paper
I hope this loophole only applies for waterproof devices that keep their warranty if they have water damage. The current system for all(?) IP68 devices is that water damage can be detected with liquid damage indicators and is seen as an accident. Accidents aren't covered by warranty so waterproofness of a device means .. nothing. As a side note, a Pixel 7 pro isn't waterproof.
I'm not sure if English is your first language, but that's not the exact wording from the document.
Emphasis mine:
To me this would be things meant to be used in and around water (underwater cameras, water sensors, etc.), not water-resistant devices like smartphones that aren't specifically designed to be used in that kind of environment.
As long as they can engineer a water resistant phone with these guidelines I'm all for it.
They have in the past and then they decided, no, let's say it's too difficult and use it as one of the excuses to guarantee limited lifetime of a product.
It's still a thing. Samsung has one.
I have think really really hard to find an event in the last 14years where I would have needed a water resistant phone. It doesn't need to be IP67
It's not that you need it. It's just that you'll thank yourself if you drop it in water or if you wanna use it in certain weather
I personally have been bringing my phone in the shower for years. It also gives me peace of mind when I'm doing outdoor activities around water.
I remember once I had my phone in my pocket at a party before they were water resistant and I got knocked into the pool. Would have been all set if that phone had water resistance.
total valide use case. (hem!)
In my mind, in a shower, I use both hands and it doesn't take more than 5min.
Yeah generally I just finish what I was reading while I let the water warm me up. Then put my phone down and wash up. I suppose I only do this because the phone is water resistant, versus buying a water resistant phone because I need to bring it in the shower.
that's fine, pal :)
Now upgradable storage and memory on apple computers please
The thing is, what Apple is doing with memory actually does make sense from a performance and efficiency standpoint. Modern CPUs and GPUs have become so fast that the time signals take to travel between components (like memory and CPU) has become critical (especially in their new M1 products as memory is being shared between the CPU and GPU). That being said, the same definitely isn't true for storage. Apple soldering SSDs to the motherboard is just them trying to rip their customers off.
God bless the EU. They are just so far ahead of the rest of the world on consumer protection (and much else). Will hopefully force everyone else into compliance.
Hell yes!! Step 1 of who knows towards better repairability for one of the most complex technologies accessible to most of the people on the planet.
Hopefully these companies will realize that it's just easier to make these changes globally and trickle this down to other countries, but we'll have to see. I personally would want the US to continue this trend, like with what we saw in the Agricultural Right to Repair Act. Maybe an Electronics Right to Repair Act?
Only EU though.
Which is a large market and could also possibly force change in the US for example. Like the USB-C connector for iPhone ruling which is also being looked at in the US market.
This will come to other markets. The Brussels Effect is strong.
Next up: SCREENS.
I long for the day that a cracked screen becomes a simple swap-out fix.
Especially since so many corporate shitlords seem to intentionally "engineer obsolescence" by making them not very durable to even minor drops with reasonable cases (or various other bizarre things, like pets jumping up while you're taking a picture or similar)
So, would it be possible to get an eu model with any chance of working here in the U.S? I love a removable battery
most manufacturers may just make a global model and claim they're doing it for the good of the consumer because they're just so nice. Even though its caused by the EU, and making one just for EU that has replacable batteries (which most consumers WANT) , would be shitty
its most likely gonna be possible yes. its probably as simple as importing one... from whichever online retailer you like.
fuck yeah!! eu rules!
This needs to be sooner, they 100% have the ability to adhere to this law after the next generation
No doubt an unpopular opinion, but I'd rather keep the IP rating than be able to swap my own battery without the phone becoming a literal brick.
I doubt this is a scenario where we can have both.
You can absolutely have both. In fact the galaxy S5 had both a swappable battery and IP67. Tons of devices do. Glued construction was always about reducing manufacturing costs, not about an IP rating.
Galaxy S5 had a removable battery and IP67 and is a 2014 phone. The technology was there, so it has probably evolved enough in this 9 years.
Sony Xperia latest ones have headphone jack, IP rating for salt water, SD card, toolless sim tray and headphone jack. With a 4k screen. It's absolutely fine. Manufacturers just don't care.
I would rather have expandable storage mandated than replaceable batteries but obviously that's not going to happen.
Speaking of this topic, can someone recommend some "free" phone, free as in speech, with disk storage of at least 0.75 TB (with or without sd card)?
I wanted to get a pixel and install graphene on it, but the max storage there is 256 GB, which is miserably low, with no sd card. I'm considering Fairphone. Any suggestions?
The heck is a "free speech" phone? Very few phones prevent you from unlocking the bootloader and putting whatever software you want on it. The problem is what software do you want?
If you're concerned about Google snooping on you, first off, get an iPhone. (They are marginally less snoopy, but it's still not great.)
If you're concerned about stock android, buy any smartphone and put Lineage or Graphene on it. You can then install Google's services on it if you want (play store!), but at that point I'd save your time and stick with the normal version of Android that shipped with your phone.
If you're really concerned about FOSS and having control of your device, put a Linux mobile distro on your phone - see here. Be warned, even the best mobile Linux distros are miles behind Android in terms of usability for the average user. If you want to go all in on open source, get a Pinephone or Fairphone and put Linux on it.
As a note of caution, lots of people (including me) think they want a FOSS device until they have to use one. You can totally go FOSS and fully libre, but it does come at the expense of convenience. I am quite happy with my pixel with stock android and all of the convenience that provides, but each to their own.
Why would someone need 750gb of storage?
That's like 10 movie files in 1080p. That's not some ungodly amount of storage.
He might be an audiophile who downloads all their high-resolution (I think that's the term) music.
Galaxy note 20 Ultra can go up to 512gb and has a micro SD slot plus support for custom roms
It's not a "free" phone.
Why just batteries?
With more context it makes sense. It isn't just smartphone batteries, but lots of consumer electronics. Phones, tablets, cameras, ebikes/scooters/cars. And other parts of the legislation are focused on battery recycling targets for long-term sustainability.
From another article on the resolution:
They're targeting batteries (first) because they use so much lithium and other relatively rare metals, and having so many batteries up in landfills is not only terrible pollution when they leech into water and stuff, but it's just not compatible with our current and foreseeable dependence on lithium battery tech.
Because it's a consumable that renders the entire device useless when it goes bad.
Kinda late now, we used to have battery problems, they would lose performance after 1-2 years, but not anymore. It would be better if they forced manufacturers to provide easy glass and touchscreen replacement which tend to fail much before batteries
I've replaced batteries for 1 year old phones.
My last few phones had cracked screen after 2-3 years and battery could still hold for a day or more. But yeah battery used to be a first thing to fail on almost every phone before that. Just my experience
Though I applaud this as a next step in taking back ownership of that which we buy, I do wonder how this will affect keeping phones dust and water tight, like the IP68 rating...
Good thing to wake up to in the morning.
They better define the term «replacable» extensively !