It's official: Smartphones will need to have replaceable batteries by 2027
androidauthority.com
TL;DR
- The European Council has ended its adoption procedure for rules related to phones with replaceable batteries.
- By 2027, all phones released in the EU must have a battery the user can easily replace with no tools or expertise.
- The regulation intends to introduce a circular economy for batteries.
Hopefully this doesn't go the way of charging cables and we have a different battery shape for every phone... Otherwise a 2040 regulation will be to standardize battery shape(s)
Battery shape (and connector) will sadly still be a thing for a long time, and usually it's for engineering reasons, so I don't really think it will be possible to standardize it
We really should just adopt the "best one" that becomes the standard. Only change it with significant advancement
It depends on the layout of the phone though. Size of camera module, placement of fingerprint sensors, other sensors/modules, heat sinks. You name it, really.
As such the batteries tend to be oddly shaped, and even spread out in different places to get as much battery in as possible.
The “best one” differs from phone to phone.
I‘ve had a couple dozen different phone batteries in my hand. It’s really not that complicated if you have to make it work. Sure, manufacturers will yell that they couldn’t make their 27 lenses at the edge of the case work. I say make them 16:9 in 5 different sizes and manufacturers can work around that, end of story. New sizes can be adopted if the benefit for everyone outweighs the cost.
I'd really like to see it but I don't think we will see it unless legislation forces it.
I'd like to see it in more than just phones. Standardise battery sizes for cars and other vehicles as well, and make it possible to replace them manually. If there were automated battery charging stations I might even be convinced that electric cars will work for more than just city travel.
I agree again. EVs do work imo but proprietary stuff always gets in the way. It’s actually time to reform the way intellectual property works and is enforced. It’s a way to leech out millions of dollars for insanely old or convoluted content which is not how our world functions anymore. There should be a limit on how big of an idea can be patented as well. Just think about tissues in boxes. If that got patented, they would be insanely expensive. That’s why I think things that are insanely common (medical formulas) should have very short patent spans. We need to take power away from megacorps (which is a can of worms in itself). Same goes for ev batteries, vaccines, etc.
I agree with you entirely. Maybe not so much on EVs, but my only real gripe with them is the battery, which would be solved if we standardised battery sizes and engineered some sort of solution which allowed for "swapping stations" to automatically swap out batteries. It would require makers to design and engineer their cars around these swappable batteries but I think that's the way to go.
The way it'd work today is if some manufacturer implemented this, it'd be some sort of proprietary BS thing and it just wouldn't work in practise. Legislating a standard for all the manufacturers to adhere to is the only real workable way of doing something like that.
Yes, I think that would eliminate a lot of the problems we face. Also, there are batteries not made of rare earths. They just dont get funded as much as they are not as cheap as exploring 3rd world countries.
I think its very easy. The manufacturers get a vote based on their sale volume (you make good cars, you make decisions). They vote on the best design to implement as standard and it immediately loses its patent.
There isn’t one “best one”. Always depends on requirements, which vary by device, underlying technology and use case.
Well battery shapes will be custom, but the regulation does include demand to offer said batteries as spare parts.
This being EU, EU will actually even police that reasonability clause via consumer protection agencies. You might not like the still probably pretty hefty price, but outright monopoly price gouging will not be allowed. Atleast not with in EU jurisdiction. Also makers will tend to gravitate to number of pretty standard battery sizes and geometries. Simply out of economies of scale. If you have to offer the batteries available as spares. You don't want to offer 150 different battery models on you warehousing and supply to your retail stores. You want as few as possible. Maybe say 5 different sizes or maybe couple ten different kinds on the biggest makers with the largest product range. Cheaper to buy more of similar batteries from battery supplier, than have custom module developed for each new phone model. Well unless one is apple and only has couple new models per year. They probably will have now just little bit different optimized shape battery for each models, but they also have the scale per model to make sense for that.
also:
Meaning companies can't use software locks to deny third party batteries. Since the language says compatible battery, not replacement battery. Which wouldn't make sense anyway, since replacement battery would be the one the OEM offers. Ofcourse I'm sure there will be lot of hurdur by makers over "don't use third party batteries, those aren't as safe" and "well but that isn't compatible". However as one remembers during the early 2000's and upto mid 2010's there was a very healthy both OEM and third party replacement battery market. As with that experience, yes shoddy batteries from non-reputable people can be problem. However in this basic consumer electronic safety regulation (aka you can't just shovel anything to the market with utterly nuts unsafe circuitry in the first place) and the market itself handles it. Again it will be found out over little time, which makers are the reputable ones with the good batteries with all the proper safeties and good production quality. Reputable big chain electronics dealers then focus on only offering the established reputable third party batteries and parts out of their own reputation (You sold me a shoddy battery. It burst and ruined my phone. I'm never buying from this phone store ever again). Plus same with the actual makers with stuff like offering extensive warranties, warranting the replacement of the device, if their battery messes it up and so on.
This is all "we have already been here" ground except instead of the T9 numpad on the phone front, there is now a whole front covering touch screen on it's place.
The headline says it's official. But then the article mentions -
So it's not official?? Can anyone explain please??
Proposed and introduced legislation, but not ratified?
The political analogy might be a bill that's been passed into the parliament, but the governor-general/president hasn't signed it yet.
Thanks.
Basically being merely a formality.
God bless the EU.
Remember to vote to keep this up next June, my fellow Europeans
as an American, bless the EU, they're carrying America with stuff like GDPR
hungarian here, i'll try my best but please keep on overpowering us when we inevitably fail
Vote in what exactly? I’m lost.
European Elections are on June 2024.
Thanks, it’ll actually be my first time voting on these elections.
It is a special day when there is happy tech news. This is a day for celebration. Having done my own battery replacements some have been a nightmare to do with all the glue and hoping the screen doesn't break. I look forward to this, since with rise of phone costs I don't intend to update frequently. I'd actually change my battery annually if it wasn't such a hassle.
Now we just need headphone jacks and SD cards and lineageos support and my dream phone will be mandated.
Not having SD card is real painful.
Between basic storage being so much larger than it used to be (the 4-8GB days were brutal) and USB-C flash drives that can plug into your charging port, I seldom miss them these days
Still sucks that they removed them as an option though
Xperia phones have headphone jacks and SD cards. Pretty sure you can install lineage on them as well.
Your force open drivers would be really cool.
I pretty much stopped using my phone for audio when they got rid of the headphone jack.
Wireless headphones still aren't great and most are uncomfortable. It's super annoying keeping them charged and they are so expensive when you consider how short their lifespan is.
I listen to certain YouTube videos to get to sleep and have for years and years. Wireless ear buds just aren't in the cards for something like that.
I'm in a similar boat. The only time I do plug in headphones (via the usb port) is on nights I'm having a very hard time fall asleep. But I do that at the expense of being able to charge my phone 😔
Man, that sucks. One of the other things for me is that you can buy decent headphones for like seven bucks with a 3.5mm jack. Most USB headsets are going to be a lot more expensive.
Does your phone support qi charging? That could be a solution if it does.
I'm not a fan of xiaomi (even though it's my daily driver), but most of their phones fit your needs. In the past I used redmi note 4, note 9 pro and now note 10 pro and they've all been great.
Custom roms community really is something.
Had bad luck with China phones being open before, but when the time comes I'll have to take a look.
if this makes batteries smaller so be it
let’s go back to 2012 and carry a few of them at a time
There's no need. Battery tech has advanced substantially. There is no reason phones shouldn't last all day and then some, then when the battery becomes shitty, replace it instead of massive e-waste. We're lucky the EU exist.
The battery is only one piece of the puzzle. If the EU wants to really reduce e-waste they should also mandate a minimum of 4 years of android security updates, preferably 5 or 6.
Very true, or mandate unlocked bootloaders so people can put custom roms that will patch.
Both is the real answer.
Sometimes the EU is just based af.
It's kinda annoying and sad to see that EU have to make bills these days for basic things that android had a decade ago.
They should do the same for laptops
I think laptops are also covered.
Indeed in the article it says all battery powered devices... Does that also mean somehow headphones(wireless) earbuds, watches, etc
They have standard lithium ion sizes that are tiny; there's no reason why they couldn't add threading to earbuds so that you could unscrew them.
i really hope the framework already qualifies, would suck to lose that upgrade path
Try everything that uses a battery
And electric cars. I wish you could swap a battery out at a gas station as easily as I can swap out a propane tank.
I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'd like to see this influence the smartphones being sold in the US as well. One of the primary things that keeps me replacing my smartphones is battery life, so being able to replace the battery would be incredible.
Because the EU is such a massive market, EU law tends to bleed out. It’s expensive to keep different SKUs for different regions, so compliance tends to seep out.
I’d expect at least some of this to have an impact outside the EU.
And they know people are going to be importing these smartphones once it goes live and it's not a battle that can be fought.
The company Fairphone makes almost perfectly repairable smartphones, but they’re only for the European market and the radios won’t really work in the US. I think it would be a similar case for a lot of phones so it might not actually be super viable to import phones in the future either, unfortunately.
Fairphone just partnered with Murena to bring it to the U.S. https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/5/23783714/murena-fairphone-4-us-release-date-price-sustainability-repair
oh damn! awesome! my current phone still functions well, so hopefully the next one has a headphone jack and I’ll get one, thanks for linking that!
I remember when iPhones first came out, they were locked to a single telecom provider. It got jailbroken within a week and every patch following it for over a year got jailbroken too.
If there is enough demand by big brands, unlike the fairphone, there will be a way to use it outside of the EU. Combined with the extra cost to manufacture, I don't see big companies just producing it uniquely for the EU or even if they do, not for long.
It also means that other places can introduce similar laws with less friction. Like the GDPR and the various American privacy-oriented laws.
idk, apple is already ramping up their region locking systems just to get better about locking out non-EU countries for when sideloading is mandated in march 2024
We’re talking about substantial hardware differences, though, which are substantially more expensive to maintain than simple region locking.
yeah, absolutely, but at apple's scale and stubbornness, i wouldn't be surprised if they made a europhone that was intentionally thick and non-waterproof, supported sideloading, had a usb-c slot and a replaceable battery, and then they just made the regular iphone with their original plan (probably fully sealed with no charging port whatsoever)
i do want eu law to bleed out to everyone and finally fix up the phone industry, but the iphone is literally apple's main money-maker, and regulation is cutting away at all the ways they optimize that revenue stream, by enforcing failures to increase the frequency people buy phones at, maintaining an iron grip on the ecosystem to sell with a nebulous sense of wonder (and also make switching away as hard as possible), and keeping a vendor lock-in through their ecosystem. these are all horribly anti-consumer strategies that the eu is rightfully cutting down on, but all of these directly prop up apple's product line, so at some point it's gotta be cheaper to isolate the eu and keep the phone to their specifications everywhere else.
I remember smartphone days of old when you could buy additional battery packs, extended ones and huge lemon ones or something that would give you like 10,000 milliamp hours. Good times!
In my Android experience if you have an unpopular/old phone, years later many of the new batteries you buy aren't much good. That or the radio frequencies change and you need a new phone for that. But still 4-5 years on a phone should be doable.
Do you still have different charger plugs for each phone?
We've gone full circle. This used to be the way!
a lot of industries seem to solve problems well initially, then backtrack and make their product purposefully shitty in order to capture more revenue.
I don‘t know how to feel about this. While It’s nice to be able to replace the battery, I very much prefer the durability of todays phones over those flimsy removable back plates that used to be common in the 00s.
I really hope they mean that no special tools/skill are required. They should just standardize one type of micro screwdriver that everyone has to use.
Replaceable batteries inevitably also have to be sturdier s.t. they don‘t pose a fire hazard, making the entire phone bulkier or reducing battery life.
My iPhone XR is now over 4 years old and battery capacity is still at 80%, getting me through the day easily.
Before that I had an iPhone 4s where I replaced the battery after ~6 years. I was really disappointed with the new battery and ended up buying a new phone anyway after a few weeks.
My phone is the device that I use the most by a huge margin. It doesn‘t bother me too much if I have to replace it every 5-6 years. And I‘m pretty environmetally conscious in general.
Yeah those old Nokia's are notoriously flimsy because of the removable batteries 🤦♂️
Yeah. If you owned one and don't get all your information from memes on reddit, they were incredibly flimsy. It was all cheap ass plastic that was clipped in, they would break and your phone would be heald together by hopes and dreams.
I get what you're saying, but removable batteries and flimsy plastic backs don't have to go hand in hand. The LG V20 had a metal back and a removable battery
Yeah I had a V10 and it was one of the most premium devices I've ever felt. And the best sound quality from a phone, too.
The Galaxy Xcover pro has a good durability, is IP68 and has a removable battery. It's a matter of willingness.
Gee, I can't understand how my lgg3 is still in one piece, what with that replaceable battery making it so flimsy.
It's almost as if I'm imagining it being able to turn on because it fell apart when I sat it on the table three years ago.
Good thing it broke back then! Otherwise, I might have spent tens of dollars on replacement batteries each year!
Not to mention all the tablets that broke because they were flimsy with replaceable batteries. The galaxytab 2 and 3 alone would have blown up from materials fatigue if I'd replaced those batteries over the years. Whew, what a relief I don't have to have them in use as digital picture frames like I would have otherwise.
My Galaxy S5 never felt flimsy. It was even highly waterproof for the time because it had a COVER for the USB Port attached to the phone! It even had a gasp HEADPHONE JACK!
I didn't know the USB port had a cover. I bought mine used but excellent condition, apparently other than the port cover. My S5 had a brief dip in a river and never charged again. :(
Good thing you had a removable battery so you could charge the battery outside the phone lol
It also looked and felt cheap. HTC did the best solution but back was metal so no wireless charging. I would prefer a back cover like the nexus 5 or lg g4
Of my last three phones battery has not been the issue I disposed. Mostly it is they grind to halt software wise as they fail to cope with newer apps expectations for storage or ram, I change my phone every 3 to 4 years.
Give me a phone with a removable battery in the style of the HTC Sensation 4G. Sexy, metal, easy to open and swap the battery. It was an incredible device that I remember using fondly.
Flimsy? have you tried the LG V20?
Should also be for the EV market as well 😀
You mean like this?
https://youtu.be/-5BPL4Nm1q0
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Or like this: https://youtu.be/r2hLjcNxjKI?t=261
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/r2hLjcNxjKI?t=261
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that this will inevitably make batteries smaller.
If you are supposed to be able to open the phone and remove the battery manufacturers need to design a way to remove the cover, shield other components, create a compartment for the battery, and use sturdier batteries. All of those things take us space. Manufacturers aren't just going to make phones thicker so that physical space has to be eaten by something... and it's going to be the battery.
I really liked having a removable battery on my phone 10 years ago in case I had a particularly long/intensive day. But now that I make it through a day without worry this could actually be sorta annoying.
I mean, I use a fairphone (with removable battery) and in a normal day it can go a whole day without going below 20%. And even if I don't comsider ot too much of a hassle bringing an external battery for recharge with me when I know I'm gonna use it a lot or will not have time to recharge during the night.
To add, I think the batter capacity of a fairphone is 3905 mAh while eg Pixel 7 has 4355 so the diff is only ~10%
If I can replace a battery without throwing away the phone, I'd definitely be OK with 10% battery reduction
If we are gonna get removable batteries there needs to be a standard battery format so that each company won't have its own special battery design. One battery design for all devices. This way the battery will work in whichever phone you put it in.
On the surface that sounds good, but wouldn't that put a hamper on battery innovation?
I don't believe so. A battery standard would specify the interface, not the actual battery design from a technical standpoint. It would specify:
The rest is up to the battery manufacturer and is completely open to innovation. You want to put a Li-ion battery in there? Just make it the right shape and as long as it can provide the output required, it's fine. Want some future-tech fusion battery? As long as it's the right shape and puts out the required power!
Usb is a de-facto standard and are we still using usb 1.1?
sure, but we're at a point with battery chemistry where that no longer really matters that much. the fairphone 4 is already at 3900 mAh and with both phone electronics constantly getting smaller and battery chemistry improving, it's highly likely that this year's fairphone 5 will not only crack the 4000 mAh barrier but fly past it. with a modern mid-range soc (which is really all you need to have a smooth experience outside of games) it' more than enough to get you through the day with a good margin to spare. and that's already a user-servicable design that no doubt guided eu legislature on this issue.
Do you think this mandate will also impede ip68/etc water resistance certifications?
9 years ago the galaxy S5 had a removeable battery and was ip67 rated. I'd bet it's doable.
That was one of the last "jack of all trades" phones. It literally had everything. I loved it
It was so nice having a 3.5mm jack
Fine print will probably say if you don't replace the seal when replacing the battery, or get it professionally changed, your warranty is void.
Not really, I have a chinese ip68 certified phone (and actually tested it, no water got in) and the battery is replaceable
Waterproofing will also become more difficult
Good.
The problem is easy to solve:
Batteries will have unique encrypted codes (readable by the device), so only original ones from the manufacturer will work. Pretty easy for manufacturers to justify that, based on safety and liability.
Then the replacement batteries will cost more than a new phone.
Doesn't Apple already do this? All of the parts on an iPhone are serialized so that any unofficial replacement part causes the device to freak out.
Apple is already ahead on the evil train.
They usually are.
One of their top innovations
AFAIK even original parts don’t work. I heard even if you get a Apple battery the serial must be teached by a Apple technician. Otherwise you will still get warning messages
They did it to kill two birds with one stone - Prevent repairs, and to prevent theft, and it works.
A few years ago you would use Find my iPhone and see your stolen device was halfway across the world in a few days because it was stolen for parts, stripped down, remade and sold as refurbished. Now it's much less common because it's so much harder.
If they only wanted to prevent theft, they could have had the same system, but only lock iPhone parts once that iPhone is reported as lost (i.e Find my iPhone was used on it, and it wasn't later confirmed as being found)
Well some sneaky legislative aide in EU already thought about that.
apple does this but, it's outlawed by the same regulation that this is. Batteries must be easily accessible and there must not be software restrictions for them
Why the hell do we need to wait for 2027 for this? Perfect amount of time for something like this to get overturned at the last minute.
How much time do you think it takes to design a new phone?
A week, because a car takes 5 years and a phone is 1/250 the size of a car?
Solid logic
Hang on, I'm going to take five minutes to invent some nano-technology that'll cure all diseases.
Why didn't we think of this before?
Now let me replace the operating system, have unified drivers and I'll be fine with it
While this is great will they also make the manufacturer allow external storage up to 2tb?
@reclipse Good! Stop e-waste
Are there any devices that allow a replaceable battery and wireless charging? I know battery swapping can become common, but I also do not want to lose a feature that I currently enjoy.
Yes, we had this ability all the way back in 2012 on the Galaxy S3, which had NFC and Wireless Charging built in to a user replaceable battery pack. It was available on many phones in that era and could easily be brought back if we gave up some "thinness" that we have now.
I can't think of any reason a battery being removable would impact its ability to wirelessly charge (though it would still need to be in the device to do so).
you could easily add a charging coil in the back of the phone and just have some contacts
my fairphone 4 already has a pair of contacts on its back, with accompanying pogo pins in the body, although i think that's just for an nfc antenna. still, the same system would totally work
If companies are smart, they will develop that feature and market the heck out of it as a selling point
God I love Europe so much <3
Will this impact water proofing?
Not if done correctly. There were some early Samsung's that did it with rubber o rings on the back that helped keep the water proofing.
My old moto g (not sure which revision) had a removable battery and was water resistant. Used to use it for navigation on my motorbike regardless of the weather
Not really. Expect in that obviously many of the exact current water resistant phone design can't be used. Since those don't have replaceable battery. However already at this very moment there is smart phones on the market with both replaceable battery and water resistance. Like Samsung Xcover6 pro . Not that it is the only one, but example from the major brands instead of the more niche rugged phone specialist brands. In fact in my experience in the rugged phone market replaceable battery is quite common (and thus apparently desired by customers) feature. I assume on the rugged phone user segment liking the ruggedness of "I can continue the lifespan with new battery" and even "Well I'm going to middle of no where wilderness, spare battery might not be stupid idea".
In opposite to the hurdurhurdur can't make water and dust resistant phone with battery covers. Yes we can. We figured this out by early 2000's. Touch screens on the other side of the phone taking place from the old numeric T9 pad doesn't change the design fundamentals of the back of the chassis. Rigid enough cover plate with rigid enough pressure applying latching combined with rubber seal designed and molded to seal the desired areas will do the job exactly 2027 as well as those did in 2002.
As said all it takes is a redesign job with the battery swapping idea being kept in mind from start on the chassis design. Maybe it means couple mill thicker phones, since the phone isn't a single glued together slab from front display glass to the back cover glass, so it isn't rigid by being single monolith resign block essentially. However as far as the massively bulky thick rugged phones, all phones aren't headed there. That is about impact resistance instead of water or dust resistance. Thick layers of metal and rubber both to withstand and to soften impact.
No, we have ip68 smartphone with removable battery.
Although I support the idea, I'm not sure how useful this is for android phones. All android phones I've owned have long gone out of update support before the batteries have noticeably degraded.
4 years since the last update on my phone, I really don't see why I would change unless core apps like Firefox were to stop working.
Software doesn't stop working. Up to date software becomes so slow on obsolete hardware it makes you pull your hair out trying to use it.
Other than now lemmy, the only other apps I use are Firefox and email/messaging apps. Hardly need that much performance.
Security updates
Exactly. I don't even keep a phone for longer than 3-5 years. The batteries on my last few phones were still great when I traded them in.
Do you think smartphone manufacturers will still make them water resistant?
You had IP67 water resistant phones with removable batteries back in the day, no reason why that design can't come back.
Galaxy S5 still have (IP67 iirc) water resistance with removable battery
It might be harder to pull that off without making the phone thicker in the process, but still possible.
Just need a tray you pull out of the side of the device that contains the battery with a gasket and a latch. Like a really big SIM or SD card tray.
The manufacturers can take the space needed from the battery making them even smaller and just blame regulators for the change while maintaining roughly the same phone without the battery for the rest of the world. At least that's what I imagine they'll do because corporations are always slimy like that.
They might just abandon the water resistance and blame the regulators, that's what I'm afraid of.
Well some might. Then you are free to vote with wallet and move to the maker who still thinks water resistance and dust is good sell factor for phones. Market working like it's supposed and so on. Within the guiding barriers market regulations.
I'm sure that it's possible to do both, though it'd eat even more space for gaskets or whatever.
I don't really care about thickness, though I would rather the thickness be used for a larger battery than for a replaceable battery.
Yup, and most regular users end up using phones for stuff which even a 4 or 5 year old phone would suffice. Except for the battery which keeps on degrading over the years.
I'm just a little cautious, because easily replaceable batteries will further dent phone sales in general, there could potentially be a marked increase in phone prices once this regulation comes into effect.
Of course people been asking for that for years and they never do. So that part of larger battery in exchange for having an enclosed system has sailed long ago. It's as likely as headphone jacks coming back.
Well headphone jacks should come back. I have a headphone jack on my Motorola g73, and it was one of the reasons I got it.
Yeah, I would be happy if it did, but flagships have sailed away in that department and budget pixels too which are great devices for those who want graphene or Calyx. I've given up on them ever becoming mainstream offerings again.
You can get cell phones with gargantuan batteries, but you're going to be getting off-brand phones out of China.
https://www.techradar.com/features/weve-tested-the-5g-smartphone-with-the-worlds-largest-battery
It still is a thing like the Samsung Galaxy Xcover Pro (IP68).
You had IP67 water resistant phones with removable batteries back in the day, no reason why that design can't come back.
Yes.
Great news, now require the producers to standardise on 2 or 3 different battery shape formats!
On a side note, I wonder if there will be a market for slightly thinner phones with non replaceable batteries imported from foreign markets.
That was my thought, you can’t maintain the size with a user replaceable battery. A lot of people would rather have a bigger phone with a removable battery but not everyone.
Haven't phones been getting thicker anyways? I'm looking for a replacement for my Pixel 3a and the new Pixels and iPhones all feel like bricks in my hand
As someone who had a 3310, I'm not happy unless I'm wielding a brick that can kill a gorilla
It would have to be personal imports. Since the regulation concerns not just the manufacturer, but Any natural or legal person that places on the market product (that phrasing appears lot on the regulation 😆). So for example importers and distributors. A retail electronics shop is responsible to make sure they don't offer on sale any new product with no replaceable battery. Obviously to their own amount of reasonable amount of responsibility. Retailer isn't responsible to go check the product in detail for all the nitty gritty technical compliance, but they have to do due diligence from the manufacturer or importer on "and this product you offer us does fulfil EU regulations. You do have the spare batteries in offer like regulation demands, you plan to honor the 5 year offer period of spare batteries" and so on. Can't be knowingly importing or retail selling non compliant products.
Exceptions for batteries that survive a certain number of charging cycles
Yeah take that big corporations
One of the best things to happen to smartphones I guess but will bring drastic design changes to the back
I’ve replaced iPhone batteries before and it isn’t that hard. I could see making it easier, but being able to replace without tools seems like an odd requirement. I’m envisioning every phone with one of those slide off battery covers which always end up breaking over time. It’s just one more thing that leads to flimsy phones.
There is no way most people can replace there smartphone battery with current designs.
I’m not arguing against making it easier for people to fix their devices on their own. I’m just not a fan of the “no tools” aspect. People drop their phones all the time. A “no tools” battery cover is going to pop right off and break or wear out. I’d rather have it secured with a couple screws.
It's not actually "no tools", it's "no specialized or proprietary tools unless provided for free by the manufacturer".
Appreciate the additional info. Thanks!
In addition to the correction from the other user - there are plenty of designs that provide access to phone internals with no tools. Snap fit phone bodies work fine, there are several modern phones with them and numerous older phones. Still water resistant, and the case doesn't magically pop off just by dropping it.
(Also a case popping off from being dropped actually protects internals and the screen by absorbing some of the drop energy anyway, since the kind of drop that would easily pop a phone body off is the same kind of drop that will break screens.)
True. My Asus Max Pro M1 had that design although it didn't have any liquid protection aside from basic splash resistance. Several Redme Note devices also had same design. I had always thought the back pannel was glued shut untill I visited service centre for battery replacement and they just popped off the back.
Can't say I ever had that problem. I had several phones with slide-off battery covers, and none of them ever broke. Besides phones, numerous AA-battery-powered devices over the decades (Game Boy, etc) had slide-off or clip-on battery covers that, for the most part, worked fine.
So yeah, bring back the slide-off battery covers. They were great.
Not sure I'm on board with this one. Sure, swappable batteries are cool, but that' s not something I really need, and the inherent bulk of battery enclosures isn't either. And battery swap isnt that hard, actually, the chinese guys have figured this out, they can make any kind of battery you want, and a worker at a local store can learn to perform the swap with just a few hours of training.
What I'd like instead is something about 18650's, they are everywhere but you cant buy them officially because battery manufacturers only sell them to other manufacturers to pass liability onto them, but they just wrap them in plastic and then people handle them willy-nilly. Maybe dd battery safety to school curicculum and make 18650 the new AA?
Want to replace the battery on your 2 years old smartphone that is perfectly good, but the battery doesn't last as long?
Just grab a heat gun and melt the glue around the screen. With a suction cup, pull the screen apart and pry around the perimeter to separate the screen. This might end up in your display cracking if you apply too much force. After the screen is successfully separated unscrew a large number of screws of all shapes and sizes and make sure not to mix them when you put them back together after you're done. Carefully disconnect the tiny flat cable connectors. Then you need to separate the battery itself. It has two pull tabs that makes a satisfying noise when pulled, in order to release the glue. But especially if you're not experienced these are likely to tear, leaving the battery attached. Don't try to pull the battery away as it may result in damage to the battery and turn it to an instant spicy pillow or twist the frame of the phone making it wonky. You can use isopropyl alcohol to weaken the remaining glue in order to free the battery. After it's removal, put the new battery in it's place. Make sure all the alcohol had evaporated. Then put the phone back together pretty much as you took it apart. Make sure not to forget any screws or mix between them. Then glue the screen back together with a strip of glue. If you used to have water resistance it is now likely compromised.
That's what it means to replace the battery in some phones. This shouldn't be legal.
Yeah, exactly that. It's a lot easier than it sounds. I was surprised myself on my first try, then it a few more times. But even if you're not comfortable doing it, I don't know how it is in your place, but in my hometown there are tiny repair shops in every mall and every corner in between, that could do this for you in less than an hour. Most of those shops jobs are not batteries, though, nor screens, but broken usb ports, and you can't make those swappable :(
Replacing the battery on my LG G4:
Remove the back. Then remove the battery.
That is way more complicated than not should be.
Why should I put up with that rather than just taken the back off and pop it out?
Less weight, less thickness, increased durability, reduced cost.
The downsides are:
Please explain why a phone would need to weigh more, be less durable and be thicker simply because it has a usable replaceable battery. The battery would surely be the same size and regardless.
Sure. A typical pillow battery that is in your phone is bendable, gets damaged easily and is in general a fire hazard. So, to make it usable by consumers it needs to have at least some casing around it. In addition, you effectively need two back covers - one for phone internals and another for the battery. If you've had an older phone you know what im talking about. For durability, that's a bit out of ass but what Ive learned from experience is that durability is not about thick cases and rubber pads, but rather, it's all about weight - the lighter the phone is the less likely it is to crack from a fall, and all that extra bulk would likely make it more fragile.
I really don’t think they should be dictating how companies must design their products. My guess is Apple either pulls out of Europe , or has a phone sold only there that’s much thicker and bulky and ugly. That being said I can’t see them making that phone as goes against the company DNA. We’ll see.
I'm very annoyed at how battery degradation makes devices obsolete more quickly. I don't think it's that hard to create an easily serviceable battery, it's just in the company's best interest to not have that. Having the battery deeply integrated with the device, is basically an easy and perfectly legal way to create planned obsolence. Maybe phones will get bulkier, but I honestly doubt it will have a serious effect. IP-ratings might suffer, but I'd wager that a global reduction in e-waste is more important.
As to Apple pulling out of Europe, I don't think so. Given the reluctance with which companies pulled out of Russia, which has an economy the size of Italy, I think they'll find a way to adapt.
Nokia made water resistant phones that had replaceable batteries 20 years ago. I owned two, both survived several water immersions.
My guess is they’ll create a fancy MagSafe-type battery or something else really slick that technically adheres to the rules but is expensive af to replace.
E-waste and Li-ion battery component shortages are gradually becoming a global problem. So ofcourse Governments will have to intervene at some point.
This regulation is not about apple. Smartphones from other manufacturers do exist.
Yes, of which I have no personal connection to. I also think that if any company wasn’t going to comprise design that Apple is the one. I can see Samsung or another Android manufacturer making an ugly phone just for sale in the EU but ( IMO ) it would feel strange for Apple to do the same thing.
So you're acknowledging that form over function, even to the point of making the end user's experience worse with no upside except to Apple in the form of more potential future profits, is so important to Apple that they'd rather pull out of an entire massive market than respect their customer.
Just like you can't get a "nicer looking" microwave that has a completely clear glass front rather than the mesh screen (becasue it's bad for the consumer), and just like you wouldn't accept someone marketing a cell phone that bricks itself after 45 outbound phone calls (because it's bad for the consumer, and the environment), you shouldn't accept Apple being anti-consumer and anti-environment by refusing to allow user serviceability.
Don't allow Apple to externalize environmental costs on to the rest of humanity simply because it'd be ever so slightly less profitable if they can't force consumers into a (needlessly) rapid replacement cycle.
 Why not? There are already tons of safety and insurance regulations that Apple has to comply with, on top of that they rely on tons of open standards, and most of the amazing technological advances that make their products possible aren’t things that they invented, nor are designs that they own.
Anything that makes devices better for people is better.
Because a comprised design with a swappable battery isn’t about consumer safety ?
It will force research done into swappable battery devices that retain water protection, which will hopefully make the days of completely enclosed devices look antiquated. Plus, help with all these disposable yet expensive ewaste that phones have become.
Like say telling to automakers they must include this design feature called seat belt and this another design feature called airbag? Also EU isn't dictating anything about the design. They are giving regulation on minimum technical features. How to design within that minimal technical requirement is free for the maker to decide. Just as say there is minimum technical regulation about safety of electric appliances in general.
Again poor, poor companies being told by the regulation they can't use their favourite "design feature" of "exposed uninsulated power wirings " on their products.
Regulations have existed and will exist. Companies operate at the please of society offering them a market to operate in. Offering such things as contracts needing to be honored, people not just being allowed to steal their property, enjoying the protected relative piece of national military keeping the mongol horde away and so on. In exchange the businesses shall play by the rules society sets.
This matter was decided by the duly elected representatives of the EU citizenry (directly as the European Parliament and more indirectly the national democratically elected governments in the Council. Well except maybe governments of Hungary and Poland.... ... ...). This is the will of the European society, so this stands.
@Chadsmo @reclipse Please. Please make Apple leave us the fuck alone. No one needs forced closed ecosystems and overpriced fluff.
So don’t buy their products ?
@Chadsmo The general public falls for the marketing scams that they use, why shouldn't I root for them to be kicked out of Europe by... *checks notes*... e-waste prevention legislation?
@Chadsmo @reclipse I'd say they will probably do the Europe only model while the rest of us get a non replaceable battery model
Then the rest of us will get really pissed unless the EU version is shit.
I think a Europe only phone that is comprised on design is more likely than no iPhone at all yeah.
And then hopefully non Europeans can import that model to enjoy the benefits
@EddieTee77 that would be nice