All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU
All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU
The decision could have a global impact.
All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU::undefined
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They should also demand unlocked boot loaders and open drivers for all devices. That or steep penalties if they don't support the devices for at least 10 years. We should have manuals and specifications for every component, really. We really need to reduce waste.
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.
A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it. Commercially available tools are considered to be tools available on the market to all end users without the need for them to provide evidence of any proprietary rights and that can be used with no restriction, except health and safety-related restrictions.
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:
- Make the tools commercially available, but at an astronomical price in typical Apple fashion
- Make the tools commercially available at a normal consumer price (unlikely)
- Make the self-service battery replacement program free (most likely, but will require a significant revision to the tools used since they are industrial-grade)
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.
Not a bad idea but there are flaws and this also doesn't seem to address the issue of pricing or availability.
- So you can remove the battery, will you be able to buy one.
- They could prevent 3rd parties from making batteries that work.
- They could just not sell battery replacements.
- They could add more parts needed, like seals, screws that strip too easily, that annoying sticky tape etc.
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
EU citizenship is a dream.
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.
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...
If I've found an errant page that just looks official, please link something better for those looking for the legalese
I remember when apple put out a software update to intentionally throttle the phone's processor, to save charge on it's irreplacable battery. I hope this prevents companies doing this sort of shit as well.
God bless the European union, doing the kind of consumer protection that America won't.
Permanently Deleted
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?
This needs to be sooner, they 100% have the ability to adhere to this law after the next generation
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)
fuck yeah!! eu rules!
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?
Good thing to wake up to in the morning.
They better define the term «replacable» extensively !
A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it. Commercially available tools are considered to be tools available on the market to all end users without the need for them to provide evidence of any proprietary rights and that can be used with no restriction, except health and safety-related restrictions.
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:
- Make the tools commercially available, but at an astronomical price in typical Apple fashion
- Make the tools commercially available at a normal consumer price (unlikely)
And bring back the TRS port for both midrange and flagship devices, I hope.
Good idea, terrible execution. I'd prefer they make manufacturers display the state of a battery (iOS already has this) and provide a single free battery replacement, which doesn't expire with a warranty period. Also, battery replacement service should be free, customers should only pay for battery itself. Current implementation is ridiculous - I don't want the return of fat smartphones with detachable battery.
The problem with removable batteries is that you sacrifice water-proofness. That's why iPhone batteries aren't removable: Apple found that, on average, people prefer a water-proof phone over a replaceable battery. If you make the battery to removable, you can't use sealants anymore, you're just relying on a gasket.
Personally, I would rather have a phone that can handle being dropped in a sink full of dishes and am happy to pay $80 every 3 years to have the battery swapped.
I really don’t like the idea of governments regulating tech and innovations. Although this seems like a good idea, it could severely limit companies in the way they design their phones.
People think that Apple and Samsung maliciously make irreplaceable batteries, but these people barely know how to use their phone in the first place, much less how the phone was engineered. Battery implementation in super thin devices is not a simple affair. Requiring tech to have certain things is really dumb. Let the capitalistic market and buyers figure out what they need. Don’t force it through government.