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
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.
Thinness is not necessarily something that’s super important to most people.
Also, even if it was, my LG V20 is basically the same thickness as my iPhone 13. I say “basically” because the phone with a replaceable battery is actually slightly thinner in this comparison.
I mean a current iPhone has way more horsepower than a Lg V20. And a lot more features inside as well. Also many phones have multi-cell batteries in order to improve charging time and durability, how you plan to do that swappable?
Having the UE telling brands how to design phones is already over-regulating.
They should make less expensive to repair in my opinion. Also, if EU want so bad to reduce e-waste it should make repair shops tax exempt, plus the parts. It’s already mandatory for brands to supply parts for about 10 years as far as I know, the repair price just needs to get cheaper.
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 :(
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.
In the case of GDPR it is not just for simplicity. It’s because companies that operate in the EU need to provide those protections to all EU citizens, even those across the pond. You cannot check if someone is an EU citizen so if you operate in the EU you effectively need to treat everyone like an EU citizen.
2027 is actually pretty early for such a dramatic change, and somewhere I heard that it’s all phones sold, if that’s the case (i.e. you can’t sell old models if they don’t have easily replaceable batteries) than that is a really early date for such a law.
Not really as a design change as drastic as user exchangeable batteries means phone companies would probably rather adopt a unified design (removable batteries) than a region based design
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.
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.
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.
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.
Get a Pixel phone. 5 years of updates (technically I think that’s only for security updates, which, arguably are the most important kind of updates. Sure, new features are always nice to have, but if your phone is vulnerable to security flaws because it’s outdated that’s an immense problem)
Even better, get a Pixel phone and put GrapheneOS on it for a more secure and more private phone.
I have a pixel 3a. It went out of support last year. I have no need for a “better” or newer phone. I have dabbled with other os in the past with a pixel 1 and moto g, I should look into it again.
loved the pixel 3a. traded mine in last year when the pixel 6a came out because they had such a good deal of a $350 trade-in value, essentially making the new phone just $150 (which, sad to say, is low for a new phone. So I had to jump on that deal. Plus, with having a nonreplaceable battery it was time for an upgrade anyway since battery life was beginning to sufer.
So excited for the day when I can just replace the battery and keep using my phone (for as long as it received updates at least!)
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.
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.
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.
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.
I don’t believe so. A battery standard would specify the interface, not the actual battery design from a technical standpoint. It would specify:
size and shape, i.e. where connectors go, assuring it fits in a phone
voltage and amperage provided
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!
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