A new EU law will require all mobile devices to have user-replaceable batteries by 2027. In this episode we take a look at the law, it's consequences and right to repair.
What next? Will they mandate that all software be open source?
I'm not going to pretend that this isn't a positive consumer-end change, but it shouldn't be the EU's job to mandate hardware features in smartphones. Apple had a chance to stop this lunacy, but they buckled at the slightest pressure. Now the EU is pretty much mandating tech features at will.
A hidden advantage of removable batteries is that you can turn your end of life phone into a small wall mounted screen powered by mains. With batteries, you are mounting a fire hazard to your wall.
If my last 3 smartphones had replaceable batteries, they would all be in use right now.
Hmm, I use a phone as my music source. I wonder if I can figure out some type of protection around it. Or, I’ll just remain in full denial of any fire risk 😉
The nice thing about a removable battery. If, for some legal reason, one does not wish to be trackable the battery can be removed. This same fact may be a reason for this law to be struck down.
Let’s hope not. I know there are at least some for whom, “I don’t care if we destroy the planet. As long as the marijuanas sellers cannot corrupt our christian youths.” rings absolutely true. It’d be nice if we, as a species, had just the teeniest bit more sense than that…We’ll see.
The law allows companies to certify their batteries will last a certain amount of years, then they don’t have to be swappable. All phone makers will use that.
The tech community quickly jumps to conclusions without actually reading anything. The last I check it, the law only allowed for certified repair shops to disassemble and repair phones with their tools, without needing something specialized from the OEM or any extra activation steps, but people jumped to the conclusion that the average Joe could entirely dismantle their phone with a screwdriver from the comfort of their home.
Yes, a long time ago it was common for smartphones to have replaceable batteries, but unfortunately, the mainstream models today seem to have built-in batteries. This time it is revolutionary in the sense that the regulation takes into account the right to repair and environmental issues.
The Galaxy S5 was water resistant and had a headphone jack and microSD card too. It set a new standard that unfortunately no one followed up on.
To this day I wish they'd open-source that design so at the very least, small hobbyists and open source fanatics could try making updates to that design using the same basic frame. I think there's a large portion of the population that wouldn't mind having some variation of the Galaxy S5 forever as long as the internals and camera were upgraded every so often.
I think it was apple, but someone claimed that removable batteries would make the phones thicker and more expensive to make.
Maybe it would make them thicker, but the phones didn’t get any cheaper with the removal of the headphone jack. I don’t need top tier cameras, so let’s meet in the middle.
Also, how much thinner do phones need to be? They are already so thin they don’t even advertise that as a selling point anymore.
"I think it was apple, but someone claimed that removable batteries would make the phones thicker and more expensive to make." - say goodbye to IP67 rating.
There was also their Xcover 4 with a IP68 rating, removable battery and headphone jack. That phone was more designed for commercial purposes though, putting ruggedness first.
in that case, let's hope apple - and anyone else who plans to sell on the eu market - will make something like that happen again without compromising other aspects of the phone (design).
@worfamerryman "We want to have thin phones" is no longer a valid argument manufacturers can come up with when the cameras keep sticking out so much, in my opinion at least.
The question is which idiot in the press (or anywhere else for that matter) decided that it was acceptable to measure the thickness of a phone in any other way than as the minimum distance between two parallel planes such that the phone fits between them?
I use a cover anyway because cracked glass isn’t the look I go for, and use that cover to hold my cards. A millimeter less is something I won’t notice.
They even sell extra durable phones with extra padding.
I want a reasonably thin and light smartphone, not one that is paper thin and light as air. If manufacturers want to boast of their technological prowess, they should enhance their technology to solve environmental problems rather than thinness and lightness.
These days some phones are so thin they are even awkward to hold... specially when they have the rounded display around the edges, sometimes I press the touchscreen edges by mistake when holding it. And thin profiles make the cameras stick out, exposing them to damage.
I always end up buying a thick & rugged case anyway.. the thinness even makes me afraid it'll snap/crash easily. I never understood the thin obsession.. I actually was ok with the size of the thick nokia phones from the 90s.
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