Do you miss phones with replaceable batteries? By 2027, you won't anymore because, by law, almost every smartphone will have them again.

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.
  • evo@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Raikin@feddit.de
      0·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • jsveiga@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • JshKlsn@lemmy.ml
      0·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • abcd@feddit.de
        0·
        1 year ago

        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