Technology

Good. Non-replaceable batteries benefit no one but device manufacturers and miners of lithium, cobalt, etc.

EU doing all the heavy regulatory lifting that American politicians are too afraid to touch. As both an American and an avid Apple enthusiast, I sincerely appreciate it.

Apple will do something to ensure only batteries from them work right, mark my words.

Thank you EU for actually having functional legal protections.

wonder how apple will react to this. lack of user repairability is a considerable source of revenue for them.

The European Parliament just caused a major headache for smartphone and tablet manufacturers.

Laughs in Fairphone.

They need to hit the final nail on the head. All smart phones sold in Europe must have fully documented and open source hardware including the entire chipset, all peripherals, and the modem, with all registers and interfaces documented, the full API, and all programing documentation along with a public toolchain that can reproduce the software as shipped with the device and updated with any changes made to future iterations as soon as the updated software is made available.

This law would make these devices lifetime devices, if you choose; as in your lifetime. It would murder the disposable hardware culture, and it should happen now. Moore's law is dead. The race is over.

it’s sad that replaceable batteries got extinct in just a few years. In my opinion replaceable battery is a great selling point and I know I’m not the only one so I’m surprised that the market are not able to provide this..
Especially now a days when phones have stagnated and having a 5 year old phone is nothing strange anymore.

I used to have a replaceable battery to my old LG G3 and it was great to just swap batteries and directly having a fully charged phone. Now I always have to have power banks or try to charge up during train rides or whatever and having to worry that I don’t have enough juice

Is this (article 11 on page 55) the approved text? It seems kind of vague on what constitutes "readily removable and replaceable."

2027 seems kinda weak sauce. Maybe it is more reasonable than I feel given I don't know much about hardware design timelines, but I honestly was hoping for more of a middle finger to companies that have embraced the anti-consumer practice of using non-replaceable batteries.

Brilliant! I miss the days of being able to slap on a massive oversize battery to get you through the day! :-D Carrying around powerbanks and cables is such a huge step back!

Awesome, just like 7 years ago it was standard. Phones with good specs are gonna last forever with this change

Thank you EU. Both my laptop and phone have non-replaceable batteries. It's ridiculous I have to buy a whole new device when the battery wears out. A Li-Ion battery lasts three years, I can easily get double that off the device itself. It's anti-consumer and bad for the environment, replacing a whole device and disposing of it rather than replacing the battery.

Yes ! I loved that. My previous phone has a dead battery, and I can't get it replaced because the manufacturer doesn't make the battery anymore.

I mean pretty much all batteries even now are user replaceable, it just depends on skill of the user, but I know they mention EASILY replacable, so I am very curious about their definition of "easily" since it means something different for everyone.

it’s sad that replaceable batteries got extinct in just a few years. In my opinion replaceable battery is a great selling point and I know I’m not the only one so I’m surprised that the market are not able to provide this..
Especially now a days when phones have stagnated and having a 5 year old phone is nothing strange anymore.

I used to have a replaceable battery to my old LG G3 and it was great to just swap batteries and directly having a fully charged phone. Now I always have to have power banks or try to charge up during train rides or whatever and having to worry that I don’t have enough juice

I personally don’t understand the purpose of this law. I’ve never discarded a phone due to battery issues (iPhone user). It’s usually just been a slow device, sometimes due to a failing charging port or 3.5mm Jack. I’d rather have the opportunity to replace ports, screens, and buttons.

Do any of you guys experience issues needing a battery replacement that often?

So... At the end lf the article, it also mention non-recheargeable battery used in devices. But where? (watch, maybe?). All of those I know are the easiliy repleaceable ones which can also be switched with recheargeable one's.

(Actually, if Wikipedia is to trust and up to date. Those so called primary battery indeed have an important market share)

Anyone else thinking about how their phone is going to be water proof made this way? I kinda like the comfort of them being waterproof.

Every country should do this. It's just a shame we have to wait until 2027 to see these phones.

How will this affect apple?

I’ve replaced a lot of iPhone batteries at this point. I wouldn’t call it easy, but it’s definitely not non-replaceable. Takes about 15-20 min and Amazon is filled with kits that even include tools.

Still I miss the Nokia days when we could carry an extra to swap when the first started to die, not for the “battery can’t hold a charge” issues.

I feel like these are two different categories that will be argued.

I do not like this, at all.

I don’t want to replace my battery. I want my battery to last. 5 years, at least.

This legislation will achieve the opposite and paves the way for batteries that are just crap and need replacement after 12 or 18 months. The companies have no motivation to make better batteries, protect them better against premature degradation.

Sounds good, but generates a lot of trash.