Hopefully this doesn't go the way of charging cables and we have a different battery shape for every phone... Otherwise a 2040 regulation will be to standardize battery shape(s)
Battery shape (and connector) will sadly still be a thing for a long time, and usually it's for engineering reasons, so I don't really think it will be possible to standardize it
Well battery shapes will be custom, but the regulation does include demand to offer said batteries as spare parts.
shall ensure that those batteries are available as spare parts of
the equipment that they power for a minimum of five years after placing the last unit of the
equipment model on the market, with a reasonable and non-discriminatory price for
independent professionals and end-users.
This being EU, EU will actually even police that reasonability clause via consumer protection agencies. You might not like the still probably pretty hefty price, but outright monopoly price gouging will not be allowed. Atleast not with in EU jurisdiction. Also makers will tend to gravitate to number of pretty standard battery sizes and geometries. Simply out of economies of scale. If you have to offer the batteries available as spares. You don't want to offer 150 different battery models on you warehousing and supply to your retail stores. You want as few as possible. Maybe say 5 different sizes or maybe couple ten different kinds on the biggest makers with the largest product range. Cheaper to buy more of similar batteries from battery supplier, than have custom module developed for each new phone model. Well unless one is apple and only has couple new models per year. They probably will have now just little bit different optimized shape battery for each models, but they also have the scale per model to make sense for that.
also:
Software shall not be used to impede the replacement of a portable battery or LMT battery,
or of their key components, with another compatible battery or key components.
Meaning companies can't use software locks to deny third party batteries. Since the language says compatible battery, not replacement battery. Which wouldn't make sense anyway, since replacement battery would be the one the OEM offers. Ofcourse I'm sure there will be lot of hurdur by makers over "don't use third party batteries, those aren't as safe" and "well but that isn't compatible". However as one remembers during the early 2000's and upto mid 2010's there was a very healthy both OEM and third party replacement battery market. As with that experience, yes shoddy batteries from non-reputable people can be problem. However in this basic consumer electronic safety regulation (aka you can't just shovel anything to the market with utterly nuts unsafe circuitry in the first place) and the market itself handles it. Again it will be found out over little time, which makers are the reputable ones with the good batteries with all the proper safeties and good production quality. Reputable big chain electronics dealers then focus on only offering the established reputable third party batteries and parts out of their own reputation (You sold me a shoddy battery. It burst and ruined my phone. I'm never buying from this phone store ever again). Plus same with the actual makers with stuff like offering extensive warranties, warranting the replacement of the device, if their battery messes it up and so on.
This is all "we have already been here" ground except instead of the T9 numpad on the phone front, there is now a whole front covering touch screen on it's place.
It is a special day when there is happy tech news. This is a day for celebration. Having done my own battery replacements some have been a nightmare to do with all the glue and hoping the screen doesn't break. I look forward to this, since with rise of phone costs I don't intend to update frequently. I'd actually change my battery annually if it wasn't such a hassle.
Between basic storage being so much larger than it used to be (the 4-8GB days were brutal) and USB-C flash drives that can plug into your charging port, I seldom miss them these days
Still sucks that they removed them as an option though
I'm not a fan of xiaomi (even though it's my daily driver), but most of their phones fit your needs. In the past I used redmi note 4, note 9 pro and now note 10 pro and they've all been great.
I pretty much stopped using my phone for audio when they got rid of the headphone jack.
Wireless headphones still aren't great and most are uncomfortable. It's super annoying keeping them charged and they are so expensive when you consider how short their lifespan is.
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.
I'm not getting my hopes up, but I'd like to see this influence the smartphones being sold in the US as well. One of the primary things that keeps me replacing my smartphones is battery life, so being able to replace the battery would be incredible.
Because the EU is such a massive market, EU law tends to bleed out. It’s expensive to keep different SKUs for different regions, so compliance tends to seep out.
I’d expect at least some of this to have an impact outside the EU.
idk, apple is already ramping up their region locking systems just to get better about locking out non-EU countries for when sideloading is mandated in march 2024
In my Android experience if you have an unpopular/old phone, years later many of the new batteries you buy aren't much good. That or the radio frequencies change and you need a new phone for that. But still 4-5 years on a phone should be doable.
I remember smartphone days of old when you could buy additional battery packs, extended ones and huge lemon ones or something that would give you like 10,000 milliamp hours. Good times!
I don‘t know how to feel about this. While It’s nice to be able to replace the battery, I very much prefer the durability of todays phones over those flimsy removable back plates that used to be common in the 00s.
I really hope they mean that no special tools/skill are required. They should just standardize one type of micro screwdriver that everyone has to use.
Replaceable batteries inevitably also have to be sturdier s.t. they don‘t pose a fire hazard, making the entire phone bulkier or reducing battery life.
My iPhone XR is now over 4 years old and battery capacity is still at 80%, getting me through the day easily.
Before that I had an iPhone 4s where I replaced the battery after ~6 years. I was really disappointed with the new battery and ended up buying a new phone anyway after a few weeks.
My phone is the device that I use the most by a huge margin. It doesn‘t bother me too much if I have to replace it every 5-6 years. And I‘m pretty environmetally conscious in general.
Yeah. If you owned one and don't get all your information from memes on reddit, they were incredibly flimsy. It was all cheap ass plastic that was clipped in, they would break and your phone would be heald together by hopes and dreams.
I get what you're saying, but removable batteries and flimsy plastic backs don't have to go hand in hand. The LG V20 had a metal back and a removable battery
Gee, I can't understand how my lgg3 is still in one piece, what with that replaceable battery making it so flimsy.
It's almost as if I'm imagining it being able to turn on because it fell apart when I sat it on the table three years ago.
Good thing it broke back then! Otherwise, I might have spent tens of dollars on replacement batteries each year!
Not to mention all the tablets that broke because they were flimsy with replaceable batteries. The galaxytab 2 and 3 alone would have blown up from materials fatigue if I'd replaced those batteries over the years. Whew, what a relief I don't have to have them in use as digital picture frames like I would have otherwise.
My Galaxy S5 never felt flimsy. It was even highly waterproof for the time because it had a COVER for the USB Port attached to the phone! It even had a gasp HEADPHONE JACK!
It also looked and felt cheap. HTC did the best solution but back was metal so no wireless charging. I would prefer a back cover like the nexus 5 or lg g4
I didn't know the USB port had a cover. I bought mine used but excellent condition, apparently other than the port cover. My S5 had a brief dip in a river and never charged again. :(
Of my last three phones battery has not been the issue I disposed. Mostly it is they grind to halt software wise as they fail to cope with newer apps expectations for storage or ram, I change my phone every 3 to 4 years.
Give me a phone with a removable battery in the style of the HTC Sensation 4G. Sexy, metal, easy to open and swap the battery. It was an incredible device that I remember using fondly.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
They did it to kill two birds with one stone - Prevent repairs, and to prevent theft, and it works.
A few years ago you would use Find my iPhone and see your stolen device was halfway across the world in a few days because it was stolen for parts, stripped down, remade and sold as refurbished. Now it's much less common because it's so much harder.
If they only wanted to prevent theft, they could have had the same system, but only lock iPhone parts once that iPhone is reported as lost (i.e Find my iPhone was used on it, and it wasn't later confirmed as being found)
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
Well some sneaky legislative aide in EU already thought about that.
Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable
batteries or LMT batteries shall ensure that those batteries are available as spare parts of
the equipment that they power for a minimum of five years after placing the last unit of the
equipment model on the market, with a reasonable and non-discriminatory price for
independent professionals and end-users.
Software shall not be used to impede the replacement of a portable battery or LMT battery,
or of their key components, with another compatible battery or key components.
apple does this but, it's outlawed by the same regulation that this is. Batteries must be easily accessible and there must not be software restrictions for them
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.
My old moto g (not sure which revision) had a removable battery and was water resistant. Used to use it for navigation on my motorbike regardless of the weather
Not really. Expect in that obviously many of the exact current water resistant phone design can't be used. Since those don't have replaceable battery. However already at this very moment there is smart phones on the market with both replaceable battery and water resistance. Like Samsung Xcover6 pro . Not that it is the only one, but example from the major brands instead of the more niche rugged phone specialist brands. In fact in my experience in the rugged phone market replaceable battery is quite common (and thus apparently desired by customers) feature. I assume on the rugged phone user segment liking the ruggedness of "I can continue the lifespan with new battery" and even "Well I'm going to middle of no where wilderness, spare battery might not be stupid idea".
In opposite to the hurdurhurdur can't make water and dust resistant phone with battery covers. Yes we can. We figured this out by early 2000's. Touch screens on the other side of the phone taking place from the old numeric T9 pad doesn't change the design fundamentals of the back of the chassis. Rigid enough cover plate with rigid enough pressure applying latching combined with rubber seal designed and molded to seal the desired areas will do the job exactly 2027 as well as those did in 2002.
As said all it takes is a redesign job with the battery swapping idea being kept in mind from start on the chassis design. Maybe it means couple mill thicker phones, since the phone isn't a single glued together slab from front display glass to the back cover glass, so it isn't rigid by being single monolith resign block essentially. However as far as the massively bulky thick rugged phones, all phones aren't headed there. That is about impact resistance instead of water or dust resistance. Thick layers of metal and rubber both to withstand and to soften impact.
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.
Are there any devices that allow a replaceable battery and wireless charging? I know battery swapping can become common, but I also do not want to lose a feature that I currently enjoy.
Yes, we had this ability all the way back in 2012 on the Galaxy S3, which had NFC and Wireless Charging built in to a user replaceable battery pack. It was available on many phones in that era and could easily be brought back if we gave up some "thinness" that we have now.
I can't think of any reason a battery being removable would impact its ability to wirelessly charge (though it would still need to be in the device to do so).
you could easily add a charging coil in the back of the phone and just have some contacts
my fairphone 4 already has a pair of contacts on its back, with accompanying pogo pins in the body, although i think that's just for an nfc antenna. still, the same system would totally work
Just need a tray you pull out of the side of the device that contains the battery with a gasket and a latch. Like a really big SIM or SD card tray.
The manufacturers can take the space needed from the battery making them even smaller and just blame regulators for the change while maintaining roughly the same phone without the battery for the rest of the world. At least that's what I imagine they'll do because corporations are always slimy like that.
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.
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 :(
I really don’t think they should be dictating how companies must design their products. My guess is Apple either pulls out of Europe , or has a phone sold only there that’s much thicker and bulky and ugly. That being said I can’t see them making that phone as goes against the company DNA. We’ll see.
I'm very annoyed at how battery degradation makes devices obsolete more quickly. I don't think it's that hard to create an easily serviceable battery, it's just in the company's best interest to not have that. Having the battery deeply integrated with the device, is basically an easy and perfectly legal way to create planned obsolence. Maybe phones will get bulkier, but I honestly doubt it will have a serious effect. IP-ratings might suffer, but I'd wager that a global reduction in e-waste is more important.
As to Apple pulling out of Europe, I don't think so. Given the reluctance with which companies pulled out of Russia, which has an economy the size of Italy, I think they'll find a way to adapt.
My guess is they’ll create a fancy MagSafe-type battery or something else really slick that technically adheres to the rules but is expensive af to replace.
E-waste and Li-ion battery component shortages are gradually becoming a global problem. So ofcourse Governments will have to intervene at some point.
This law exists to force manufacturers to create a circular economy for batteries. A “circular economy” refers to a manufacturing model in which the resources put into it are recycled or reused as much as possible.
Yes, of which I have no personal connection to. I also think that if any company wasn’t going to comprise design that Apple is the one. I can see Samsung or another Android manufacturer making an ugly phone just for sale in the EU but ( IMO ) it would feel strange for Apple to do the same thing.
It will force research done into swappable battery devices that retain water protection, which will hopefully make the days of completely enclosed devices look antiquated. Plus, help with all these disposable yet expensive ewaste that phones have become.
 Why not? There are already tons of safety and insurance regulations that Apple has to comply with, on top of that they rely on tons of open standards, and most of the amazing technological advances that make their products possible aren’t things that they invented, nor are designs that they own.
Anything that makes devices better for people is better.
I really don’t think they should be dictating how companies must design their products.
Like say telling to automakers they must include this design feature called seat belt and this another design feature called airbag? Also EU isn't dictating anything about the design. They are giving regulation on minimum technical features. How to design within that minimal technical requirement is free for the maker to decide. Just as say there is minimum technical regulation about safety of electric appliances in general.
Again poor, poor companies being told by the regulation they can't use their favourite "design feature" of "exposed uninsulated power wirings " on their products.
Regulations have existed and will exist. Companies operate at the please of society offering them a market to operate in. Offering such things as contracts needing to be honored, people not just being allowed to steal their property, enjoying the protected relative piece of national military keeping the mongol horde away and so on. In exchange the businesses shall play by the rules society sets.
This matter was decided by the duly elected representatives of the EU citizenry (directly as the European Parliament and more indirectly the national democratically elected governments in the Council. Well except maybe governments of Hungary and Poland.... ... ...). This is the will of the European society, so this stands.