It's official: Smartphones will need to have replaceable batteries by 2027

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)

The headline says it's official. But then the article mentions -

Now, the only step left is for the European Council and Parliament to sign on the dotted line.

So it's not official?? Can anyone explain please??

God bless the EU.

Remember to vote to keep this up next June, my fellow Europeans

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.

Now we just need headphone jacks and SD cards and lineageos support and my dream phone will be mandated.

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if this makes batteries smaller so be it

let’s go back to 2012 and carry a few of them at a time

They should do the same for laptops

Sometimes the EU is just based af.

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.

We've gone full circle. This used to be the way!

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.

Should also be for the EV market as well 😀

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.

Good.

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.

Now let me replace the operating system, have unified drivers and I'll be fine with it

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@reclipse Good! Stop e-waste

While this is great will they also make the manufacturer allow external storage up to 2tb?

Inb4 they make the batteries crap and proprietary.

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.

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.

God I love Europe so much <3

Will this impact water proofing?

Do you think smartphone manufacturers will still make them water resistant?

Great news, now require the producers to standardise on 2 or 3 different battery shape formats!

On a side note, I wonder if there will be a market for slightly thinner phones with non replaceable batteries imported from foreign markets.

Exceptions for batteries that survive a certain number of charging cycles

Yeah take that big corporations

One of the best things to happen to smartphones I guess but will bring drastic design changes to the back

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.

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?

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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.