2y ago

Gaming handhelds, like the Switch and Steam Deck, will need to have a replaceable battery by 2027 in EU | overkill.wtf

overkill.wtf /eu-replaceable-battery-legislation-steam-deck-switch-handhelds/

127 comments

This is a very good thing. Thank you EU for forcing us dirty heathens in NA to have consumer protections.
- Once again, the EU drags the rest of us into modernity kicking and screaming.
- Alexander Anderson would like a word, heathen
- I hate the term consumer the only I consume is food . How about buyer or customer just anything but consumer
  
  Consuming does not mean eating. Either you produce, sell or consume a product.
  
  Tough. It is appropriate description for what you are doing. Every tangible thing you buy at some point gets discarded one way or another. You've consumed the energy and materials needed to make whatever it is.
  
  You consume and discard many things throughout your life. The fact that you consume so much should make you uncomfortable. I agree with using customer instead of consumer, but only because I want to get away from the idea that your only purpose in life is to consume things. I hate that being a "consumer" is normalized. Consumptive culture is both terrible for the environment and for the health of society.

Steam deck done. https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Steam_Deck
- Isn't the main issue whether or not there's an ease to replace? There's like 20 steps and a bunch of easily breakable cables involved with replacing it currently.
  I mean I think you can replace the Switch's battery too by that standard.
  Same site even says it's only 1 extra step in total, though instead of the cables being in the way, it sounds like the shields a bit more difficult.
  But like either of these replacements would require a technical user to do it.
  
  it should be done by 2027 at the latest it sounds like.
  
  ‘ease to replace’ to whom?
  seems like an impossible to define standard, but I’d be interested to hear what the requirements are
  if they supply the necessary tools and steps/videos, is that enough?
- Says 2-4 hours and “difficult” on the battery replacement page
  
  And requires heating + prying.
  If this is considered replaceable, I wonder what an non-replaceable battery would be. Soldered to the main board and trying to unsolder it causes a failsafe to short the CPU?
- Nah. The battery on my old Samsung Galaxy S4 literally just pops out with minor force applied as soon as the cover is off, leaving the phone ready for a new one to be slotted in. That is what "user replaceable" means.
  Don't get me wrong, I am familiar with electronics, have a diploma in electrical engineering, have soldered hundreds/thousands of components, etc. and I could do this easily (though I have concerns about heating the battery). But most people cannot currently replace the battery without significant headaches.
- Steam deck done.
  Not really. Look up the Linus Tech Tips teardown. The battery is glued in super hard. Linus said he spoke to Valve about that and according to him Valve said they're looking into making it easier to replace at a later date. Since then I've not seen any reports about a change.
- Heat gun on the battery, that sounds fun
  
  Your right. It's not the best but till allows you to replace it. Unlike iPhone and Android since they are much harder to replace.
- i think 'user replaceable' should involve no tools, and a minimum of time. if step one involves removing eight tiny screws, and it only gets more cumbersome from there, i don't think it counts.
  
  The currebt rule says "No propritary tools" which seems reasonable when you add in that glueing in is considered "non-replacable" too. The GBA SP needed a single screw to hold in it's battery and nothing else. Plus with proper threading, screws last much longer than plastic clips.
  
  There's something to be said for this as well certainly but I do think the deck is still much better overall than will be required since they actually offer spare parts for sale for pretty much everything and repair guides too.
- The steam deck battery is glued on? Fucking seriously? Jesus

I think there should be a requirement for easily expandable storage as well.
Switch and Steam Deck seem to be OK for this, but I'd like to further piss on Apple's chips.
- I think it should be fully replaceable storage, not just expandable because a lot of companies throw out completely fine devices to get rid of sensitive information on the soldered drives
- Yeah, in place of the EU I would fuck apple up for their decision on soldered ssd. It's not only stupid, but just inhuman towards nature.
- And Samsung

Excellent, I like that I can replace batteries easily from my old handhelds, the only issue for that case is finding trusted ones.

New switch confirmed before 2027!
- According to Phil Spencer, it could be as soon as next year... So 2024

Thank you EU! Please come to America and slap the shit outta everyone.
- Hopefully we'll get our right to repair act together.
- Interestingly enough, I sometimes get into disagreements with my employer's German branch because they want to do the bare minimum for standards while the US branch prefers to have internal standards that are more stringent
  
  Is there an example you can share? I'm curious to understand the differences you mean. Thank you
  
  Do you guys have reasonable government there? In USA it's not about people, it's about the corporations and the charities they create to lauder money and get tax breaks on top of their foreign bank accounts.

It’s a good thing Valve makes the official parts and tutorials available on ifixit for the deck
- The battery is still unnecessarily glued in with permanent adhesive that requires a heat gun to melt it though.
  I never understand why batteries need to be glued in at all, surely pure friction will keep them in place. If you really need them stuck down use pull tabs.

This is a fantastic change, every battery powered device should have self serviceable replaceable parts if it is safe for an untrained individual to do so.
- if it is safe for an untrained individual to do so.
  Remove this part and I agree. If you don't know how to repair it yourself, you can always go to an independent repair shop. But if manufacturers don't have to make parts available, you are at the mercy of the manufacturer.
  So make the parts available and publish schematics, and those who want to can attempt the repair themselves, and those who don't can take it to a repair shop.
  Manufacturers use the "but it's dangerous!" excuse to lock people into their ecosystem and/or support planned obsolescence. That needs to end.
- During the early days of cell phones, replaceable batteries was the norm, not the exception, and it was as complicated to perform as your TV remote. No need for training. In these modern days, you may want to turn off your phone cleanly before proceeding, but that's pretty much it!
  Let's not even talk about the early handheld game sets: the GameBoy (Nintendo) and GameGear (Sega), that were using regular disposable batteries (rechargeable ones were recommended though!).
  Vendors have made our devices complicated to repair to lower costs and later to make our smartphones water resistant. They started off being easy to disassemble and re-assemble.

Steam Deck with swappable batteries would be badass.

3.5mm jack! Sd cards! IR transmitter!
- Steam Deck has 2/3 but an IR blaster would be dope. I wish phones still had them too.

Hopefully this doesn’t just manifest itself as simply not selling these devices in the EU. Seems highly unlikely that would be the case, but a possibility I suppose.
- I doubt they would do that since the EU is such a big market
  
  The EU market is almost as big as the US market so yeah they'd be giving an awful lot up.
- The Steam Deck is nearly there with replaceable batteries. You need to have a bit of experience to do it, but Valve doesn't impede on you or your warranty when performing your own battery replacement.
  
  Yeah allowing it without voiding the warranty is massively useful, but Valve does not make it easy to replace the battery and would likely be unable to sell it in the EU under the current design (ifixit suggests a 2-4 hour process for an experienced person). I think it’s a huge step up from some manufacturers, but a good number of changes would need to be done to make it actually user replaceable. I’m sure they’ll get there though!
- Hopefully this doesn’t just manifest itself as simply not selling these devices in the EU. Seems highly unlikely that would be the case, but a possibility I suppose.
  EU is ~450 million people
  lots of potential customers, with money.
  its almost always worth it.
  it's 25ish % of apples revenue, for example.

I have a 2012 asus s46c laptop. Replacing its battery is as easy as sliding a nitendo switch joycon into/out of the console. Other laptops from around that time have similarly easy to remove batteries. There's no lack of know-how and I doubt making it easily replaceable is "more expensive" during production. Any company that solders or glues them must do it out of pure spite against the customers.
- I learned to crack open my laptop shell and replace the battery, which saved me 30 bucks when capacity was dead and I was getting a spicy pillow in the works.
  My model had an easily searchable servicing guide, and I'd followed it to replace the thermal paste as well. That being said, I am looking for a future replacement as it no longer runs some indie games I have and there's no way to upgrade its internals to newer standards. My dear laptop is future e-waste, as it pains me to say.
  This industry needs to go back to focus on repairability. It would push for more sustainable part and product designs, which has become a big factor in purchase consideration lately.
  
  Framework is doing some very cool stuff if you haven't heard of them! Their upcoming 16 inch laptop will support modular, upgradeable graphics cards.

Everything with a battery needs to have a replacable battery by 2027.
electric cars, phones, wireless mice, headphones etc etc etc
Some need to be "user replacable"
some needs to be replacable by a professional (electric car batteries, for example)

Really like the initiative by the EU to try and empower consumers again. I think generally the Switch and Steam Deck feature replaceable parts, but device manufacturers need to be held to a consumer-friendly standard.

Isn't pretty much everything replaceable in Steam Deck? Including official guides?
- Yes, but ideally you can swap the battery without having to disassemble the entire thing.
  
  That's not what the EU law says, it says it needs to be user replaceable, which means:
  it mustn't void warranty
  it must be doable using common tools
  
  You don't disassemble the entire thing. You remove a few screws and remove the back cover. There are some plastic clips to be mindful of, but side from that, it's not much harder than upgrading RAM in a laptop.
  Compare this to something like an iPhone that is sealed shut with adhesive, and you have to peel off the fragile glass digitizer and screen off. Then remove every component, and the battery is bound to the back of the chassis with adhesive. And Apple wants to sue outlets that actually do this.
  Totally different game.

I wish the EU would just stop getting their grubby hands ibto everything they possibly can
Gotta love the reddit-tier "downvote anyone who disagrees" mindset here. It's like I never even left reddit!
- Genuinely curious why you are against pro consumer legislation?
  
  I'm against regulations that get between parties and enforce terms onto voluntary agreement. Why is it the position of government to tell me what products I should and shouldn't want to buy? If you want shit with removable batteries, cool, go out and make your demands heard. But why should your demands be pushed onto everyone else as "pro-consumer" when it ignores the demands of literally any consumers who have different preferences than you? What about the consumer that doesn't give a fuck about usb-c or removable batteries? Why should they be made to buy products designed around standards that aren't important to them?
- How dare they make things better for us!
  
  Just because something it better for you, it doesn't mean it's better for everyone
- This guy's whole comment history section is about arguing and being a contrarian. I've tagged him as such.
  
  I guess some trolls found their way over.
- I downvoted you because every comment from you makes you more of an ass then the previous. You spouted your nonsense opinion and then refused to even elaborate it - either you are here to troll or you have no arguments. However in the end you are just a rude ass.
- Corpo account detected
- if downvote anyone who disagrees only applies to opinions like this, the i guess im gonna keep doing it
- Maybe you should go back to r/conservative. I'm sure you'd fit in great there...
- Yes I'd like one complaint, hold any rationale or reasoning. Thank you.
- I wish the EU would just stop getting their grubby hands ibto everything they possibly can
  its for the environment.. EU has set carbon emission goals etc by 2030, and 2050 ?
  batteries are terrible for the environment..
  but one thing that is worse is.. throwing away a used phone because the battery is terrible, because replacing the battery is gonna cost the same as a new phone.
  my last 3 phones, for example, where all replaced because the battery was shit. unable to replace it without paying the same as a new phone..
  making products having a replacable battery (available to purchase as well) will cause fewer products to be produced, meaning fewer emissions.
  also the old batteries have to be recycled 100%.
  
  OK and? The EU can still go fuck itself. Having a shitty plan doesn't make every shitty step somehow not shit.

127 comments