It’s been long enough that people of forgotten what’s it’s like. Cameras still have replaceable batteries, there are several benefits:

I can have two (or more) batteries, if it runs out I just change it. I don’t need walk around with a USB battery pack and cable hanging off the device preventing me from using it properly.

I can put the battery on charge somewhere and leave it, even if not completely secure, because just the battery not the device. This way my expensive device and my data is not at risk.

I can use 40+ year old cameras, because I can just put a new battery in. This is not something you can do with newer device, e.g. and iPod and you can’t even find anyone who will fit them for the older models.

Battery tech moves on. There are now some batteries with charging ports on them. Other batteries offer more capacity than the original ones. Apple even did this once for me, when MacBook Air batteries were fairly easy to replace, I had mine replaced (it wore out) at the shop and they put a slightly bigger one in, which was the standard on the newer models.

I used to work for Nokia back when they still made phones. Replaceable batteries were very normal then. Phones were a bit thicker than today but not massively so. These days phones are actually thinner but much larger. I had a "are you happy to see me or is that a Nokia" type Nokia 9300. That was a brick. But it had a full hw keyboard. and flipped open it wasn't that much bigger than a modern smart phone.

You could argue that the trend towards more energy dense batteries and wireless charging could enable new interesting form factors. Recent phones have magnetic connectors for external wireless chargers/batteries that snap to the back. Most of bulk and weight of a phone is for accommodating batteries. You could make an argument that making a phone with replaceable batteries is easier than ever. Many cameras have a bulge for the camera. The negative space of the rest of the phone could easily hold a swappable battery. How critical are those 3mm really?

If a battery can do 1000 cycles and remain above 80% capacity it is exempt from this, which is exactly what Apple implemented a few years ago.

Low cost phones will be most affected.

Aren't today's phone batteries already replaceable with commercially available tools? I can walk into a non-apple store with my iPhone and walk out with a replaced battery 20 minutes later.

This isn't even what drives obsolesce of phones, it's software updates.

If you really want to be able to self-swap your own battery, you can just buy an Android that has a replaceable battery.

Do we need to regulate something that isn't a problem? All regulation has downsides, is it worth paying this price here?

I'm an exception for sure but I have not seen much innovation in the phone space that you'd genuinely make me buy a new phone.

Yes, cameras are better now. But some phones had good cameras years ago. I bought new phones mainly because of battery decline and/or not getting security updates.

If one of these will be solved, that might change my phone buying behaviour.

I don't care whether a display is called "retina" , whether the next edition comes in the colour "space banana grey while lion tiger snail".

And I don't need to impress someone by proving that I'm able to buy a new phone either. Such behaviour gives me a good hint what to think about them though.

A phone that will have the battery situation solved is a killer argument. Then I'd like to have a software distribution on top that it's "mum compatible" and doesn't need nerd knowledge to maintain. Something that allows to use banking apps.

Let's see how it goes. Also I hope that there can be third party batteries without DRM-like behaviour.

This is great news. Every once in a while something good comes out of EU. Now of course, our US friends are telling myriads of reasons why this is obviously stupid and unnecessary. But it's not. Letting users actually maintain their devices is only smart.

Batteries have been used as part of planned obsolescence for too long and a whole small business industry of replacing phone batteries has appeared because of it. Next the EU are going to have to address security patches because its another aspect being used to sell new phones.

What if we regulate batteries even more? i.e. what if, in some magical perfect world, the world get's together and agrees on batteries for phones like how we agree on AA,AAA,D,C batteries? Even more though.. a standard connector, a standard comms bus, a variety of sizes, and they were designed for reuse as efficiently as possible.

Now we can scale up volume, swap them out, be free to purchase from a different manufacturer, and have scaled up recycling services.

It's a good move, but that is not enough. My old Chinese phone had a replaceable battery but it lasted so long that after it died, it was not possible to find the replacement. It seems that all phones have batteries with different sizes, and potentially different third pin designation, so even if you find smaller battery, it still can be incompatible because of third pin.

So if you want phones to be usable for longer period, you need to standardize batteries.

The EU with its mama energy again.

I use 15 Pro. I don't like the new aluminium iPhones much. So I just went it to Apple service center and had the battery replaced. It costs just 90 euros and I now have a brand new phone, basically.

I very much prefer my phone to be thinner, water resistant, and have a larger battery compared to being able to do it myself.

phones are indeed becoming more repairable, and the legislation is working upto an extent.

on the other hand, mandating easier to repair components is ineffective if the manufacturer does not support the parts sale or use parts otherwise widely available in the market.

this goes beyond for other consumer electronics. in the world of laptops, which are generally more repairable, i've had my own experience with a mid-range one from lenovo, the largest vendor worldwide. [1]

the laptop was from the covid-era and one of the refresh of their popular lineup which has seen minimal changes under the hood. despite that, when i had to replace its fans and battery, i had to look for third-party sellers for the components. they are quite easy to replace but as a regular consumer it is tricky to find the correct parts and not overspend on them.

maybe with the new silicon carbide batteries, we could have a "nokia bl-5c" moment, without the counterfeit explody part.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/267018/global-market-sha...

> Why isn't there any significant demand for replaceable batteries?

Most consumers are like pigs who simply eat whatever the market throws into their trough, because ultimately they have better things to do than to get deeply involved in every purchasing decision.

> If replaceable batteries were better, they would already be available.

Developments like those in the smartphone market involve complex path dependencies. That’s why you can’t simply assume that competition will lead to the product offerings converging on the best product. Furthermore, “better” needs to be defined in some way. If we leave that up to the market, it becomes a circular argument: (1) The better product prevails in the market. (2) The product that prevails in the market is the better one. This circular reasoning is the biggest flaw in market ideology. I don't understand why people can't see that. The market moves in a certain direction, and they say, “There it is—progress!”

> Regulation hinders progress.

Perhaps, at times, the opposite is true. Even if we set aside the fact that “better” is defined in a circular manner here, the path-dependence of market development sometimes causes the market to get stuck in a local optimum. Regulatory interventions in the market can then serve as an effective lever to help the market break free from that situation.

> If you want a removable battery, you're simply in the minority as a consumer.

That’s another point where I just don’t get market ideologues: why should I reject regulatory intervention on the one hand, but on the other hand, if the market doesn’t give me what I want, I’m supposed to just shut up and accept that there isn’t enough demand for my quirky, special requests? I’ve been missing removable batteries ever since they disappeared from the market. That must have coincided with the rise of smartphones. Come to think of it, maybe Steve Jobs is to blame. With iPods, there was still a public debate about the issue [1]. With the iPhone, it was just the way it was.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuTcavAzopg

I find it so weird that European regulation targets very specific niches while avoiding generalization.

In order to reduce plastic pollution, they forced manufacturers to make attached bottle caps (terrible idea) but go to the supermarket and there are various fruits and vegetables each unit wrapped in plastic separately.

Now they are targeting phones but I also want my handheld and robot vacuum cleaners, electric toothbrushes, grass cutters, etc to also have batteries that can be removed and replaced without tearing down entire device and even learning soldering in some cases.

Next, do user installable OS. Phones are the costliest gadgets with a dizzying range of sensors/capabilities and more than enough RAM. Its a shame we can't use them for a decade+, giving it a second life.

A lot of discussion about 'whether its needed' or 'moving a needle'. Batteries were swappable back in the day, and later on someone figured that making battery suck, can drive you to buy a new phone - because it is harder to degrade the rest of the device faster. Then we accepted that you cannot play around the battery, bcs that's the reality of things. So many people won't even think about it - but it does not mean it is not needed. I would love to make my device much better with swapping battery as many time as needed.

But then I think someone will figure out to make these batteries so expensive, that it won't change a thing.

Seems to me like the top goal should be: you can easily replace the most-likely-to-break parts (screen, back, battery, etc) in any local independent repair shop, with genuine parts that have low markups.

I'm confused why that still isn't the case today given all the EU headlines we've seen over the years.

Now they only need to make sure that a supply chain for replacement batteries exists, there is regulation and competition and options remain available for a reasonable price.

There are plenty of old Dell and HP laptops with replaceable batteries which can only be found on eBay or some random seller that does who knows what under the refurbishing process.

I look into my perfect workable Samsung Tab S7+ and remember that it has been an year since the last security update.

Now I rely on a few random individuals who, for all I know could be state agents or a ransomware organization to provide unofficial versions of Lineage so I can keep using it.

Battery isn't the only problem to avoid e-waste, but it's a start.

I was looking forward to finally be able to easily switch out (i)Phone batteries again - after 20 years - but turns out the lobbyists managed to get a loophole in the law - exempting Apple & Co from making their phones more repairable / longer live-able.

> If a battery can do 1000 cycles and remain above 80% capacity it is exempt

>The regulation states that batteries must be removable using ‘commercially available’ tools

This is doing a lot of work here. There's enough wiggle room for this to be absolutely meaningless. Anything short of I can slide off the back cover and maybe unscrew two or three screws to replace the battery means that a lot of people are going to end up not being able to replace the batteries.

One of the most frustrating things about HN is that people seem so unaware of how idiosyncratic their preferences are. If you stood on the street corner and asked every passerby what they would change about their phone, I think you would be there all day before someone said "I wish I could replace the battery".

It's okay to have idiosyncratic preferences (I certainly do), but people should recognize that this law will make phones _worse_ for most people, because this law will force phone manufacturers to compromise the things that most people want in order to provide something that most people don't want.

I suppose someone will say that this law is necessary for environmental reasons, regardless of people's preferences. But that's nonsense, because the law doesn't actually require people to replace batteries rather than replacing their phone, and by the time batteries wear out, most people are going to want a new a phone. At the very least we'd need to see some data that shows that most people replace batteries when it is possible to do so.

Recently replaced the battery and charging port of my Fairphone. 5 screws, two plucked components, done. Hopefully this means that soon you won't have to buy a specific company's phone for this marvelous experience.

I just spent a few hours [this past weekend] trying to replace a battery on an old iPod Touch and botching it (I'll blame my crappy soldering iron). Everything about that was a massive pain, prying the case open, dealing with all the glue inside, de-soldering the old battery.

I thought I did everything right but then the thing wouldn't turn on. Could be a bad battery (ordered on Amazon so zero guarantees). Then when I tried to de-solder and re-solder my new battery the pads came off it. Very annoying.

This is excellent news. Now make them have user-unlockable and user-relockable bootloaders...

I certainly understand the value of replaceable batteries. OTOH, I'm concerned about what this will mean for how many common upper end phones are IP67 submersion rated. I don't want that to go back to being a feature only of clunky super expensive phones, and I would rather have IP67 over a replaceable battery.

Now, if I'm lucky, they will mandate both a replaceable battery and that the phones be ip55 or better, after battery replacement.

The US can't regulate it's own economy so the EU has to do it for them

I worry that this ends up, like other EU consumer-protection regulation, as an own goal.

- The cheapest phones available in the EU (and purchasable online) all have glued-in batteries, not swappable ones. Forcing consumers to use phones with swappable batteries may just mean that the bottom of the market disappears, and consumers will be left paying more for their phones. And would they rather pay less or have swappable batteries?

- This will cause some cascade of engineering changes, which will make phones thicker or less waterproof. Again, it's not clear to me that the tradeoff is being fairly reflected here.

What good is a replaceable battery if the device becomes obsoleted by changing communication standards first? How long before 4G and 5G are phased out? What if we could have forward compatibility in our mobile network protocols?

I have never used a phone without easily replaceable battery (where "easily" means no screwdriver necessary, just pop the backcover and pull the battery out). It just happened this way, but I think I'd refuse to buy one anyway, as aside of obvious repairability and maintainability issues having the battery sealed in is also a big factor that makes dropping the phone so dangerous. When I drop my phone, the battery is easily set free to disperse its kinetic energy away from more fragile parts of the device, so it's much harder to break the phone this way. I have made some small dents and scratches from drops over the years, but no serious damage.

While this is a good step forward, it feels like complaining about the 0.025% of plastic from straws in the ocean while ignoring the 75% of plastic from fishing nets.

I own a 2020 Kona EV. The battery cannot be upgraded. Eventually, I'll have to replace the entire car to get a longer range. BEVs should be mandated to have upgradable batteries and modular interfaces so that the shell can continue to be reused, the batteries (and BMS) upgraded, and old batteries easily recycled.

Every single Pixel upgrade I made - every single one - in the last decade has been because of battery life.

This law will be tragic for Google and Apple. What will compel people to upgrade their functional phones?

The system like iOS is still closed. Once Apple ends support for a device, being able to swap a battery won’t help much

Awesome!

And next, hopefully, replaceable software.

Which will do much more for phone longevity.

It feels like life got nerfed when I lost the ability to just swap in my extra battery when my phone died.

They (Samsung, Apple, etc.) should never have been allowed to glue it behind the screen. Threaded fasteners and a silicone gasket cover is good enough for 99.999% of the public use-case.

How about computers to have replaceable SSDs? There's no point you can exchange the battery when the hard-soldered SSD dies first. (I had more dead SSDs than batteries)

Great, now do storage!

People shouldn't have to pay $$$ for a 128GB upgrade when a 1TB microSDXC card is under $200. It feels like a trick to sell cloud storage and new phones.

As long as it does not make the phone bigger or compromise the water resistance, I support the requirement.

But it is not super high on my list. Every 2 or 3 years I pay less than $100 to have a new OE battery installed, takes about an hour. There are other features I would put a higher priority on - like a good small phone option now and again.

They should have standardized 3 to 5 battery sizes (and their connectors, voltages, etc.), so that the same battery could be used across many different devices, which would bring down the cost even more.

https://archive.ph/INeg6

Bonus: reasonably accessible replaceable batteries double up as a hardware off switch.

I still sometimes miss the Samsung Galaxy I had that had a microSD slot, a removable battery, and a headphone jack.

Phones have lost so much in a decade.

Neat. That may allow repurposing phones as mini home servers too.

Lithium batteries in things running 24/7 unsupervised always makes me a bit nervous

Will this affect the water-resistance of current iPhones? I thought that was why the batteries are not easily replaceable by users, because of the seals/gaskets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dyL6hMZvWQ

I wish them same regulation would be enforced on toothbrushes

This must be paired with strong lithium battery import regulation. Even the highest quality OEM batteries can fail in dangerous ways (See many models of Samsung, Surface or Macbook). Cheap, dangerous Chinese imports must be eliminated as an option, because the secondhand owners doing this replacement will likely buy the cheapest replacement battery available on the market.

I hate to say it, but the lack of removable batteries serves a purpose. It wasn't done just because 'screw consumers'.

It was done because:

* It makes phones massively easier to waterproof

* It allows for larger batteries

* It allows for more compact and lighter phones

Consumers, based on what they buy, have shown again and again that they want these features.

It also simplifies manufacture and lowers costs, which everyone likes.

I like removable batteries. If I had the option, I'd get a phone with that feature. But I know that I am certainly in the minority, as is almost everyone in this thread.

It's also worth pointing out that these days, battery and software have advanced to the point where degradation is quite slow in many cases. The phone will often outlive its useful life due to specs rather than battery.

Replacing the battery on my iphone takes 30 minutes and the only tools needed are a couple of screwdrivers and a new display adhesive. In exchange, the phone is a lot more waterproof. For me, it's a good tradeoff.

What's next? Mandating that the screens be "replaceable" as well? Having used a fairphone before, I can tell from experience that easily replaceable parts are more prone to breaking from dust and moisture etc.

I hope this puts more pressure to extend the software life-span.

This is good. I recently had to replace a generally working phone because the battery was dying and there was no cost effective & reliable means of replacing.

A proper gasket and screws needs to be the standard solution here.

In order to have my iPhone 11's battery replaced by my local apple authorised repair shop, inexplicably I have to leave my phone with them for days. Since the phone is old they have to order the battery from Apple and that could take up to a week, according to them. Of course it's impossible to stay without my phone for a week+ so my only option is to buy a new phone if I want to fix my battery capacity issues.

Anyone know how much harder water resistance gets with replaceable batteries?

Ironically the EU also demands phones are water proof.

And they say this will save consumers money, but I will this not also make all new phones way more expensive?

Please bring back the 3.5mm headphone jack!

Removing it is one of the most annoying things ever in a phone. Yes, Bluetooth is getting better, but the jack always works perfectly. Why can't we have both?

It seems like the whole world could massively benefit from this much like the other great innovation out of the EU -- the Common Charger Directive (aka USB-C).

Gigaset makes IP68/MIL-STD-810H smartphones with removable batteries and sold the battery for 30€, don't fall for the "but watterproof".

What good are replaceable batteries if the software becomes obsolete and un-upgradeable by the time you need to replace the battery?

EU is late by 19 years. No one cares anymore about user replaceable batteries.

seems reasonable on its own, but knowing the track record of EU regulations... Even this sounds dodgy

This is about user replaceable batteries, which is subtly different for me. Batteries that can be replaced by a shop, with some specialized tools and knowledge are important to me from a sustainability perspective since that extends the life of the phone.

Batteries that can be popped out and replaced by your average consumer are something beyond that, and have certain consumer benefits like being able to bring along a backup or something, but aren't that important to me.

Next: replaceable storage? Since flash-based storage is widely known as a consumable that tends to fail first.

Thank you, EU, for having the courage to pass the pro-consumer regulations that my own government lacks. Often, as happened when the iPhone got rid of the proprietary Lightning connector, the benefits extend well beyond your borders.

[offtopic] Ive always wondered why a conversion has not been offered ( by someone ) for apple phones to make, it so the battery can be replaced by end user? It would be a case modification somehow. Some kind of new "back"

What if they also mandate that each phone manufacturer has to bring back iPhone 4 sized phones. Just saying. But would be great.

This is a bad development. This is likely the end of waterproof phones in the EU market. Customers preferred phones that had non-removable batteries. Previously all phones had replaceable batteries. This is due to market forces.

So this means no iPhone Air 2 in Europe? I can hardly see Apple wiggle around the special tools requirement when these batteries are glued and sealed shut in the devices.

[edit] didn’t see the fine print with the cycles requirement etc. so it seems Apple etc is still safe.

good idea - but not effective enough.

if you gonna go about e-waste then go by repairability and part prices and part supply. then let the market sort itself out.

as someone said - either standardize batteries or ensure that device makers can cap the cost of battery replacement from 3rd parties.

most phones these days - the screen gets damaged before batteries.

what about laptops ? other e-devices ?

Aside from an easily swap-able battery I would love for an iPhone with a double thickness screen that was less susceptible to cracking and built-in rubber bumpers so I wouldn't need a case.

And next we could have mandatory security patching for 5 years to make it worth replacing the battery on an old phone. I would say right to repair should apply to the firmware/OS as well.

Both options have pros and cons but IMHO the cons for replaceable are more.

Since 2020 phone hardware and especially battery has become much better, reliable and long lasting, at least at not dirt cheap ones. It will fail long after the screen brakes or the software updates stop. And a replaceable battery degrades the design.

On the other side a new battery makes an old phone like new. But again it only costs 15-20E to change it in a non-repl phone.

The only real reason to promote battery repl is to reduce e-waste.

I understood that the move to non-replaceable batteries was at least partially driven by water resistance

*Edit. Not sure why people are downvoting. I didn't make a positive declaration. HN didn't used to be this way for completely milquetoast comments.

I made my local store to change the battery of my iPhone 6s for 39€. And here we are again, for the next ten years.

Earlier this year I downgraded my S24 ultra to an iphone 13 mini and then to the first gen iphone SE. I replaced the battery myself on the SE and couldn't be happier. Less screen time and more IRL time. People should just use less of their phones and for battery longevity they should not let their phones go daily below 20%.

No one on this planet should use their phone more than 2 hours per day. Period. More is just plain stupid.

This might be shifting us closer to worse overall design/performance to accommodate swapability. The pouch cells are very fragile, with the phone itself being the physical protection for the cell. If end users begin to handle these, you likely have to add additional packaging to the cell which increases the overall dimensions or reduces total capacity to maintain the same size.

Maybe it's for our own good, maybe we have to suck it up and lose a little capacity to meet sustainability goals. Or maybe this won't do much for the environment.

They need a standardized battery. Something with common terminals and width available in a range of thicknesses and lengths would be ideal.

They should extend the principle to laptops, obviously.

Hopefully the EU can get the battery situation to mirror the charging cable situation. IE force them all to adopt an industry standard.

For context to HN readers reading all the naysayer comments: Here's old HN post about EU and USB-C regulation

"EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31652291

And 1 year later: "Apple says iPhones will switch to USB-C chargers to comply with new EU law"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33358353

It's interesting to see almost all the exact sentiment. I think barring some niches, most people are happy with USB-C transition.

I understand the scepticism but the expectation of "perfection" from regulators (incremental improvement disliked) while fanfare for incremental startup / tech improvement is a weird, cognitive dissonance of HN

Considering that this, and other, regulation is officially aimed at reducing e-waste, the EU should commit to publish independent data on the amount of e-waste and phones replacement rates now and every year afterwards in order to measure the real world impact.

Too often, including in HN comments, those regulations are presented as "obviously" good policies. Well, data are better than assumptions.

I wonder if this is the reason for Google not majorly renewing their Pixel line since Pixel 9 till 11.

As a non-European I want to say: thanks EU

I thought USB-C was already required.

> The move comes amid EU-wide efforts to cut the continent’s carbon footprint and tackle mounting waste [...]

...

> [...] if specialised tools are required, they must be provided free of charge when the phone or tablet is purchased.

So if a family buys several phones and tablets that all use the same specialized tool to change their batteries they end up with several identical specialized tools?

From a reducing waste perspective wouldn't it be better to just require that the tool be available for free for some reasonable amount of time such as however long the manufacturer is required to support the device?

What percent of iphone users would take a sleeker, slimmer phone over a replaceable battery?

Well, Nokia phones used to be good phones with replaceable batteries.

good. now do the software enshittification part, which is the real driver of device obsolescence. being able to replace the battery is nice, but if the new battery lasts half as long because the software needs twice as much resources to perform the same tasks - you're not really fixing anything.

If only we had batteries that would last for 20 years...

my naive opinion is that this will result in more bulky phones, with worse quality batteries.

Well, 9 more months until I’m going to replace my iPhone 12!

Hot swap batteries! Who's going to offer THAT first?

I honestly would not have upgraded my iPhone 13 Pro if I could have just swapped the battery. That phone seemed to get better battery life than current models.

I recently bought a Supernote Manta. It's an e-ink writing tablet. Guess what: it has a back which can be opened, and its innards are easily accessible. I could pop in an SD card, and the battery can be replaced, too. It's thin and light.

We are being gaslighted by Apple. They keep telling us that it's impossible to have a thin and light device with a user-replaceable battery, or even, heaven forbid, an SD card slot. I beg to differ: there are some compromises (it won't be as seamless perhaps and Jony Ive or whoever won't be able to wax poetic about the materials), but it can be done.

I would imagine something similar is true for waterproofing. There are certainly ways to have a separate battery and phone, with a waterproofed connector.

Europeans are very good at making companies do unnecessary things.

So Apple will skip the iPhone 18 replaceable battery? I will wait another year to upgrade my 7-year-old phone, but I wouldn't buy 18 if they don't include this.

Finally! Great to have them back.

I don't own EVs but I hope this is forced on EVs (cars and bikes)... that's the only reason I don't buy one.

I hope someday EU will implement requirements for phones -> You must be able to flash any firmware (OS) on your phone, without any restrictions.

This is much more important, than batteries.

If this happens, all phones worldwide will have replaceable batteries. It makes no financial sense to have EU and non EU models of phones with seperate manufacturing lines...

GOOD.

Finally!

I mean, I paid like $100 to have apple do it on my iphone 13 mini. It took a few hours and my phone works approximately like new. If a $800 phone's battery lasts 4 years, it's very much worth $100 to get even a couple more years out of it...

Next time I will also by previous generation rather than the newest model.

Legally can this be satisfied by shipping a MagSafe battery pack or is that considered insufficient?

Seems like I will be buying new iPhone in 2028.

Now all we need is that they honor the requirement for at least one physical nano-SIM so that we are not beholden to carriers to do something as simple as switching phones when travelling--or in an emergency.

I dont care about replacing the battery but doing a 'battery pull' is very useful sometimes. Esp when Android locks up.

This is amazing news.

However, doesn't Apple already provides this? You can go to store and switch your battery for like 60 EUR or so.

They’re just going to change the software for thebattery so that it only charges to 80% capacity so that it meets the requirement of 1000 cycles no one is actually getting replaceable batteries. Edit: commercially available tools. All right so you just sell that tool on your shop.

Awesome! hopefully apple will just stop selling their filth here entirely.

Dude I dream of a day where there will batteryless phones with no requirement to charge. That would be pure bliss.

This is idiotic. What's next, disallowing unified memory or SoC with packaged memory? These people think they know better than world experts on these matters.

Have they researched durability with replaceable batteries and can promise us phones won't break more often?

Replacable charge sockets too please.

and now these voices from right wing, that EU is a communistic union resonate more and more. Now they tell you what to do and how to do.not by market forces.

if anyone can replace the phone, it's much harder to track how it was recycle with phone with battery. same with cars btw.

they trying to change the world by just issuing the order. That usually never works fine.

Now do screens.

Damn, recently I had a phone with a battery that wasn’t properly glued and it would turn off when shaken. I hope this doesn’t become the norm from now on.

I am simply not a fan of this type of legislation. It reminds me of CA bullet button. I also don’t quite understand the purpose. Official retail cost from Apple in the US ~$120. Third-party you can usually get it around $60. Sure the battery does not have quick accessibility but I can replace it pretty cheaply.

Phone manufacturers should be able to seal their phones to prevent unwanted substance egress and to compete on aesthetics. They should also make the seal breachable with consumer-grade hand tools like a hairdryer, suction cup, and plastic wedges.

The inside of the phone should use standard screws and securing mechanisms, and batteries should not be glued to the phone.

I actually really like what Apple's been doing with its new batteries by sealing them in metal. That way if a user is being careless and accidentally slips a screwdriver under the back of their phone, the risk that they puncture their battery and start a fire is greatly reduced.

It secures the most dangerous component of your device in a way that makes it easy for anyone to remove and replace safely. I'm sure Apple has a robot to rip the battery out of its case at its recycling plant, and if the phone gets dropped in a lake or something, if that battery eventually catastrophically fails, at least it's wrapped in a suit of armor.

Yikes, I don't live in the EU, but I absolutely don't want this. Maybe I'm mistaken and they could have achieved the same with removable batteries, but my phone is completely waterproof, dustproof, and has survived more than a few hard drops with no case. I would definitely take that over a replaceable battery. Again, I acknowledge they might not be mutually exclusive.