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European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
(www.techspot.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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The question is will this new system work like it used to be, as in can you just buy a battery from some seller in china or is it going to be similar to what we have now where the batteries are paired to the device.
The article never said a company like Apple couldn’t pair the battery to the device and charge €100 for it.
The article goes into it a bit but the downside to user replaceable batteries is that they are bigger while not giving more charge, you have to include the plastic casings to ensure that they aren’t damaged when being pulled out or dropped or thrown in bags so you do end up with a thicker device and while some devices may allow a hotswap if the phone is plugged into a charger that’s not guaranteed.
I also question the viability of it leaving the EU market, take Apple for example, they already make a different model for the US market and a different model for the china market and a different model for the international market for the 12,13, and 14 lines, they could just make it a Europe only model as it will likely effect the design of the phone in some ways. USB-C I can see coming to all models as it’s something that doesn’t affect the design as much and it’s already on their other devices. But we’ll have to see.
At this point I’d say for any skilled repair person replacing a phone battery shouldn’t be too hard but I guess this can make it easier. For the iPhone 14 lineup you heat up then remove the display, pull the battery pull tabs, life the battery and put in the new one then reseal the display and your good.
While having easy to swap user replaceable batteries seems nice on paper I worry it will lead to chunkier devices. I’m more in favor of right to repair, or basically requiring the parts such as batteries and displays have to be available to everyone including third parties at a reasonable price and ensuring that third parties can actually do the repairs without having to say call up a customer support line to recalibrate the battery(ie pair it to the device); cough couch, apple self service repair.
*disclosure; I’m a certified Apple partner repair technician and as such my view point may be skewed.
It'll definitely lead to chunkier devices, I just don't really care. Like, smartphones are insanely thin rn, I'd much rather have one that's more capable and built to last that's a few mm thicker
I hope it will encourage a design akin to the old Nokias where the battery assembly was basically half the phone, and if you WANT a 15000 mAh battery, you can get one that just makes the phone thicker, but still preserves the basic shape.
Conversely, they used to sell aftermarket batteries back in the Galaxy S II days that came with a replacement back with a weird bump that didn't lie flat. Clumsy. Maybe the camera makes it harder. OTOH a three-layer sandwich could work where the camera and screen segments both snap around a delicious, battery-y filling.
the eu hes already been through this whole rodeo with the charger debacle, they'll not allow a loophole like that
After skimming parts of the actual adopted text (its a 537 [albeit wastefully formatted] pdf, dont blame me), which is mostly an update to the old directive, I think I might be able to address some of these concerns. (Not an expert though)
The important part to remember is that this isn't just about consumer rights. Even the first few pages make it very clear that sustainability and battery recycling play a huge goal, ultimately aiming for a "circular economy". While we should for now not debate what that actually means, one part of that is ensuring less waste. Hence the second part of the adopted text, "waste batteries". If companies would simply start making it unfeasible to actually replace a phones batter, we will probably see an update of the directive.
Fair point, theres probably no objective argument to put against this. My subjective argument would be that the thinness phones have reached is a bit absurd anyways and one or two mm more wont hurt them. I mean, we all put them in cases anyways. If you absolutely need a thinner phone, buy a thinner case.
Its absolutely not going to happen. Its more likely that we might see a sort of California effect, where manufacturers that have no reason to produce several versions simply start producing only the EU version and market it as sustainable and environmentally conscious in markets where legislation is more lax.
Completely agree. But this wont be the last we see of this, since batteries will continue to be a topic in EU politics. For now, battery collection and recycling are relatively low in the EU, but is supposed to rise in the coming years/decades. To reach that target, more action will be necessary.
Its also important to mention that the adopted text specifically mentions that end-users should be able to replace their batteries without specialised tools, contrasting it later on with "independent professionals" that should replace batteries in unsafe environments:
"A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it"
And that is why I support the move. When Apple was flexing its green credentials a few years ago, I honestly thought that they might adopt repairability as their next big thing.
Apple saying that ‘yes we are going to deliberately make out devices a millimetre thicker, flaunting small screws on the back of the case as a bade of environmental honour would haven great. And probably would have driven a cross-industry trend.
Ah well.
Its not really as easy for non apple repair techs to change the battery. If anyone but a certified person does I bet that would void any water resistance part of the warranty, possibly if anyone but apple specifically does it?
Easily changeable batteries that don't compromise water resistance would be really great, but that will definitely make them bigger.
And fortunately the Euros are choosing sustainability over convenience, which is the ethical and smart move. The whiners can STFU as far as I'm concerned.
If people won't choose to do the right thing I have no problem with limiting a tiny bit of consumer choice.
For iPhones when sealing them back up we replace the water resistant adhesive around the side to ensure the water resistance is up to spec. iFixit actually does sell replacement adhesive if your looking for a trusted parts source or you can find the replacement adhesive from other parts venders, it is technically different from apple’s adhesive but even an Apple technician would struggle to notice the differences unless they had a lot of experience and knew what to look for(which I don’t), what a technician would look for instead is if the internal water indicator sticker had activated which indicates water damage.
I should also note that all water resistance materials do lose the resistance over time so while a user replaceable battery is possible while having water resistance the worry is both how do you make completely sure that the back(or bottom depending on how you make the release location) is not only completely secure but also that the user knows it’s secure and if not can fix it but also that the user can tell when the water resistant material has worn down(for user replaceable it’d likely be a rubber gasket) as if your often opening and closing the back, say to replace the battery mid day, you’d be applying extra force against the gasket that can wear it down quicker.
For companies there’s a real worry on if the user will blame themselves or the company, Apple for example generally under reports it’s water resistance to prevent customer from being able to come in and say “hey you said my phone was waterproof(*note many customers can get confused between resistant and waterproof) but now it isn’t working”. As an example with the Apple Watch ultra, Apple rates it (and the dive app) for the water pressure down 40M(about 130ft) but it’s shown it can go way past 40M and the dive app will record the data bellow 40M but they’re trying to avoid an unsatisfied customer so by under reporting they’re less likely to have a customer coming in with water problems. Another example, the iPhone 6S was actually water resistant, it had the adhesive and everything however it wasn’t until the iPhone 7 that they advertised it as water resistant because they didn’t want to have any negative customer interactions if the adhesive layer wasn’t good enough and as such they got a whole years of real world data(such as a drop in AppleCare tickets for water damage) before they said anything.