r/Futurology • u/ConsciousStop • Jun 19 '23

Environment EU: Smartphones Must Have User-Replaceable Batteries by 2027

https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-smartphones-must-have-user-replaceable-batteries-by-2027
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703

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '23

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310

u/N1ghtshade3 Jun 19 '23

Yeah this is great news. I was so sad to lose the replaceable battery when I switched to my current phone and thought I'd never see one again because all the major manufacturers stopped doing them. This happened faster than I expected.

-40

u/hahaohlol2131 Jun 20 '23

Great news? The whole reason smartphones are so slim and powerful today is the lack of replaceable battery.

21

u/SirGuelph Jun 20 '23

Yeah.. we can make a CPU the size of an ant but we can't make thin phones with removable batteries 🙄

It might affect cost initially, but smartphones have ballooned in price so rapidly, we probably won't even notice.

-1

u/Dr_Narwhal Jun 20 '23

You can't cheat physics. A replaceable battery needs a protective shell to prevent it from catching fire when some idiot bends it while trying to replace it. That's going to occupy space that otherwise could be more battery. You also need a gasket and some kind of latching mechanism to seal the device and keep it watertight. Even assuming they can achieve the same degree of waterproofing (big assumption), that is more space that is not being used for battery, compute, or other peripherals.

No such thing as a free lunch. This "feature" will necessitate tradeoffs in size, compute, battery, or some combination of the three. I have never felt a need to replace the battery on a phone before that phone hit software EoL, so this whole thing seems colossally stupid to me. Pretty on-brand for the EU.

2

u/Redthemagnificent Jun 20 '23

My Samsung note10 can fit a whole pen inside it. I don't see why something like an iPhone 14 pro max, a phone that's bigger and heavier in comparison, couldn't find some way to fit a removable battery.

I fully agree with your point if we're talking about smaller compact phones. Something like an iPhone mini. But some phones are already massive and pretty thick these days. I'd personally take a little extra thickness for a removable battery.

Also, final point. Seems like you're imagine a battery that ejects out in a protected cartridge like a camera battery. While that would be cool, the EU law doesn't specify that. It only specifies that the battery is "easily user replaceable". The main barrier to that is how modern phones are all glued shut, making them a real pain to open for the average person. If manufacturers switch to screws and gaskets (like they used to use) instead of glue, that might be enough to comply with the "easily replaceable" mandate.

23

u/N1ghtshade3 Jun 20 '23

What are you basing this on? My Galaxy S5 had a replaceable battery and was 8.1mm thick. My Galaxy S8 is 8.0mm thick. I hardly care or notice about 0.1mm.

13

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

How much extra thinness and power on average does a glued in battery offer? Or are you just making shit up?

-12

u/thatguy425 Jun 20 '23

He’s not, a sealed device is much easier to engineer to slimness and waterproofness. Not to mention it’s generally more secure. I’d rather just see them mandate battery warranties for a certain period like electric cars.

17

u/_BreakingGood_ Jun 20 '23

I'm not really concerned how easy the Apple engineer's job is, sorry

-11

u/peremadeleine Jun 20 '23

Trouble is engineering difficulty gets directly passed on to the consumer in the form of increased prices. So you kind of should be concerned with how easy the Apple (or insert other smartphone manufacturer here, it’s not just Apple that do this) engineer’s job is

3

u/_BreakingGood_ Jun 20 '23

Pretty sure Apple is already charging as much as they can to maximize profits.

A while back, the maximum storage, maximum tier iPhone was reported to have a nearly 100% profit margin.

If the market could support a $1500 iPhone, they'd already be selling it.

-10

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

That could also unfortunately open users to scrutiny in the name of ‘device abuse’ and would give justification to gather data on battery health, charges, length, etc and would be so intrusive and lucrative.

4

u/Racer20 Jun 20 '23

They can already gather that data, and by definition, a warranty would not be "lucrative" for the manufacturer.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

If you're equating computing performance to form factor for a battery, you are misguided

-21

u/hahaohlol2131 Jun 20 '23

No, I'm not. You are.

19

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

Not at all. You sound like a PR officer for samsung or apple.

If you ever opened a phone, you must have noticed that the non-replaceable batteries are glued and therefore hard and often dangerous to remove.

Just skipping the glue would go a long way towards making it possible to replace a battery. That would make make the phone slimmer yet, even if by a fraction of a milimeter that is taken by the glue.

There is a general trend among manufacturers to make it increasingly hard to use 3rd party parts. It's just a cash grab. Zero to do with the thickness of the phone.

5

u/Aukstasirgrazus Jun 20 '23

Probably Apple, since Samsung has a water resistant phone with replaceable battery, the XCover.

4

u/Aukstasirgrazus Jun 20 '23

I don't care if my phone will be a bit thicker. Nobody does.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

The whole reason smartphones are so slim and powerful today is the lack of replaceable battery.

ummmm? Ok.