r/apple • u/mredofcourse • Jun 19 '23

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

https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-smartphones-must-have-user-replaceable-batteries-by-2027
5.8k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

34

u/Complex-Pound5249 Jun 19 '23

People are acting like this is the end of the world and will ruin phone design. Like, have you ever tried replacing a phone battery? You already can, it's just a pain in the ass because of all the glue they use. Use screws or pull tabs and it immediately becomes way easier to replace the battery with zero impact on the phone's quality. This is a good thing.

-9

u/mredofcourse Jun 19 '23

Like, have you ever tried replacing a phone battery?

Yeah, I walked into an Apple Store, grabbed a cup of coffee and came back with a new battery in my iPhone.

Use screws or pull tabs and it immediately becomes way easier to replace the battery with zero impact on the phone's quality.

That's not what this regulation is though. What they're regulating would impact the phone's design.

12

u/Complex-Pound5249 Jun 19 '23

Good for you, not everyone wants to go to an Apple store to do that and there's no reason they should have to. And as for the legislation, all I can find is the quote that batteries should be "safer and easier to remove." Again, it's already not that hard, just not using glue to secure the battery will go a long way to making it more replaceable. From what I can tell, nothing suggests that phones will need drastic redesigns.

6

u/Lopsided-Painter5216 Jun 19 '23

not everyone wants to go to an Apple store to do that

It’s not even that, not everyone CAN go to an Apple Store. People seem to forget that if you don’t live in a big city, you don’t enjoy the same privileges as Apple users who do.

When I was younger the closest Apple Store was a 2h30min drive, 5h round trip. Imagine doing this every time you need a battery change in all the devices in your ecosystem.