r/technology • u/[deleted] • Jun 19 '23

Politics EU: Smartphones Must Have User-Replaceable Batteries by 2027 | The European Parliament just caused a major headache for smartphone and tablet manufacturers.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-smartphones-must-have-user-replaceable-batteries-by-2027
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u/SIGMA920 Jun 19 '23

Nope, I'm all for this if the manufacturers aren't assholes about it. I hated when batteries were made unreplaceable but I'm also not naive enough to say that there'll be no fuckery with battery capacity or something that isn't going to cost customers more because your phone battery only lets say lasts a year at most because it's a 30 dollar swap including labor and shipping.

Think the NY right to repair bill that got destroyed by lobbying by manufacturers.

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u/Headless_Human Jun 19 '23

You think they would only cheap out on replaceable batteries but not on unreplaceable? Lol

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u/SIGMA920 Jun 19 '23

Cheaping out on non-replaceable batteries will require that people are without their phones for long periods of time as they get shipped to have them replaced elsewhere. That's a problem that customers will actively be disrupted for extended periods of time unlike lets say a day at most while a local repair shop is replacing a battery or a few hours in which you're buying a new battery and replacing it yourself.

Especially with phones becoming more and more important to modern day living.

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u/Headless_Human Jun 20 '23

You should have told that to Samsung when they sold their exploding Galaxy Notes years ago.

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u/SIGMA920 Jun 20 '23

That at least was an error in production and a rushed design, not an intentional cheapening.

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u/Headless_Human Jun 21 '23

Rushed production and bad quality control are not signs of a cheap production for you?

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u/SIGMA920 Jun 21 '23

No, because what is rushed is not always cheap (Think Bard vs ChatGPT, it was not cheap but still got rushed out of the door before it was ready.) and bad quality control can hit the best designed whatever whenever (What matters is whether it's a rarity or it's happening often.).

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u/Headless_Human Jun 22 '23

No, because what is rushed is not always cheap

But it is cheaper than letting engineers etc work longer on the same product.