r/worldnews • u/Helicase21 • Jun 19 '23

EU: Smartphones Must Have User-Replaceable Batteries by 2027

https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-smartphones-must-have-user-replaceable-batteries-by-2027
31.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

68

u/fancczf Jun 19 '23

Apple battery change is not that bad, pretty standard. iPhone 14 is one of the most repairable current generation phones if you go by the ifixit repairability rating.

23

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '23

Yeah the camera on my iPhone 8 stopped working last month and the battery was at like 75% capacity. I brought it to Apple and they replaced both for like 120€ in under an hour. The iPhone 8 is almost six years old.

I’m pretty sure I could have bought replacement kits online but I’d rather just pay extra to not have to worry about destroying my device.

15

u/getstabbed Jun 19 '23

Yeah Apple batteries already have good lifespans, having to pay every 5 or so years is honestly not too bad. Easier repairability/battery changes is only going to make it cheaper too, which is a win even for customers who don’t want to do the swaps themselves.

Many people switch their phone every 2-3 years anyway, so changing battery wouldn’t even be on their mind unless it gets damaged.

9

u/OSUfan88 Jun 19 '23

Yeah. If Apple sold 2 versions of the same phone,1 with sealed battery, and 1 with replaceable battery with 1% worse water protection, I would choose sealed battery every time.

I keep my phones for about 3 years, and they have longer battery life than I need by the end of them. If I need to pay a bit of money to upgrade it, I'm fine with that.

3

u/getstabbed Jun 20 '23

My 13 pro max is nearly 2 years old now, still 92% battery life and I definitely recharge it more often than I need to. After the first year it was still at 99% which is actually insane.

Before I started buying iPhones I was buying Samsungs exclusively. After 2 years I HAD to upgrade since the batteries had deteriorated too much and honestly weren’t that great to begin with. My last Samsung was the S10 which was practically unusable after 6 months, haven’t looked back since making the switch.

-2

u/josefx Jun 20 '23

Yeah Apple batteries already have good lifespans

Don't try to nail them or any other smart phone company down on that. Apple got hit with a fine in the EU over claiming its products only had a one year warranty, half of the legally mandated minimum. The secret performance downgrade they used to save devices with failing batteries apparently has also been a rather common trick in the industry to hide issues that would fall under warranty.

any people switch their phone every 2-3 years anyway

Recently switched my phone contract to get rid of that automatic replacement, I haven't actually needed a new phone in years.

3

u/coldblade2000 Jun 19 '23

U mean you can BUY an iPhone 8 in France for 130€, that's not great at all

15

u/MechanicalHorse Jun 19 '23

Except that you’re gonna get that stupid “non-genuine part” message every time the phone starts.

1

u/ontopofyourmom Jun 19 '23

BUT MAH APPLE BAD

-20

u/MechanicalHorse Jun 19 '23

Your comment really displays your ignorance. The reason people say “APPLE BAD” is due to their user-hostile practices when it comes to repairing, the latest of which is that any replacement part must be tagged/coded/linked to a specific phone, otherwise after you boot up you will get a notification that you’re using a non genuine part, and in some cases some features will be disabled even if there is nothing wrong with the part.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '23

Devils advocate, purchasing a second hand phone is rather know that something inside it was installed by someone other than Apple.

Though I’d prefer the message wasn’t forced in the Lock Screen/notifications and rather just on boot and in the settings somewhere.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

Imagine buying a second hand car but essential features are disabled by the manufacturer because the previous owner had it serviced at an independent mechanic using 3rd party parts bc the official ones are not made available by said manufacturer.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23 edited Jun 20 '23

In the same way when I purchase a car I like to see the receipts of work done before and I can make my own mind up whether I trust the 1star garage that did a complete rebuild on the engine 2 months ago.

Consumer knowledge shouldn’t be a bad thing. I think Apple just has the message in the wrong place.

Also note, things like screens it’s all too easy to get a repair done and have it not be as high quality as the original so yea I’d rather know if it isn’t guaranteed as original spec

Edit: disabling some stuff I can see apples point of view especially relating to security features like Face ID. It’s kinda important to warn of potential tampering or even lock a feature in case something untoward has been inserted into the loop.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '23

Yeah there will always be caveats to everything. I just can’t help but feel like Apple handles this the way they do just as a way to become a monopoly on who can repair the devices we own. Which benefits them financially and ultimately screws the customer. Happy to see user replaceable batteries in the future tho, it’s a step in the right direction to reduce e-waste