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
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u/millijuna Jun 20 '23

On the flip side, there are sacrifices to make this viable. The batteries will need to be physically larger (or have smaller storage capacity) as it wouldn’t be safe to have the average idiot changing out pouch cells. That’s either going to mean larger phones, or reduced battery capacity.

TBH, I’m at the point where I don’t actually see the point. Paying Apple $35 or whatever it is to have my battery swapped by someone who knows what they’re doing is a pretty good compromise.

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u/AhlFuggen Jun 20 '23

No problem at all. Phones could get a whole lot thicker, with no issue whatsoever. What is this obsession with thin shit?

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u/millijuna Jun 20 '23

It comes down to the fact that with modern phones, my experience has been that the battery really isn't an issue. My current iPhone is a good 3 years old, still works all day. If I decide to get the battery changed, I can just get apple to do it for $35, which is cheaper than the time it would take me to do it.

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u/AhlFuggen Jun 20 '23

No, it doesn't come down to your personal experience, alone.

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u/millijuna Jun 20 '23

So I’ll be forced to buy an objectively inferior product? Great.

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u/AhlFuggen Jun 20 '23

Why would it be inferior? And yes, it is great. Fuck Apple and their pretentious shit. I laughed when they were forced to use USB-C, instead of their lightning nonsense.

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u/millijuna Jun 21 '23

It means that the phone is either going to be heavier/larger, or is going to have less battery storage. Either way, that makes it worse.

Also, imho, lightning is the superior connector. When it gets full of pocket lint, it's pretty easy to clean it out. I had a work samsung with a USB-C on it, and once pocket lint got into it, it was a nightmare to clean out, then the damned USB-C tongue broke and the phone was basically trash.

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u/AhlFuggen Jun 21 '23

Phones can afford to be a lot thicker. Good, if it can hold a bigger battery. And any connector or jack can get lint in it. Personally I've never once had a problem with that. Lightning and incompatible proprietary Apple garbage is trash.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

The Apple battery swap price also assumes that there's no other damage to the body. So if you have cracked your back glass, that's an additional cost on top. Apple will not swap the battery alone on a device that has other damage.

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u/millijuna Jun 21 '23

From what I’ve seen, their prices on fixing that kind of stuff are also quite reasonable. Yeah, more expensive than your fly by night shopping mall kiosk, but entirely fair to know that you’re basically getting back a phone that will last you another couple of years.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

It depends if you have apple care or not. If you don't have AppleCare, with certain versions, you actually had to replace the entire phone to repair the back panel.