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All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU (mashable.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology

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All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU::undefined

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[–] squidzorz 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it. Commercially available tools are considered to be tools available on the market to all end users without the need for them to provide evidence of any proprietary rights and that can be used with no restriction, except health and safety-related restrictions.

I'm glad they got specific. I wonder where Apple's self-service battery replacement program falls under this? AFAIK it's not free. They charge a fee to rent the specialized tools, which are also proprietary.

This gives Apple a few choices:

Make the tools commercially available, but at an astronomical price in typical Apple fashion
Make the tools commercially available at a normal consumer price (unlikely)
Make the self-service battery replacement program free (most likely, but will require a significant revision to the tools used since they are industrial-grade)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure that #1 and #2 are options, I think Apple's tools would still be considered "Specialized" or "proprietary" since they can't have any proprietary rights or restrictions, so I don't think that they can get away with selling them at a huge markup. I'm no lawyer, but to me that reads like they either need to give the tools away for free, or change the iPhone so it can be disassembled with regular screwdrivers. Given those choices, I'm thinking #2 sounds a lot more likely unless they can weasel out of some loophole

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The current tools are not even close. Very proprietary, very specialized, not commercially available. Check out this video or this one. These things are rental only because they are exorbitantly expensive and only really useful to iPhone, and IIRC they differ for some lines/models.

This law absolutely will require an iPhone redesign, which I think is going to be somewhat controversial. If you check out the iFixit teardown it's pretty obvious there is not a lot of space. Even the larger Pro Max is tight because I think in the case of the larger phones, they tend to fill the space with battery. What I think would be the easiest is make it more like the iPhone 4. In that version, there were like two security screws on the bottom, and then you could remove the whole back plate. Some battery would have to be sacrificed to add space for connectors and a retaining system of some sort.

I say controversial because this is probably going to mean less day-to-day battery, but I think I'm in favor of that rather than having to deal with going through Apple to do a battery replacement and get another year or two out of the device. If they make it more like the hot-swappable old days of Nokia's and Motorola's past, I can't really see anyone being pissy. In practice these days, I don't worry about battery life anyway, so it's hard to not see this being a win.

[–] keefshape 2 points 1 year ago

As someome who was able to disassemble and repurpose multiple iphone 4's.

This was the way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

unless they are provided free of charge

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Honestly, they should have said "fuck you, no tools whatsoever to replace the battery."

My mid-2010's phone has this and probably the only reason I still have it (instead of contributing to electronic waste) is because I can replace the battery so easily, which I've done at least twice.