EU will require removable batteries from 2027
It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article: > The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
I agree with all of the other regulations, but this one doesn’t seem like a good thing.
Phones with internal batteries are arguably better for a variety of different reasons. I don’t want any more flimsy phone bodies like the old androids. As long as the phone can be easily serviced, I think that is enough.
The usual argument manufacturers present is that water-proofing a phone involves having its interior be as completely sealed as possible, whereas a removable battery obviously requires that its interior be at least vaguely accessible, so it makes water-proofing substantially more challenging. Additionally, they can't be as efficient with packing the internals tightly since the battery has to be accessible without completely disassembling the entire phone, so devices have to be a bit thicker.
I won't pretend to have enough knowledge about device manufacturing to known just how sound those arguments are, but that's what they say.
I'm sure we'll see plenty of skirting the laws around these batteries. "well actually, out barriers are removable and easily accessible if you do XYZ"
Any time there's regulations there's always a raft of companies saying how it's going to put them out of business, yet they'll all stick around and continue to make sales, almost like they need to adapt to changing environments.
Right. Technically, iPhone X batteries could be considered “replaceable”. Practically, when I did it, I had to purchase an $80 kit with tools, then take on substantial risk that I’d break it irreparably(say 20%), and put in a solid 4 hours of effort to do so.
Valuing my time at $20/hour, and the phone at $800, that’s $80 + $160 + $80 = $320.
You can view the full law here. I didn’t immediately find a provision about easy access, probably because it’s 366 pages long. I did find this:
Software shall not be used to impede the replacement of a portable battery or LMT battery, or of their key components, with another compatible battery or key components.
If they’ve thought of that, they’ve probably thought of easy access as well.
Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during the lifetime of the product. That obligation shall only apply to entire batteries and not to individual cells or other parts included in such batteries.
A portable battery shall be considered readily removable by the end-user where it can be removed from a product with the use of commercially available tools, without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless provided free of charge with the product, proprietary tools, thermal energy, or solvents to disassemble the product.
Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those products are accompanied with instructions and safety information on the use, removal and replacement of the batteries. Those instructions and that safety information shall be made available permanently online, on a publicly available website, in an easily understandable way for end-users.
I can’t see anything that would force them to change the status quo.
Boom, $20, every tool needed. Hits the commercially available clause. You don’t have to have a heat gun (it certainly helps). If people want to fight it, then you’re going to have a weaker screen because the glue loosens easier with heat because the alternative is a glue that is weaker at regular temps. So kiss your waterproof ratings goodbye.
And don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t have to be this way. A removable backplate could be worked into any device, but you’re gonna have to settle for a weaker (if existent at all) IP rating.
without requiring the use of specialized tools
That's a big one. Nice to see it covered. Negates any silly "well you just need to buy our $200 disassemble kit" nonsense you know would have been there otherwise
“Impede the replacement of” and “compatible battery” has a lot of room for interpretation. I hope they’re defined explicitly somewhere, or else we’re going to find implementations that effectively restrict non-OEM batteries while still adhering to the letter of the law.
For example, all batteries lacking a cryptographically-verified “certification” handshake could have safety restrictions such as:
Limited maximum amperage draw, achieved by under-clocking the SoC and sleeping performance cores.
Lower thermal limits while charging the device, meaning fast charging may be limited or preemptively disabled to ensure that the battery does not exceed an upper threshold of you-might-want-to-put-it-in-the-fridge degrees.
A pop-up warning the user every time the device is plugged into or unplugged from a charger.
All of that would technically meet the condition insofar that it’s neither impeding the physical replacement nor rendering the device inoperable, but it would still effectively make the phone useless unless you pay for a (possibly-overpriced) OEM part.
Might be a bit of cynical take, but I don’t have too much faith in the spirit of the law being adhered to when profits are part of the equation.
Another Lemmy user cited the law:
Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during the lifetime of the product. That obligation shall only apply to entire batteries and not to individual cells or other parts included in such batteries. A portable battery shall be considered readily removable by the end-user where it can be removed from a product with the use of commercially available tools, without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless provided free of charge with the product, proprietary tools, thermal energy, or solvents to disassemble the product. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those products are accompanied with instructions and safety information on the use, removal and replacement of the batteries. Those instructions and that safety information shall be made available permanently online, on a publicly available website, in an easily understandable way for end-users.
There’s also a bit about software limitations that I don’t have at hand right now (am on mobile)
The real issue nowadays is the software, although this is still a good step.
But being stuck with no software updates after 2-4 years still renders them unusable (when also locked down).
They should be forced to provide open bootloaders, firmware and kernel drivers once the devices reach end of life. Maybe even include hardware details and schematics, etc. for full repairability.
The efforts of devices like the Framework laptop and Steam Deck should be commonplace. It’s insane we put some corporation’s patents and trade secrets above the environment.
While they have other not-friendly practices, Apple does well on the software side. The iPhone 8, going on 6 years old this September, is still running the latest version of iOS.
I’ve been away from Android for a while now. Is it still the case that there is a lot of fragmentation and updates end prematurely? Or is there another OS / software you’re thinking about?
If you don't buy no-name brand phones, you will get at least one major update. Even chinese brands such as xiaomi will provide updates. You can also install generic LineageOS image if your phone can be unlocked some way, official or not. It works on most devices.
But many smart TVs become useless very quick. When I was using 2015 phone in 2020, TV newer than that already loaded the lightweight Google version for unsupported browsers and vast majority sites/apps became unavailable. It used browser that was already 2 years old when it was released and never released an update to it. But when there was root vulnerability, they released a fix after long time of being basically unsupported.
Always buy the “smarts” as a separate device (a media player or smartbox).
Having the product lifecycle and even user requirements of a fast-changing and cheap (and always getting cheaper) element selected on the basis of computing performace and software like the “smart” media player, to those of a much slower changing and vastly more expensive element selected on the basis of size and visual criteria (the actual display) hard-linked isn’t really a wise purchasing decision - it means that in a few years you’re pretty much guaranteed to end up with either a device that can’t support the latest software and hence has sub-standard functionality or paying a “full TV” price because you need to upgrade just that subset of functionality, something which if bought separatelly you could otherwise upgrade for less than 100 bucks.
The intentional slow was directly related to battery life. They got sued over it. But if you put in a new battery, performance returns to previous levels.
Apple even tells you in your battery info settings page whether you are running with “Peak Performance Capability”.
I am not sure about the percentage of the market. It’s a standard Android without the bloat so compatibility is there. Price is not that expensive when compared to industry leaders but even if you do consider it expensive that’s the reality of the matter when you want to buy a device which is made with materials whose production didn’t exploit child labor or someone’s misery.
Company has a fairly clear goal and is focused towards that. They want to reduce waste by allowing device to be disassembled and repaired at home, while at the same time providing spare parts years after device production has ended. And along the way make sure materials and labor are all fair trade and fair employment. Take a look at their “our mission” and “our impact” pages. They list every supplier for each of the parts and materials. They even offer recycling your old devices for you.
Your information is a few years outdated. lineageOS neither comes rooted, nor offer a native way to root. Magisk became a thing with a whole community around it. It’s an unlocked bootloader hider, root manager (and hider), and a system patcher, all wrapped up in one tool.
With Magisk, you give root access to the apps that need it, hide root ability from apps that require non-root devices (those apps do that by pretending to need root). Also, the Magisk app can rename itself, which is important as some apps check against the name itself.
The future challenge is with Google trying to force hardware identification (Apple style). I have not been following developments regarding that though, since as others mentioned, my X years old phone is still serving me perfectly, and I have no intention to upgrade any time soon.
Assuming someone makes a ROM for your device. This is often the case if you go with one of the most popular models but less popular devices might simply see no development effort – if the developers can even get their hands on the drivers and other necessary parts to build Android for that device.
It’d be great if manufacturers had to release all of the stuff necessary to run AOSP on their devices but I doubt it’s going to happen.
They should be forced to provide open bootloaders, firmware and kernel drivers once the devices reach end of life.
How would you propose it?
You wouldn’t be able to say “smartphones” as not all run Android obviously. Limiting legislation to Android specifically would make no sense either, OEMs may just do hard forks then (ahem, HarmonyOS).
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