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(Leaked) EU Considering Bringing Back Removable Batteries?

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Source: https://pocketnow.com/the-eu-wants-to-bring-back-removable-batteries

 

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Now a set of leaked documents suggests that the EU is working on legislature to force all smartphone manufacturers to go back in time and make the batteries inside devices user accessible ... 

 

...  The reasons behind it, according to chatter, is the reduction of waste (as batteries often die before other components inside smartphones do).

 

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The documents would allegedly see the light of day mid-March, but there’s no real reason to worry just yet. The EU is very slow in rolling out legislature, so it might take a couple of years of back and forth until anything is reinforceable.

 

It's fair to say I have been frustrated to death with having to baby Lithuim batteries to make them last longer to avoid annoying repairs, so this sounds good to me.

 

While back in the old days the occasionally squeaky battery covers were a bit annoying, in my opinion having the easy option to replace the batteries was worth it. One can argue that this might make phones thicker (not that I care) or maybe make it easier to fishy batteries to get used,  but I do feel like reducing waste and increasing convenience is well worth it.

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I'm all for this. I'd love to keep my device for longer after spending so much on it.

I look after my batteries, but being forced to replace a handset after a couple of years becasue the battery has gone poo-poo is really frustrating.... and hugely wasteful.

This is a step forwards in my eyes. I think businesses and products should be encouraged to make products that people can keep and maintain for longer, rather than having such disposable lifestyles.

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Please please please also make this a thing for laptop, EU!

and I don't mean 'the battery is removable using weird screws, you have to bathe it in warm water to unstick the battery .. etc. etc.', I would love normal removable replacable batteries again!

 

The downside to a removable battery on a phone is less water resistance of course, not sure how much I care about that as compared to an easily removable battery.

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7 minutes ago, minibois said:

The downside to a removable battery on a phone is less water resistance of course, not sure how much I care about that as compared to an easily removable battery.

The S5 was the weird one that managed to do that.

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8 minutes ago, minibois said:

Please please please also make this a thing for laptop, EU!

Big yes to that. When, not if, a laptop crashes sometimes you just have to remove power to quickly recover. Not possible if the battery is locked away.

 

8 minutes ago, minibois said:

The downside to a removable battery on a phone is less water resistance of course, not sure how much I care about that as compared to an easily removable battery.

There may be a small cost factor but it isn't difficult to include sealing in the door, or even integrate the panel to the battery itself. 

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The main reason this is such a welcome ruling, is because cell-phones with batteries attached have a higher rate of destruction by explosion than those with detachable batteries. Also, having an attached battery is wasteful. SO many phones out of China have this particular feature, and it means to accomplish nothing other than trim the fat, decrease the bulk.

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A big yes to that from my side too. A component that often has a shorter useful lifetime than the device should definitely be removable (without special tools or special skills). It would allow for devices to be used for a much longer time and once the whole  things reaches its end of life, it is much easier to recycle too.

I would still go further than that and tell laptop manufacturers not to solder in RAM sticks so the user can swap them easily. They should also make sure every component is easily serviceable (I am thinking of some HP laptops where you have to disassemble almost everything just to get to the CPU fan if you want to clean it for example).

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1 hour ago, minibois said:

Please please please also make this a thing for laptop, EU!

and I don't mean 'the battery is removable using weird screws, you have to bathe it in warm water to unstick the battery .. etc. etc.', I would love normal removable replacable batteries again!

 

The downside to a removable battery on a phone is less water resistance of course, not sure how much I care about that as compared to an easily removable battery.

I use one laptop as desktop. It's just plugged in at all times and last laptops I just used without battery. Latest HP that I have has internal battery. It'll just die because it's at 100% the entire time which is like the worst thing for battery...

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Could be neat, though definitely with that rigid plastic housing. 

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5 hours ago, SADS said:

I'm all for this. I'd love to keep my device for longer after spending so much on it.

I look after my batteries, but being forced to replace a handset after a couple of years becasue the battery has gone poo-poo is really frustrating.... and hugely wasteful.

This is a step forwards in my eyes. I think businesses and products should be encouraged to make products that people can keep and maintain for longer, rather than having such disposable lifestyles.

While I completely agree with you, I'm afraid businesses won't do that anymore otherwise people will keep their phone longer instead of getting a new one each year. So less profits for them.

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YES PLEASE

so much this

there's no reason for phones to be glue shut when you can use some screws and a mechanism similar to what Apple did with the iPhone 4. 

Removable doesn't mean plastic back, but i'd be all for a return to plastic because glass is simply shit for a device that is supposed to be mobile

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5 hours ago, minibois said:

The downside to a removable battery on a phone is less water resistance of course, not sure how much I care about that as compared to an easily removable battery.

Not really. There are plenty of ways to mitigate this issue and my favorite is "stop opening the back like you're clicking a f#cking pen". If they can make a water-resistant USB port, they can make a battery cover that is just as water-resistant.  

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I guess the big question is...

Is this for daily battery swapping, or for once every few years servicing?

Putting a plug on a wire and using a removable stick on the inside of a device that is hard but possible to open would give up almost nothing from a design and cost to manufacture standpoint in most cases.  But, bringing back "I brought an extra battery with me" and externally accessible battery bays and similar would be fairly significant hurdles to both of those.

 

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I'm also 100% in agreement with this for laptops, though that isn't part of the leak.  They NEED to be required to have externally replaceable batteries.  Not only is it more usable that way, it is easier to troubleshoot and also makes it easy to use the laptop in old age for somebody who's use isn't demanding.  A simple battery swap makes a 5 year old laptop perfect to give to somebody for an e-mail and basic web machine.

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Tbh i dont care about removable battery.

 

Unless its faulty itll last awhile and by the time it needs replaced oist phones can be done fairly easy tbh. And you can go to most malls and have it done for less then $150.

 

Maybe im just lucky but by the time my phones battery is getting bad its about time to replace it anyway.

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While I get the intention of a law like this, frankly, any user now-a-days who wants to replace their battery (whether it's "user removable" or not), can.

 

Even with iPhones. Hell, if you live in the US, Apple will replace the battery for you for $49 USD (for most models - the X/11 series both cost more at $69 USD). That includes their labour to do the swap in an Apple Store.

 

Most phone repair shops (basically any mall) may even do it for less.

 

Or you could do it yourself. It's not that difficult.

 

Point being is that the vast majority of people are not going to bother buying a new battery, even if they can just take the back cover off. If they want to go down that route, it's already relatively inexpensive to do.

 

TL;DR, I highly doubt this will actually reduce e-waste to any significant degree.

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3 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

While I get the intention of a law like this, frankly, any user now-a-days who wants to replace their battery (whether it's "user removable" or not), can.

 

Even with iPhones. Hell, if you live in the US, Apple will replace the battery for you for $49 USD (for most models - the X/11 series both cost more at $69 USD). That includes their labour to do the swap in an Apple Store.

 

Most phone repair shops (basically any mall) may even do it for less.

 

Or you could do it yourself. It's not that difficult.

 

Point being is that the vast majority of people are not going to bother buying a new battery, even if they can just take the back cover off. If they want to go down that route, it's already relatively inexpensive to do.

 

TL;DR, I highly doubt this will actually reduce e-waste to any significant degree.

While I generally agree that anyone can do it if they try hard enough, not everyone owns a heat gun or wants to deal with the hassle of spudgers and prying the delicate parts of a modern phone apart. Making the back snap off or adding a couple of small, standardized screws would make the process way simpler and easier for the average Joe. 

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Just now, Waffles13 said:

While I generally agree that anyone can do it if they try hard enough, not everyone owns a heat gun or wants to deal with the hassle of spudgers and prying the delicate parts of a modern phone apart. Making the back snap off or adding a couple of small, standardized screws would make the process way simpler and easier for the average Joe. 

All true - which is why extremely cheap battery replacement services are common and easily accessible.

 

As I said, $49 and Apple will replace the battery for you, in store, in under an hour. If someone is going to buy a whole new phone instead of spending $49, then they're still going to buy a whole new phone instead of buying a $25 battery.

 

My point is that anyone who actually wants to replace their battery, can do so, for a reasonably small amount of money, and have an "expert" do it for them.

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2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

All true - which is why extremely cheap battery replacement services are common and easily accessible.

 

As I said, $49 and Apple will replace the battery for you, in store, in under an hour. If someone is going to buy a whole new phone instead of spending $49, then they're still going to buy a whole new phone instead of buying a $25 battery.

 

My point is that anyone who actually wants to replace their battery, can do so, for a reasonably small amount of money, and have an "expert" do it for them.

I can't speak for others but I would never even consider taking my phone to someone else to do a repair. Some of that may be personal pride but a big part is just that the idea of a professional repair place is foreign to me. I'm sure that Apple users are more used to it, but I'm guessing many others aren't. 

 

Not to mention that it's a whole hell of a lot easier to just order a battery off of Amazon and spend 1-5 minutes throwing it in to an easily replaceable phone than it is to locate a repair shop, schedule an appointment and then travel there and either wait or come back later to pick it up. Plus even if the cost difference is small, I know that I find it much easier to justify $25 for the slight convenience of charging my phone less often than I would if it was $45 or $50.

 

I don't particularly care about the environmental argument of phone waste (seems like one of the most laughably small environmental impacts I can think of), I just care about the practical one. And practically speaking, making phones and electronics more readily user serviceable has benefits and essentially no downsides to the end user and minimal impact to manufacturers. 

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What concerns me about this is the extra plastic that will probably be needed per device. It might not sound much but will add up quite quickly. An extra layer for the housing and also some around the battery to protect it from bending or puncture.

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This would be amazing. I miss being able to swap my battery halfway through the day. As it sits I have to charge my phone midday and replace the phone every 6 months due to a battery that no longer holds enough charge or a charging port that no longer accepts cables properly.

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5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

My point is that anyone who actually wants to replace their battery, can do so, for a reasonably small amount of money, and have an "expert" do it for them.

but what if I want to save 20$ and do it myself.

 

 

I'd hope this also comes with making OEMs sell batteries for less than they charge for a first party repair. if it is expected to take 30 mins by a tech making 20$ an hour require it to be at least that much cheaper. (also got to make sure it is based on median times so they can't be like we expect to take 10 mins).

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The thing that it is hard to make a water proof phone with the removable battery is BS. I do not have a problem with dealing with the screws to be able to replace the battery. I hate the ones that need the heatgun to remove and the re-apply these adhesive strips. I think it is also amazing how the phone makers can find the resources to squeeze in 15 cameras but cannot find resources to make a removable battery. I even do not mind it being 2 mm thicker.

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Why is everyone so overcome by the need to have their phone water proof?  I mean how many people really need to go swimming with their phone?  Watches I can understand, but for majority of people a normal ip5 rated phone is more than fine. 

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