EU ban on non-removable laptop and smartphone(?) batteries

[jboman1980]

Summary

EU will ban non-removable laptop batteries. Takes effect in 2027.

 

Quote

The European Parliament approved a directive in which portable batteries in appliances placed on the European Union market must be designed so that end-users can easily remove and replace them. 

 

My thoughts

The obvious: what will Apple do?

 

Sources

https://www.newsendip.com/laptop-and-smartphone-batteries-sold-in-the-e-u-will-need-to-be-easily-removable-by-users/

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, jboman1980 said:

My thoughts

 

The obvious: what will Apple do?

Inb4 Apple makes the battery removable though still under the bottom cover of the chassis and then makes the bottom cover harder to open with more screws or more obscure screws.

[jboman1980]

Topic headline edited (+smartphones)

Not sure if I got this straight, but could be huge

[PDifolco]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Inb4 Apple makes the battery removable though still under the bottom cover of the chassis and then makes the bottom cover harder to open with more screws or more obscure screws.

They'll make "official Apple Batteries"

In this case "official" means price x4

 

[jaslion]

Wait it went through?

 

Thats kinda dope

[jboman1980]

8 minutes ago, jboman1980 said:

must be designed so that end-users can easily remove and replace them. 

Easily
Remove
By end-users

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, PDifolco said:

They'll make "official Apple Batteries"

In this case "official" means price x4

 

Inb4 all the batteries for iPhones get MFI chips and need to be MFI certified to work on IOS and Apple spins up Made For Mac as a programme and requires a MFI type chip in Mac batteries to work.

 

Would not surprise me in the least.

[AlTech]

4 minutes ago, jboman1980 said:

Topic headline edited (+smartphones)

Not sure if I got this straight, but could be huge

Does it also cover tablets?

[jaslion]

Just now, jboman1980 said:

Easily
Remove
End-users

Is there a deeper explanation of this anywhere yet?

 

Does this also mean making the batteries replaceable and not just removeable? As in look at what apple is doing where it is not user replacable without their expensive proprietary stuff.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Inb4 all the batteries for iPhones get MFI chips and need to be MFI certified to work on IOS and Apple spins up Made For Mac as a programme and requires a MFI type chip in Mac batteries to work.

 

Would not surprise me in the least.

Not sure if sarcasm or if you are just 5 ish years behind :p.

 

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Does it also cover tablets?

Often these laws see tablets as smartphone in their texts sometimes as portable computing devices (aka laptops in the law speech). Which is strange but it gets em included

 

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Not sure if sarcasm or if you are just 5 ish years behind :p.

Not sarcasm. Current iPhone batteries don't have MFI chips in them. I'm not aware of ways Apple forces use of their batteries at the moment but I don't follow iPhones that closely.

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Often these laws see tablets as smartphone in their texts sometimes as portable computing devices (aka laptops in the law speech). Which is strange but it gets em included

 

Ah, alright.

[Isuck Assimov]

YASSS EU, give us regulations

[WereCat]

17 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Inb4 Apple makes the battery removable though still under the bottom cover of the chassis and then makes the bottom cover harder to open with more screws or more obscure screws.

I'll take 100000 screws over a glue though

[jboman1980]

14 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Is there a deeper explanation of this anywhere yet?

Maybe this one?

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2023-0237_EN.html

[jaslion]

10 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Not sarcasm. Current iPhone batteries don't have MFI chips in them. I'm not aware of ways Apple forces use of their batteries at the moment but I don't follow iPhones that closely.

They do.

 

if you do NOT have the exact battery the iphone came with in the device the device will say it's not a legit battery and disable a heap of functions.

 

Even if you swap 2 brand new iphone's batteries between eachother they will be seen as unofficial

[jboman1980]

Quote

By 1 January 2024 portable batteries incorporated in appliances and batteries for light means of transport shall be designed in such a manner that they can be readily and safely removed and replaced with basic and commonly available tools and without causing damage to the appliance or the batteries. Portable batteries shall be removable and replaceable by the end-user and batteries for light means of transport shall be removable and replaceable by the end-users or by independent operators during the lifetime of the appliance, if the batteries have a shorter lifetime than the appliance, or at the latest at the end of the lifetime of the appliance. Battery cells for light means of transport shall be removable and replaceable by independent operators.

Oops sorry that was not about devices...

 

More scrolling to do...

 

[PDifolco]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

They do.

 

if you do NOT have the exact battery the iphone came with in the device the device will say it's not a legit battery and disable a heap of functions.

 

Even if you swap 2 brand new iphone's batteries between eachother they will be seen as unofficial

I'm surprised they don't yet make proprietary screws with chips

They're so damn good at screwing people  

[jagdtigger]

Wont do much im afraid, manufacturers will just soft-lock the batteries and charge for theirs an obscene amount of money...... And because of the soft-lock nothing else is going to work:

 

[Donut417]

50 minutes ago, jboman1980 said:

The obvious: what will Apple do?

Stop long term support of the iPhone. iPhones have like 5 or 6 years of software support. Cut that down to about how long the battery lasts, give people less of an incentive to buy a new battery vs a new phone. 

[leclod]

36 minutes ago, jaslion said:

if you do NOT have the exact battery the iphone came with in the device the device will say it's not a legit battery and disable a heap of functions.

Even if you swap 2 brand new iphone's batteries between eachother they will be seen as unofficial

I do change the battery of my Iphone SE (2016) (I lost the battery analysis doing this, the ..%, but the phone works fine)

(I like the small form factor of that old phone)

I did change the battery (and camera) of the Iphone 8 of my gf with an original one and it was working as original, with the ..%.

I don't know anything about newer ones except that batteries can be bought and that it seems doable.

(I'm not saying it's easy, I did brick one or 2 Iphones)

 

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by leclod

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, jboman1980 said:

 

 

My thoughts

The obvious: what will Apple do?

 

You mean "what will everyone, including Apple do?"

 

Cause the last laptops with removable batteries were made in 2016. Dell, HP, Lonovo, Asus, etc all switched to crappy ultra-book designs.

 

That said, the solution is pretty easy since all laptops and the pda's that predated

smartphones had removable batteries. Simply go back to the "door" type batteries the iBook/Macbook's had.

 

Like these. Just stick a USB-C connector on the end. Problem solved.

 

 

Quote

A derogation is granted for appliances regularly subject to splashing water, water streams or water immersion and intended to be washable or rinsed. Such derogation is only applied when the design is required to ensure the safety of the user and the appliance. Professional medical imaging, radiotherapy, and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices with rechargeable batteries are also excluded from the regulation.

So no -easy out- by saying it needs IP67 and thus why it's sealed.

 

And realistically,  Smartphones always had the option to do this back when they were PDA's. PDA's typically had removable batteries in the same way that the Nintendo 3DS does. Just open a plastic back held in by one or two screws and swap out a standard shaped battery.

 

So this will probably result in a few devices becoming *shock* a whole 2mm thicker to account for the additional protective material to handle the battery.  Most devices, eg iphones, laptops, will just have you remove the back of the device, like now, except they will likely stop using security screws and glue.

[jagdtigger]

15 minutes ago, Kisai said:

security screws

Please stop helping them spreading that BS. Those are proprietary screws to prevent any 3rd party repairs, too bad for them that nowadays no matter what you do someone will make a bit for it...... It has nothing to do with security.

[PDifolco]

1 hour ago, jagdtigger said:

Wont do much im afraid, manufacturers will just soft-lock the batteries and charge for theirs an obscene amount of money...... And because of the soft-lock nothing else is going to work:

 

Apple will do that, Android brands won't

Hope it hurts Apple to its walle.. balls

 

[Sauron]

Finally, I wish it would come into effect sooner though...

[Blademaster91]

24 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Cause the last laptops with removable batteries were made in 2016. Dell, HP, Lonovo, Asus, etc all switched to crappy ultra-book designs.

Most of the Dell,HP, Lenovo, Asus laptops with a decent design are screwing their batteries in, all you need to do to access the battery is undo a few phillips screws to remove the bottom panel, while that still isn't as nice as a battery door or easily swapped batteries at least most people could be capable of changing it.

The only one making the battery unremovable is Apple using proprietary screws and gluing the battery in.