I held onto my older GalaxyNote for this very reason. During the good times of PokeGo it was like having a super power to just switch out my battery and be back to 100%.
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Interesting.
I remember struggling to find a phone with replaceable battery. The galaxy S3 was good because of this. "We can't make the battery replaceable, otherwise the phone won't be waterproof", yeah that was bullshit.
This will make the phone more expensive and this is totally fine and expected.
Oh gawd yes. I love the EU.
Lmao no this is shit. Say goodbye to durability as well as any water resistance while making phones bulkier to boot. You can already swap the battery on most non-fruit-branded phones while maintaining water resistance if you do it right (actually it would "reup" the water resistance if anything due to fresh adhesive, again assuming it's done right).
There's no reason you HAVE to sacrifice durability and water resistance. It'd just cost a tiny bit more in materials, which I'm perfectly fine with given how much this would save the environment.
You can already swap the battery on most non-fruit-branded phones while maintaining water resistance if you do it right.
? How do you swap batteries on most phones nowadays in 5 seconds?
How do you swap batteries on most phones nowadays in 5 seconds?
Where did I say anything about swapping the battery in 5 seconds? So if it takes longer than 5 seconds it doesn't count?
User-replaceable batteries do NOT use adhesive. It's even directly stated in the EU specs.
They found out how to waterproof walkmans with replaceable batteries and cds. Pretty sure they can figure out phones.
Yeah it's definitely possible. I remember my waterproof Walkman.
Source? Or, or more specifically, model numbers of these waterpoof walkmans?
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Finally. So tired of having to replace a phone simply because the battery no longer lasts a day, while the rest of it is still functional.
You can just replace the batteries in most phones for $100 or so. No need to buy another $500-$1000 phone.
You may or may not lose water resistance, but im sure you can live with that vs having to buy another one.
I'm all for this. The big argument against it is that it makes it harder to waterproof but I'll take that over a phone I have to replace every 18 months because the battery is shit.
Just don't buy fruit-branded phones and you can generally swap the battery without much hassle.
I don't think you get it. Batteries used to be swappable in 5 seconds flat.
Yeah, I get it, I just remember phones exploding into 3 parts whenever you dropped it as well as the back cover wearing out to the point it wouldn't even stay on. People really do just have the nostalgia blinders on; as long as there isn't an arbitrary lockout there's nothing wrong with having to open the phone to swap the battery. Plus you have a 0% chance of being SOL if you get a cheap Chinese battery and it blows up (the shop that swapped your battery would be on the hook).
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That's just not true. I've always been an android user and it's non-trivial to change the battery, hasn't been easy for years.
I had a sony walkman in the late 90s that was waterproof. I could put CDs in it and replace the batteries. They can figure it out.
The question is will this new system work like it used to be, as in can you just buy a battery from some seller in china or is it going to be similar to what we have now where the batteries are paired to the device.
The article never said a company like Apple couldn’t pair the battery to the device and charge €100 for it.
The article goes into it a bit but the downside to user replaceable batteries is that they are bigger while not giving more charge, you have to include the plastic casings to ensure that they aren’t damaged when being pulled out or dropped or thrown in bags so you do end up with a thicker device and while some devices may allow a hotswap if the phone is plugged into a charger that’s not guaranteed.
I also question the viability of it leaving the EU market, take Apple for example, they already make a different model for the US market and a different model for the china market and a different model for the international market for the 12,13, and 14 lines, they could just make it a Europe only model as it will likely effect the design of the phone in some ways. USB-C I can see coming to all models as it’s something that doesn’t affect the design as much and it’s already on their other devices. But we’ll have to see.
At this point I’d say for any skilled repair person replacing a phone battery shouldn’t be too hard but I guess this can make it easier. For the iPhone 14 lineup you heat up then remove the display, pull the battery pull tabs, life the battery and put in the new one then reseal the display and your good.
While having easy to swap user replaceable batteries seems nice on paper I worry it will lead to chunkier devices. I’m more in favor of right to repair, or basically requiring the parts such as batteries and displays have to be available to everyone including third parties at a reasonable price and ensuring that third parties can actually do the repairs without having to say call up a customer support line to recalibrate the battery(ie pair it to the device); cough couch, apple self service repair.
*disclosure; I’m a certified Apple partner repair technician and as such my view point may be skewed.
Its not really as easy for non apple repair techs to change the battery. If anyone but a certified person does I bet that would void any water resistance part of the warranty, possibly if anyone but apple specifically does it?
Easily changeable batteries that don't compromise water resistance would be really great, but that will definitely make them bigger.
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the eu hes already been through this whole rodeo with the charger debacle, they'll not allow a loophole like that
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It’s going to be interesting to see how companies adjust to this. Also interesting if water proofing will still be possible.
I mean, the Galaxy S5 was waterproof (IP67) and had a removable battery... so it should be very possible. I think this was always a BS argument, mostly just a facile excuse for a consumer-hostile decision.
Yeah, waterproof phones existed back when most smartphones had removable batteries, claiming that making the battery non-replaceable was necessary for waterproofing was always a lie to justify making phones more disposable
I’m not really for this. It’s easy to replace an Apple battery, and I don’t want phones to become more bulky and less water resistant because of this.
I’ll take a 1mm thicker phone in exchange for a huge reduction in e-waste any day
Fruit-branded companies are in absolute shambles (fuck 'em btw)
"Oh no!! Our phones have to be 1 mm thicker in the EU!!" - Apple designers probably
As someone who tends to hang onto my phone for ages, I like being able to get replacement batteries... but I wish they would just take everything fairphone does (removable battery + lineage + and especially right-to-repair stuff) and base new standards on that.
OTOH, I also believe that would not be impossible to engineer a phone that could be taken apart where you could have replacement parts for both the battery and seals (e.g. while many companies currently frame things as "removable batteries OR water resistance", I see no technology reasons why BOTH couldn't exist in the same device) ... There just hasn't been a big push for businesses to develop something like that bc everyone buys their products without them needing to put that much effort into it.
If companies stopped auto-voiding warranties over users opening a phone and stopped treating everyone as incapable of doing their own repairs, I could totally see user-replaceable seals being a thing. You can basically look at other markets that do have right-to-repair. Sure, replacing seals on a phone might be a bit much for grandma. But grandma is also probably going to call either a repair shop or someone in the family who is good with it. Really not much different than upgrading laptop ram/hdd or doing your own plumbing or changing the oil on a car today... pretty damn easy if you know what you're doing, but not something everyone is going to know how to or want to do.
When Samsung and Apple are seemingly incapable of producing repairable devices while Fairphone comes out of nowhere and are doing it just fine, it's not a question of it being difficult. It's a question of it being profitable. If Fairphone managed to make a repairable device, Apple or Samsung would have managed to create one that is both fully waterproof and repairable if they considered it a priority.
From the view of the industry, the logic is that "if you're not going to have your phone break down in heavy rain, at least make sure you'll have to replace it in three years because the battery starts sucking". There's absolutely no incentive to make a product that will actually last.
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I'm all in for replaceable batteries. But don't think swappable batteries are possible with modern devices.
It's a question how "modern" you need your device to be as well. Despite being a small company, Fairphone is capable of producing fully repairable devices that are working great by my standards at least.
It's another thing engineers need to think about when designing phones, but most advances the last few years have been in terms of pointless gimmicks anyway. If they can produce phones with foldable screens, chances are they could manage replaceable batteries as well if only they wanted to.
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IDK about this one, removable batteries will generally mean less water resistance won't it? Also, these days batteries are custom built for every phone so that they can be as large as possible. Forcing them to be easily replaceable might screw that up.
I love the EU's approach to consumer repair rights, but I think this one might do more harm than good.
My phone's with removable batteries always needed new batteries. And the replacements were junk (nothing good on Amazon or eBay).
But the last 2-3 phones have been sealed. And they've outlasted the phone.
Only one that had a problem was my grandma's (who wireless charged it 24/7) and it became swollen.
Seems like you could just mandate manufacturers to make sure replacement batteries are available on the market as well?
I'm a few years into my Fairphone 3, it still lasts two days of normal use without charging, and the battery can be replaced in seconds. If I need a new one I can buy it straight from the producer.
I’ve never lost a phone to water damage in my lifetime either before or after batteries became more difficult to swap.
I have bought some old used electronics lately. Having an easily accessible and replaceable battery in the Game Boy Advance SP and the Nintendo DSi is very nice though.
I’d probably replace the battery on my phone right now if I could.
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