TL;DR
- The European Council has ended its adoption procedure for rules related to phones with replaceable batteries.
- By 2027, all phones released in the EU must have a battery the user can easily replace with no tools or expertise.
- The regulation intends to introduce a circular economy for batteries.
I’m not arguing against making it easier for people to fix their devices on their own. I’m just not a fan of the “no tools” aspect. People drop their phones all the time. A “no tools” battery cover is going to pop right off and break or wear out. I’d rather have it secured with a couple screws.
It’s not actually “no tools”, it’s “no specialized or proprietary tools unless provided for free by the manufacturer”.
Appreciate the additional info. Thanks!
In addition to the correction from the other user - there are plenty of designs that provide access to phone internals with no tools. Snap fit phone bodies work fine, there are several modern phones with them and numerous older phones. Still water resistant, and the case doesn’t magically pop off just by dropping it.
(Also a case popping off from being dropped actually protects internals and the screen by absorbing some of the drop energy anyway, since the kind of drop that would easily pop a phone body off is the same kind of drop that will break screens.)
True. My Asus Max Pro M1 had that design although it didn’t have any liquid protection aside from basic splash resistance. Several Redme Note devices also had same design. I had always thought the back pannel was glued shut untill I visited service centre for battery replacement and they just popped off the back.