Do you miss phones with replaceable batteries? By 2027, you won't anymore because, by law, almost every smartphone will have them again.

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.
  • sunbunman
    11•1 year ago

    And they know people are going to be importing these smartphones once it goes live and it’s not a battle that can be fought.

    • @alectrem
      8•1 year ago

      The company Fairphone makes almost perfectly repairable smartphones, but they’re only for the European market and the radios won’t really work in the US. I think it would be a similar case for a lot of phones so it might not actually be super viable to import phones in the future either, unfortunately.

        • @alectrem
          2•1 year ago

          oh damn! awesome! my current phone still functions well, so hopefully the next one has a headphone jack and I’ll get one, thanks for linking that!

      • sunbunman
        5•1 year ago

        I remember when iPhones first came out, they were locked to a single telecom provider. It got jailbroken within a week and every patch following it for over a year got jailbroken too.

        If there is enough demand by big brands, unlike the fairphone, there will be a way to use it outside of the EU. Combined with the extra cost to manufacture, I don’t see big companies just producing it uniquely for the EU or even if they do, not for long.