4 ms·

EU Parliament adopts draft legislation: Smartphone batteries must be removable

11 points by mg 5y ago

ddingus 5y ago
Interesting! Well, I would not complain. The phones get a bit less sexy. Fine by me. To deal with battery issues, I run those cases containing one so I can reduce wear in the difficult to change battery.
techdragon 5y ago
This would be excellent… Assuming it’s not introduced with a giant loophole for devices to justify non-removable batteries based on flimsy criteria like it being necessary to achieve other design requirements… which would make it trivial for phone manufacturers to keep using non-replaceable batteries in order to make sealing phones to make them waterproof.
jfengel 5y ago
In general I like the idea that we should use less stuff and use what stuff we have for longer. But I wonder if smartphones are the long pole in the tent here? Obviously there are a ton of them, and they're full of stuff that we probably don't want in landfills. But they are tiny, and can be had pretty cheaply. So is it worth focusing on replaceable batteries, or is that just an easy thing to target? I don't particularly want to replace my batteries. I tend to keep my phones for 3-5 years, and if I have to pay a pro to replace the battery once or twice, I personally am OK with that. It's a device I carry around all the time, and would prefer its design be focused on convenience for the 729 out of every 730 days that I'm not replacing the battery. If they can manage the best of both worlds, awesome. I don't know how much it would cost in terms of battery life, size, waterproofing, or whatever to make the batteries replaceable. And I don't want to be "that guy" just because I'm more cranky about vast amounts of disposable plastic packaging than a phone -- we need to fix all of the problems. So I'm genuinely curious. Is this a significant issue, or is it a bit like the plastic straws, where a smallish but real problem just happened to be the one that people focused on because it was in front of them?

11 points by mg 5y ago

Interesting! Well, I would not complain. The phones get a bit less sexy. Fine by me. To deal with battery issues, I run those cases containing one so I can reduce wear in the difficult to change battery.

techdragon 5y ago

This would be excellent… Assuming it’s not introduced with a giant loophole for devices to justify non-removable batteries based on flimsy criteria like it being necessary to achieve other design requirements… which would make it trivial for phone manufacturers to keep using non-replaceable batteries in order to make sealing phones to make them waterproof.

jfengel 5y ago

In general I like the idea that we should use less stuff and use what stuff we have for longer. But I wonder if smartphones are the long pole in the tent here? Obviously there are a ton of them, and they're full of stuff that we probably don't want in landfills. But they are tiny, and can be had pretty cheaply. So is it worth focusing on replaceable batteries, or is that just an easy thing to target? I don't particularly want to replace my batteries. I tend to keep my phones for 3-5 years, and if I have to pay a pro to replace the battery once or twice, I personally am OK with that. It's a device I carry around all the time, and would prefer its design be focused on convenience for the 729 out of every 730 days that I'm not replacing the battery. If they can manage the best of both worlds, awesome. I don't know how much it would cost in terms of battery life, size, waterproofing, or whatever to make the batteries replaceable. And I don't want to be "that guy" just because I'm more cranky about vast amounts of disposable plastic packaging than a phone -- we need to fix all of the problems. So I'm genuinely curious. Is this a significant issue, or is it a bit like the plastic straws, where a smallish but real problem just happened to be the one that people focused on because it was in front of them?