What about replaceable flash memory? That’s a consumable too.
European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
21–30 of 622 posts
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#22I still do not agree with that rule. Replacable batteries are at odds with water tightness. I would have bought more phones if mine didn't survive water to a great extent.
I think instead the regulation should focus on making parts available and phones reasonably easy to repair. This will most likely include switching out seals, which are needed for the protection from water.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#23I wish there were better approaches to solving the problems around replacing batteries. This solution has downsides in terms of size (extra material required to surround the battery) and waterproofness. I like the features that will have to trade off against replaceable batteries. I wish there were more opportunities for creative solutions to ewaste rather than the specific outcome being regulated.
Cameras have been weatherproof with replaceable batteries for years, it's called gaskets.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#24The problem is not really the battery anymore, it's the software mainly. It's all closed source and is often deprecated before the hardware is dead. Then the manufacturer makes it hard to unlock bootloaders; keeps drivers closed source and effectively bricks the device. For recurring sales are the backbone of modern economy so we must force obsolescence. Why would you want to replace a battery in a useless device? Pl…
Battery in my last device became too weak long before device was useless. Device was perfectly fine, just that battery did not hold long anymore.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#25Cool. The manufacturers will figure out a way to make nice phones with a longer lifetime. Because the EU forces them to.
Or they just create one phone for the EU market and don't market the rest?
That just doesn't happen because you lose economy of scale. The EU actually has a ton of soft power through this, enough for it to be a term in geopolitics:
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#26I love the EU's focus on consumer protections and I'm all for progressive policies on environmental issues, but this and the USB-C issue strike me as misguided, policies from people who aren't qualified to to make the decisions they are making, and aren't listening to experts. I'm glad we're getting USB-C on the iPhone, but it wasn't a huge problem and it was probably coming anyway in the next few years. But replacea…
battery life is the driver of phone waste.
i buy used sub-flagship phones two or three cycles behind. they're much cheaper, they do what i need, they're not too slow for modern software.
but the battery is the worst part. i get a day's life at best. a year in i'm camping by outlets all day if i need to use my phone more than incidentally.
all of these phones would be perfectly good on the secondary market if a battery replacement service didn't cost as much as replacing the phone itself.
i used to swap batteries myself. but it's increasingly difficult to do without damaging the screen as you peel it apart, and at that point the phone is totaled.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#27The problem is not really the battery anymore, it's the software mainly. It's all closed source and is often deprecated before the hardware is dead. Then the manufacturer makes it hard to unlock bootloaders; keeps drivers closed source and effectively bricks the device. For recurring sales are the backbone of modern economy so we must force obsolescence. Why would you want to replace a battery in a useless device? Pl…
Yes but replaceable batteries are a good start and a more pressing issue. A phone with a 4+ year old battery is useless even if you have all the software for it.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#28Cool. The manufacturers will figure out a way to make nice phones with a longer lifetime. Because the EU forces them to.
Engineers have become experts in selecting components so that they fail right after the warranty period.
Replaceable batteries just means they will make something else weaker instead, preferably something that fries the device once it fails (see https://youtu.be/7cNg_ifibCQ?t=238).
It's too dangerous not to, as nowadays phones (or computers in general) don't really need to be upgraded that often to remain useful. No manufacturer wants a repeat of the 1080Ti.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#29I wish there were better approaches to solving the problems around replacing batteries. This solution has downsides in terms of size (extra material required to surround the battery) and waterproofness. I like the features that will have to trade off against replaceable batteries. I wish there were more opportunities for creative solutions to ewaste rather than the specific outcome being regulated.
I blame Apple for everyone's obsession with size. Or really, thinness, as everyone seems to have pop tart phones as thin and fragile as glass--with such a large phone, what value does thinness really add? I'd rather have a less delicate, easily serviceable, thicker phone.
Have we forgotten about the Motorola RAZR? Thinness obsession was a thing long before Apple entered the game.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#30Cool. The manufacturers will figure out a way to make nice phones with a longer lifetime. Because the EU forces them to.
I wish you were right but I have zero faith that Apple would ever willingly follow through with this. A depleted battery is an opportunity for them to sell people on a new phone who don't realize they can get the battery replaced. It also totally goes against their whole ethos of non-repair. Mandating USB C was easier because Apple already did that with the Macbooks, so it wasn't that big of a leap. Removable batteri…
Alternatively, it'll be another excuse for them to claim to revolutionize computing to cheers by bringing back the old replaceable battery with some more proprietary stuff and carefully hidden statements about the water resistance not working afterwards.