[deleted]
European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
81–90 of 622 posts
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is waterproof even a real needed feature? Like, I've been owning mobile phones for 22 years at this point and it's literally something I've never cared or benefitted from. On the other hand, having replaceable batteries is definitely something that's been useful in the past.
Yes, it is a needed feature in humid environments.
Also anywhere that drops below freezing in the winter. Coming indoors with an ice cold phone is going to cause tons of condensation. If the phone isn't sealed (or placed inside a sealed case) then water will get inside.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#83I wonder what is the definition of easily removable and replaceable. Does popping a few screws and using a specialized tool qualifies as easy? What about re-sealing the device after to keep the waterproof rating?
Is waterproof even a real needed feature? Like, I've been owning mobile phones for 22 years at this point and it's literally something I've never cared or benefitted from. On the other hand, having replaceable batteries is definitely something that's been useful in the past.
Yes it is. I had a phone accidentally fall in water 3-4 times, was pretty happy waterproof phones are a thing.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#84I followed through to the link and I don't think it actually creates a hard requirement for replaceable phone batteries.
There's also a clear exception for rinseable devices, I guess they mean shavers and toothbrushes, but potentially phones could come under it as well.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#85[flagged]
Could you please not post unsubstantive comments and/or flamebait? It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Not my experience… I replaced my iPhone 6 because it was slow, not because battery was bad And since 2018 I have iPhone XR, and the battery is fine still. So is the phone speed. I’m not changing it anytime soon
> I replaced my iPhone 6 because it was slow, not because battery was bad
iPhone slowness can go hand in hand with batteries going bad, especially in the iPhone 6 days. Apple phones will limit peak performance when it detects the battery voltage can't handle it without too much of a voltage drop. From what I understand its now an opt-out setting, but for most of the iPhone 6's life it wasn't an option.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd much rather be able to swap a charged battery for the drained one in my phone especially in such circumstances as when I'm in a foreign country and dependent on my phone (for e.g. safety, to get around) and there's not a iPhone cable or charge point around. It seems like a no brainer, certainly from a consumer benefit perspective. Using batteries as a mechanism for hardware upgrades is ridiculous, instead of the…
If a battery lasts a couple of days, I would much rather my phone were waterproof than be able to swap the battery. Having a power bank solves the problem of discharged phone for me, and anyway I almost never have to use it. Being able to drop your phone in the water and pick it up still working is far more valuable to me.
Seems like it should be possible for the phone (not the battery compartment and battery door, just the rest of the phone) to be waterproof, and for the battery to be waterproof, and the two can contact each other regardless of that contact being in a wet location. After all, we have plenty of electrical wiring methods rated for wet locations, so why not this? Water isn't the very best insulator (especially saltwater and other mineral content, which the contacts would need corrosion resistance for as well) but it should be sufficient at 4VDC.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 batter…
I paid $99 to get my iPhone XS Max's battery replaced directly by Apple a few weeks back. That phone is almost 5 years old. I really don't think that $99 is unreasonable.
apple support is an exception. and that's still half the cost of a good used iphone xs. if you'd just bought new old stock, you'd be ahead.
i'm currently running a pixel 4, and a battery swap would cost more than i spent on the phone.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or they just create one phone for the EU market and don't market the rest?
Which could make for a really interesting experiment - how many people would buy the EU replaceable battery edition of the phone vs. importing/traveling to a non-EU country nearby to buy the other version. It seems clear that there will be some downside to the replaceable battery version, whether it's size, cost, weight, ergonomics, water resistance, etc. Will the convenience of having replaceable batteries and not i…
> Which could make for a really interesting experiment - how many people would buy the EU replaceable battery edition of the phone vs. importing/traveling to a non-EU country nearby to buy the other version.
Assuming everything else is close enough.
I know there's an ocean between me and the EU, but importing a phone becomes significantly more difficult than it needs to be based on which cellular frequencies are supported.
Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries
#90I 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…
I think the policies are pretty well informed. I do think USB-C was a huge problem, and I don't think it was coming in a few years. I'm not skeptical of replaceable batteries. I think the policy that forces them to be removable on top of working with 3rd party manufacturers is a good idea. I don't think replaceable batteries or USB-C requirements restrict the industries ability to move forward. Edit: You can continue…
>"I don't think replaceable batteries or USB-C requirements restrict the industries ability to move forward. "
Compelling the use of USB-C will cause stagnation in connector innovation; there's no point in trying to to create new and more durable/water-proof/wear-resistant/faster connectors. The requirements for replaceable batteries may cause stagnation in other innovations; if we imagine that there'd been similar requirements in the alkaline era, we might never have gotten to Lithium-Ion.