All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027 • Hacker News Board

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#891

Post by streetfighter64 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 9:39 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #148

konschubert wrote: post #120

Aren't today's phone batteries already replaceable with commercially available tools? I can walk into a non-apple store with my iPhone and walk out with a replaced battery 20 minutes later. This isn't even what drives obsolesce of phones, it's software updates. If you really want to be able to self-swap your own battery, you can just buy an Android that has a replaceable battery. Do we need to regulate something that…

They're taking "commercially available" to mean things like a screwdriver - not a $1000 phone disassembly machine.

The actual cost breakdown for a battery replacement is:

  45 EUR for a new battery
  10 EUR for new display adhesive
  20 EUR for screwdrivers and a spudger (unless you have them already)
  a suction cup and tweezers you probably have at home already

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+11+Battery+Replacement/1...

Ignore the 25 EUR clamp and 20 EUR heat pack, I did and they weren't needed at all. So all in all, around 910 USD less than you claimed.

The heat gun discussion in the sibling comments is also completely ridiculous. There must be 100 ways to do it without a heat gun. Put it on the radiator, use a heat pack for muscle soreness, or just borrow a hairdryer.

If somebody's unable to replace their iphone battery because they can't come up with a source of heat, I doubt they'd even be able to replace the batteries in their TV remote.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#892

Post by theshrike79 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 9:40 AM UTC

rythie wrote: post #584

It’s been long enough that people of forgotten what’s it’s like. Cameras still have replaceable batteries, there are several benefits: I can have two (or more) batteries, if it runs out I just change it. I don’t need walk around with a USB battery pack and cable hanging off the device preventing me from using it properly. I can put the battery on charge somewhere and leave it, even if not completely secure, because j…

Quickswap batteries work for stateless devices.

A camera doesn't care if you take the battery out, except for that sub-second bit when it's saving the photo. Otherwise it doesn't notice you swapping the battery at all.

Modern phones are different because they are basically computers, and computers really don't like it when you just cut the power with no warning.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#893

Post by theshrike79 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 9:42 AM UTC

aivisol wrote: post #795

jillesvangurp wrote: post #778

I used to work for Nokia back when they still made phones. Replaceable batteries were very normal then. Phones were a bit thicker than today but not massively so. These days phones are actually thinner but much larger. I had a "are you happy to see me or is that a Nokia" type Nokia 9300. That was a brick. But it had a full hw keyboard. and flipped open it wasn't that much bigger than a modern smart phone. You could a…

I have my 9300 still in a drawer ( checked ) . Interesting if it is possible to find a replacement battery for it and what functionality would still be usable? A physical SIM, 3G still works…

If it's one of the BL/BH/etc batteries you can still get them.

They're somewhat of a standard in DIY circles because they're a familiar form and all of the support stuff for them has existed for decades.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#894

Post by ssl-3 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 9:45 AM UTC

pnw wrote: post #651

spaqin wrote: post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've had thin smartphones with replaceable batteries 15 years ago. That was the standard. Galaxy S5 was the last one in that series, and it's not looking too different from today. It was even IP rated for water! Batteries also don't really die, but you get shorter and shorter life. When a device that barely could make it through 2 days of use now survives for less than one, an "upgrade" seems nicer than it really wo…

The S5 was IP67 rated but only if the USB port flap was sealed. Modern phones like the S24 and iPhones are IP68 rated without covers. As someone who spends a lot of time outdoors in the rain, giving up superior IP68 water resistance for a replaceable battery that I'll never replace will be a downgrade for me.

That's true. More-modern phones can be IP-rated without a cover for the USB port like the S5 required.

That doesn't mean that a modern phone of vaguely S5 shape, with an S5-esque battery door, can't be fitted with a more modern USB port, though. Does it?

They seem like very unrelated things.

(Those modern ports, by the way? They're pretty slick when they work right. They detect moisture and turn off the bit of normally-externally-available power to help prevent galvanic corrosion.)

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#895

Post by ahf8Aithaex7Nai » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 9:46 AM UTC

krige wrote: post #847

Ray20 wrote: post #823

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That’s why you can’t simply assume that competition will lead to the product offerings converging on the best product. You also can't simply assume that an existing solution on the market is not the best already. I mean, who told us that smartphones with user-replaceable batteries are better than smartphones that are 0.5 mm thinner because their batteries are non-replaceable? The same people who want to ban encrypt…

> I mean, who told us that smartphones with user-replaceable batteries are better than smartphones that are 0.5 mm thinner because their batteries are non-replaceable? The same people who want to ban encryption? Even apart from the ad-hominem FUD argumentation, currently, it's the people who refuse to ban encryption even after it was pushed to them multiple times.

This argument is neither an ad hominem attack nor FUD. If you don’t like the pig trough analogy, I’ll be happy to rephrase it for you: when I buy something, I just go to the store and buy it. There are a few areas of personal interest where I’m more selective about what I buy, but generally speaking, I just grab whatever’s right at the front of the shelf, within arm’s reach, and looks roughly like what I want. If you look at consumers as a whole, that’s the best approximation of their behavior.

The ban on encryption is a good counterpoint! I’m not saying that everything the regulators want to do is good or in line with my views. But ultimately, I want to live in a world where policymakers set the framework and the market finds good solutions within that framework, not in a world where market players are given completely free rein and every political intervention is viewed as if someone had licked the sacred shrine of a deity with their tongue.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#896

Post by ben_w » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 10:02 AM UTC

jpfromlondon wrote: post #856

heavyset_go wrote: post #714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it's such a superior product that people want despite the tradeoffs, why don't they just fund a company to create such a phone? Why doesn't anyone? Because legislation is direct and gives better results to consumers. Thank god the EU standardized on USB-C. There's no reason to jump through extra hoops and rely on the whims of investors to do something good for the people.

>Thank god the EU standardized on USB-C Short term thinking, if anyone invents a significantly better connector the eu will lag a decade while they clear the red tape, it hampers innovation inside the bloc people who might otherwise be concocting their own improved connector.

(1) The EU fundamentally didn't care which standard so long as there was one; they only forced this because Apple dragged their feet with their own proprietary thing that wasn't a significant advantage. The other end of Apple's Lightning port being a USB port does not suggest it added anything except deliberate incompatibility.

(2) what would "significantly better" even look like? USB-C can do 120 watts, enough to fill a 20 Wh battery in 10 minutes, except the batteries themselves aren't ready to charge that fast.

(3) if someone somehow manages to make a significant advance, nothing prevents them from having two ports. Or indeed lobbying for a law change on the basis of a tangible thing they can demonstrate rather than a hypothetical that still hasn't happened in all the time since these discussions began.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#897

Post by ssl-3 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 10:12 AM UTC

Shacklz wrote: post #261

proee wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could be "fixed" right now by a software update that limits the maximum charge level to 80% of capacity. However, this comes at the cost of how many minutes of runtime your phone can operate. So manufactures might just responds to this by making your phone heavier with a bigger battery that is being under utilized.

Honestly we should define 80% as the new "100%" on such batteries and label "charging to full" as "overcharging". Psychologically, people understand charging a battery to "125%" (or whatever) a lot better: Do it when you really need to but if you do it all the time it wears down the battery a lot faster.

The Samsung phone I use these days has a "Protect Battery" mode that can be toggled (both manually and with automatic user-defined routines). It limits maximum charge to 85%. For those who want it: That's the ~same thing, without the psychological trick.

It also has some other settings that relate to smart charging that I don't fully understand (mostly because it's kind of inscrutable).

But the idea, AFAICT, is that it works with a person who charges their phone on a fairly regular schedule (they sleep at about the same time every night with plugged in all night).

The battery meanders up to 85% or something and holds there. Shortly before the person normally wakes up, it starts coming the rest of the way up to 100%. And then they wake up, unplug the phone, and it begins to discharge.

This helps to minimize the duration of being at a high state-of-charge, which is also a big factor in long-term battery longevity.

It's a tidy set of tradeoffs, I think.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#898

Post by inverno303 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 10:24 AM UTC

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Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#899

Post by ssl-3 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 10:28 AM UTC

streetfighter64 wrote: post #891

bombcar wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're taking "commercially available" to mean things like a screwdriver - not a $1000 phone disassembly machine.

The actual cost breakdown for a battery replacement is: 45 EUR for a new battery 10 EUR for new display adhesive 20 EUR for screwdrivers and a spudger (unless you have them already) a suction cup and tweezers you probably have at home already https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+11+Battery+Replacement/1... Ignore the 25 EUR clamp and 20 EUR heat pack, I did and they weren't needed at all. So all in all, around 910 USD…

Does your iPhone maintain its water resistance after this procedure? According to my read, under the EU rule, that's a requirement along with the easy-to-swap batteries.

Myself, I've had bad luck with getting things sealed up just-so in my own phone-repair adventures (which can be validated well-enough in Samsung world by looking at the barometer's reading, squeezing the phone to create some internal pressure, and then watching the rate of change).

I like to think that I have reasonably-decent mechanical inclination, but the luck here has been bad anyway. I really just want to be able to take the battery out, put a new one in, and have it otherwise work exactly like it did an hour ago. Alas.

Re: All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027

#900

Post by drw85 » Tue, Apr 21, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC

thrownthatway wrote: post #762

kolinko wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With cameras you don't care about every mm of width, nor about how resistant it is to falls. With phones you do. I, for one, don't welcome that change. I'd be ok with paying someone a bit extra to replace the battery. I mean, I'd be ok if I had a battery die in my phone in the last 10 years, which I don't remember it did.

> care about every mm of width I think you mean thickness? Extra width is sold as a feature. I don’t understand the obsession with reducing thickness. Why is a thinner phone more desirable than a thicken one?

I don't think it is more desirable, the iPhone Air has reportedly sold way below expectations.