It's going to be cool to get user-replaceable batteries back in new phone releases.
Depending how it goes I can see myself keeping a spare instead of a powerbank
The whole discussion on what the EU is doing has devolved into this idea that everyone will be forced to offer a backplate that pops out and a battery you can remove with your fingers.
The directive is far more complicated, and you will not see that at all.
The regulation doesn't mean batteries have to be made swappable with just bare hands. Common tools and some simple, easily undoable gluing is still acceptable. It gets a battery replacement from a process that risks breaking glass parts, overheating components etc.. to something that can be done by a moderately skilled person with a moderately well stocked toolbox in an afternoon.
Isn’t that the case already for most devices? I can pay £80 and have a guy show up in a van and replace the battery in my iPhone in his van in 30 minutes or so.
The guy has trained himself to replace iPhone batteries and carries special tools for each model of iPhone in his van because it's not a simple process. The new law says he should only need a screwdriver set (roughly).
Yes, and a lot of that happened in preparation for this specific EU directive.
This happens a lot, see Samsung and Apple announcing more years of security updates and feature updates, Apple announcing the switch to USB-C for the iPhone.
Once it's clear the EU will not budge, some big companies will just switch over in advance, other companies will lag.
I'll never forget the feeling when you get an old phone, replace the battery and it's like brand new again. People no longer need to replace their phone every year anymore so being able to just replace the screen and battery makes the device practically brand new.
Another thing you can do: scroll through your app list and delete all the ones you don't use.
And if you keep your phone in flight mode when you're not using it, you'll quadruple your battery life or more. Both because the radio is off, and also because apps aren't waking up the CPU to spy on you every few minutes, since they can't transmit it.
I was expecting the bew folding screen to be really easy to replace, given that its basically floating behind a frame, but turns out no! its actually so built into the frame as to be a full body replacement with all the accompanying surgery
Sure, but so far I've replaced my phone screen once and the battery never, I suppose both would be equally easy though. Why is heating a big issue but removing screws not? Shouldn't we mandate user-replaceable screens too? Soon you'll end up regulating all phones to be modular.
I don't really see the value of regulation requiring a certain preference, given that there are tradeoffs. I owned a modular phone previously, and it was, as you say, not as thin and not waterproof, and not dustproof either. Given that it takes like 30 minutes to change the screen or battery on my current phone (which is not modular), I don't see why my preference should be disallowed by EU regulation?
I doubt any EU court will stop you selling a waterproof phone, but they will stop you making your flagship phone waterproof specifically for the purpose of making it hard to repair. They do have common sense, you know.
Spare battery: remove empty battery, switch battery, you are back to 100%
Powerbank: mess with cables, keep phone plugged until it's charged and wait
If there is a market for spare batteries, there might be a market for external battery chargers as well > swap battery in the morning instead of charging, place empty battery on charger, repeat the next day
I purchased a Lenovo T580 ThinkPad in 2018, and I configured it with an extra battery. So it had one built-in and one that was removable. This added some extra weight and plenty of extra battery life.
Several times I thought about purchasing a spare battery, but I never did. I also thought about detaching the battery and using the machine without it, such as on AC line power, or when I didn't need the extra juice. But I realized that it was a bad idea to carry it around with a gaping hole on the bottom and exposed battery contacts. I would've felt comfortable if there was a dummy cap to snap on instead.
Spare batteries are a nightmare to handle. Far too easy to bend or have something short-circuit the pads, and you have to shut down and restart your phone.
However, what is needed desperately is the ability to quickly change a degraded battery.
Spare batteries that are designed as internal batteries not to be easily swappable, yes.
Look at DSLR cameras: take out in 1 second, put in in 1 second, physically robust.
We absolutely can have the best of both worlds. We just need to align the smartphone manufacturers to user serviceability and right to repair… even if they go kicking and screaming since they decided their bottom line is most important.
Ever had a GoPro? Or professional camera? Drone? It's really not so hard to imagine a market for replaceable batteries lol.
My ThinkPad t420 had a small built in battery so I could switch batteries without shutdown. Imagine the magic. Imagine taking 20+ hours of laptop battery with you 15 years ago.
Nah, when the old Samsung phones allowed user battery replacement it was completely safe and easy to handle. Restarting the phone took only a few seconds.
New definition of nightmare just dropped: changing a battery. Or is it simply handling a battery? I can't figure out what's supposed to be the nightmare.
Having spare batteries was so great with the old Samsung smartphones. I usually kept a spare on the charger and swapped it as I headed out the door. It took like 10 seconds, just pop the back cover off.
Just like external AUX-type-C DACs, manufacturers took a trivial feature of a smartphone and outsourced it to an array of disposable device vendors with questionable practices
