Android

I might be in the minority here, but I feel this is actually a step back.

In the 5 years I've had my phone, there have been two times I've ever really needed to pull the battery, and still the hard reset sequence still eventually worked in both cases.

Anyone remember how some phones had issues with the battery door becoming somewhat loose over time, causing any slight bump to turn the phone off? Many have already commented on how they explode into multiple pieces when dropped. Traditionally the battery covers are incredibly flimsy plastic, even on flagship devices (cough Samsung). Waterproofing is a common concern too, however it actually can be done with a removable battery (e.g. Galaxy S5).

What really needed to be addressed here was how cumbersome it is to get into these devices to replace the battery, and how often people are price gouged to replace them. I believe this could have been better written to allow for either a removable battery, or a standardized and affordable built-in battery replacement process.

This is great.

Phones were designed with non-removable batteries for a reason. It's not just to screw w/ the customer and make them pay someone to replace their phone battery. It's to aid in water resistance and to help with a smaller form factor. This will lead to nothing good. And I'm sure it will carry over to other countries as well as I'm sure a lot of phone manufacturers won't want to make special models JUST for the EU.

Just another example of the EU imposing nonsense regulations that will screw over the rest of the world, like their stupid cookie popup nonsense.

This is actually pretty crazy. Wonder how much it'll affect the overall design of modern smartphones. Will we witness the return of flagships with plastic back covers?

Holy. 👍

I wonder how thick phones will be because of this, what about phones with dual-cell battery? I know some of them do this for faster charging speed.

Wonder if phone manufacturers will fragment their offerings to satisfy EU requirements or if we'll all end up with removable batteries.

Misleading title. Phones can still be glued. Waterproof phones still don't need to have a user replaceable battery (the battery needs to be replaceable but by professionals).

How is this a win? My non-Android device is at 89% health after 5 years. I’m not going to replace the battery, I’m going to replace the device.

I’d prefer that we get paid $20 to recycle an old phone so that they actually get recycled.

Really hoping this happens. I want to be able to replace the battery on my phone after a year because the performance on the battery degraded by nearly half.

That being said, I'm also willing to bet some time shortly after this goes into affect, the cost of mobile service (at least in the US) will go up another $10/$15 a month, and phones will increase in cost by another $100-$200. Not because materials cost more, or designs change. But to preemptively screw people over.

Doesn't this mean no waterproof then? Idk.. I'm all down for right to repair but I'd rather choose struggling to remove glued battery from my phone maybe once every 2-3 years than to lose waterproof..

I actually love all these regulations on smartphones (mainly by the EU), like the recent USB-C standard. That one in particular makes it so much easier to share chargers around the house!