All smartphones, including iPhones, must have replaceable batteries by 2027 in the EU::undefined

  • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    The current tools are not even close. Very proprietary, very specialized, not commercially available. Check out this video or this one. These things are rental only because they are exorbitantly expensive and only really useful to iPhone, and IIRC they differ for some lines/models.

    This law absolutely will require an iPhone redesign, which I think is going to be somewhat controversial. If you check out the iFixit teardown it’s pretty obvious there is not a lot of space. Even the larger Pro Max is tight because I think in the case of the larger phones, they tend to fill the space with battery. What I think would be the easiest is make it more like the iPhone 4. In that version, there were like two security screws on the bottom, and then you could remove the whole back plate. Some battery would have to be sacrificed to add space for connectors and a retaining system of some sort.

    I say controversial because this is probably going to mean less day-to-day battery, but I think I’m in favor of that rather than having to deal with going through Apple to do a battery replacement and get another year or two out of the device. If they make it more like the hot-swappable old days of Nokia’s and Motorola’s past, I can’t really see anyone being pissy. In practice these days, I don’t worry about battery life anyway, so it’s hard to not see this being a win.