No. This law keeps being misquoted, and people are going to be disappointed if they go into 2027 thinking we’ll be able to pop out batteries like the good ol’ days.
It does not necessitate battery removal like that. Only that it not be too difficult to change out for a repair (i.e. stuff like gluing it in place with a strong glue, or necessitating removing the display before the battery). That’s still a good change, I’d be happy if it were something like removing 4 screws then unplugging, but it’s not the same as what everybody makes out.
It also doesn’t apply at all for batteries over a certain capacity, or so long as the battery retains 63% capacity or more (presumably this means throughout the warranty period, but I’m unable to find a timeframe for which this standard gets applied) from 2027, or 73% from 2030.
There’s also a 2 year grace period after the law comes into effect where it won’t really be applied.
No. This law keeps being misquoted, and people are going to be disappointed if they go into 2027 thinking we’ll be able to pop out batteries like the good ol’ days.
I know. While I didn’t read the full legal text, tech news sources are saying it needs to be replaceable by an independent third party or the customer themselves with regularly available tools. I’d love to have easy slide in/out batteries, but I know this is not that.
It also doesn’t apply at all for batteries over a certain capacity, or so long as the battery retains 63% capacity or more (presumably this means throughout the warranty period) from 2027, or 73% from 2030.
I didn’t know about this clause. That’s too bad. :(
There are different categories of removable.
With my old Note, I had an extra battery that came with case/charger combination. If my battery on my phone died, I could swap the battery in 10 seconds.
It states that any battery should be removable and replaceable by the user. So this slap on tactic will only work if your device has no internal battery.
I also noticed this is for all batteries. Not just phones, but also cars etc.
EDIT: As any EU law there is a lot of nuance and exceptions. I dig a little further and found the following:
The regulation introduces requirements that say that portable batteries should be easily removable and replaceable by the end-user and LMT batteries and cells in LMT batteries should be easily removable and replaceable by an independent professional.
So what is LMT?
The regulation defines five battery categories depending on how the battery is used:
- Portable batteries
- Light means of transport (LMT) batteries
- Starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) batteries
- Industrial batteries
- Electric vehicle (EV) batteries
I couldn’t find any concrete wording for “easily removed and replaceable”. But I sure hope it means no more glue for the portable batteries.
Source: https://www.intertek.com/blog/2023/08-17-battery-regulation/
What do you mean only if it has no internal battery? This will make it so they can’t fuse a battery in place and call it internal. It has to be removable.
“Replaceable by user” has a lot of wiggle room. It could still be a 20-minute process that risks damaging other parts and requires specialized tools.
If phones are to keep their water resistance, they almost certainly won’t be tooless, and will involve swapping out gaskets. It’ll be something you can do to replace a failed battery, not a quick swap because you went camping for the weekend and threw an extra battery in the bag since there are no outlets.
