It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
This is great news. I am looking forward to seeing how the makers will react to this.
I think the biggest reaction will be that it will likely also impact the US and other markets. Just like with the previous EU regulation that mandated that everyone standardises on the same cables (USBC) it benifited the rest of the world as it was just cheaper to design and manufature one phone rather than multiple for the different markets. Probably the same here to.
I am curious to see how they will design around this requirement though. Curretly we’ve been ‘spoiled’ with some very sleek and clean designs, but if designers have to find a way for them to be easily openable either tooless or with non-propreietry tools and all the rest of it then it may change this.
Although, to be fair, I have noticed that phones have recently started getting bigger, heavier and clunkier. For example the difference between my recently retired Pixel 5 and new Pixel 7a is night and day. I actually regret upgrading - if it wasn’t for my son being ‘due’ for a new phone and being a little skint at the moment (easy ‘free’ birthday present), I wouldn’t have switched.
Personally, I find that this “sleekness” was misleading anyway. What was the first thing most people did once the “sleek” era started? Bought a case, sometimes like an OtterBox or knock off. That tripled the thickness of many phones, and even the most basic protective case came close to doubling the thickness. Back in the “old days” of slide out keyboards etc, the phones themselves had a decent case built in, so the “cases” were more fashion statements. And anyway, it’s not like the Note 2 with a plastic back you could pop off was especially thick at the time. Honestly - a lot of the “problem” is intentional design to force buying new ones I think.
Look at ultrabooks - Lenovo proves with the X1 you can have an easily removable bottom using gasp metal and screws. Yet still be very thin. I honestly think the better solution for phones is just to have the battery be click on / external like power tools, drone batteries, older laptop batteries. The back of the battery is the back of the phone. There’s no reason the contacts can’t be press fit on the back of the phone and front of the battery - i.e. it doesn’t have to be especially thick / deep.
For future reference, Asus’s flagship-style phones tend to be smaller and lighter than other manufacturers’s products. Cheaper usually too. (They’re actually the bottom end products in Asus’s stack. The reason noone has heard of them as a smartphone manufacturer is they make really specialised high performance gaming smartphones for people willing to spend a fortune for a few more frames in mobile competitive games. But because they make super high performance smartphones they also do a normal everyday phone in the style of a non-gaming smartphone brand’s top models.) Not sure why they like to make them smaller than rival brands but it’s nice that there’s a high quality option available for people who want a more reasonably sized phone than what most high end models offer (personally I love massive phones but I’ve recommended the Asus ones to a few people I know who are turned off by the size of most premium models.)
Edit: it’s the ZenFone series (couldn’t remember the name beforehand.) I think possibly the last one was a departure where they offered a more “normal” (IE big) model but the new ZenFone 10 that’s accepting pre-orders now is explicitly promoted on being small for such a high-end handset.
I went from a 5 to a 7a too and it’s not too bad. I had a brief try with a 6… that’s somewhat bigger and actually annoyed me so I returned it. I still think the 5 was the sweet spot for phone size though…
I am guessing it will look like the fairphone(they let you remove the cover without tools), so like a standard looking phone but without the glue and easier to remove the cover, not as easy as before smartphones tho but doable.
Looks like we’re going to switch from plates back to bricks.
Big deal? Not sure… 🙃
I just hope there are replaceable simpler change and replace 18650 battery that’s simpler for end user to make their laptop last longer. I have hard time to solder my own X220 laptop battery and end up failing.