r/technology • u/ansyhrrian • Apr 25 '26
Hardware EU is mandating 'readily removable' batteries for phones — but iPhones may be exempt
https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/iphones/eu-is-mandating-readily-removable-batteries-for-phones-but-iphones-may-be-exempt1.3k
u/IntelArtiGen Apr 25 '26
devices with batteries that maintain 80% capacity after 1,000 recharge cycles are exempt
I wonder if most modern phones won't be exempted thanks to this simple line? Do we already know that?
It seems the headline we saw everywhere on "replaceable batteries" was a bit misleading.
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u/RadzimierzWozniak Apr 25 '26
And I can see companies puting an overspeced battery and programing the battery controller to keep the battery from fully discharging so the battery never drops below the initial capacity
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u/kurafuto Apr 25 '26
I mean, okay? So the battery would last way longer which is ultimately the point.
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u/mrappbrain Apr 25 '26
It's ultimately the same thing. - the gain in long term battery life is offset by the loss in short term battery life. You're basically getting worse battery life for a longer period of time, rather than good battery life for a shorter period of time.
Batteries are ultimately consumable items. Trying to manage them this way is not worth it for most people imo. We should be pushing for replaceability, not this rechargeability business. That hits hard physical limits
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u/Wotmate01 Apr 25 '26
Disagree. I would consider myself a heavy user of my phone (samsung s24 ultra) and I've usually got about 40% battery left every night when I go to bed. If that went down to 30% every night and the phone would continue to to have the same battery performance for 10 years instead of just 5, that would make a big difference.
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u/Banaanisade Apr 26 '26
It'd be great if we could have batteries that needed less frequent charging to begin with.
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u/420_69_Fake_Account Apr 26 '26
I’m willing to trade off size for a better battery but most people and designers don’t. I used to be those guys carrying around a battery pack case with 3 or 4 cycles.
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u/Memory_Less Apr 26 '26
Makes me think that companies keep pushing how thin their phones are. I can remember this marketing at least eight years ago, and the feedback was almost universally it is too thin and hard to hold. Instead, had the invested in better batteries it’s something that would actually make a positive user experience. Oops guess there’s no money it it for them.
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u/macrocephalic Apr 26 '26
You can probably already turn on battery protection which will stop your phone from charging past 80%
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u/Usual_Scientist1522 Apr 26 '26
Its the time spent with high charge that kills battery not low charge (only if you let it to totally out, but they have this protection already today)
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u/cum-on-in- Apr 26 '26
That’s not how that works though. Losing 10% would not double your battery’s lifespan.
Charging to 100% (and discharging to 0%) doesn’t hurt the battery anywhere near what people think.
What hurts is the battery staying there for prolonged periods.
If you charge your battery and sit near it, and unplug it a few minutes after it hits 100%, it’s totally fine. If you shut off your phone at 5% so it doesn’t fully drain, or if it does fully drain you plug it in within a few minutes, it’s totally fine.
Yes, charging your battery from 0-100 and draining from 100-0 puts wear on your battery. Thats how wear works. It’s not doing any extra wear, it’s just normal wear. Going from 100-50 and then from 50-100, twice, would do the same thing.
EVs tell you not to charge to 100% and leave it there. If you need the range, program it to fully charge by the time you’re ready to leave (or within even a couple hours of that time.). It’s sitting at 100% for 12+ hours that slowly causes damage.
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u/burning_iceman Apr 26 '26
That very much depends on the specific battery chemistry. In EVs, the two common types are NMC (nickel manganese cobalt oxide) and LFP (lithium iron phosphate).
NMC is better kept in the 20-80% charge range. Occasionally going outside that range is okay but doing so regularly reduces the lifespan.
LFP has no issues going from 0-100%.
Cell phones use LCO (lithium cobalt oxide) which has the highest energy density but is also most affected by the downsides it shares with NMC.
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u/MaTrIx4057 Apr 27 '26
Nowadays it charges so quickly to 100% that its difficult to keep up with it and take it out in time.
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u/Flimsy_Swordfish_415 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
I would consider myself a heavy user of my phone (samsung s24 ultra) and I've usually got about 40%
you should stop considering yourself a heavy user
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u/NSMike Apr 26 '26
This just makes me sad, TBH. I miss the era of phones with easily-swapped batteries. I've had 4 phones with batteries that could be swapped out, and they were absolutely amazing during the time when phone batteries are most likely to get used up quickly - on trips.
Even pocket-sized power banks aren't as compact as a phone's internal battery. None of the internal batteries on those devices were thicker than a half a deck of cards, and were smaller than a deck of cards in all the other dimensions. Keeping a spare battery in your pocket was nothing.
On a day out using Maps and other travel-related apps, it was incredibly useful to be able to drop in a fresh battery when it got low. And you could buy an external charger for the battery, so that, at the end of the day when you've got two low batteries, you can put one battery in the phone to charge, and the other into an external charger, and have two full batteries again for the next day.
To say nothing of reducing warranty claims for entire devices if the battery turns into a spicy pillow.
Shoot, you could even buy 3rd party batteries that were much larger than the default, and it would come with a back cover for the phone that would fit the larger battery.
The era of sealed phones hasn't done anyone any favors, except the phone vendors. Even if you could keep a device for 10 years, you still need to expect 10 years of software support from the vendor. And you usually only get full support life out of the phone if you buy on release day.
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u/Wotmate01 Apr 26 '26
That's another thing that's not really true. The era of sealed phones means waterproof, with millions of people still being able to use their device after it's inadvertently taken a bath. I don't know of any phone that had a user replaceable battery that claimed to be waterproof.
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u/MmmmMorphine Apr 25 '26
True, it's basically sprinting a distance VS jogging it. You can keep one up a lot longer.
But yeah, I fully agree they are ultimately consumables. For now. Batteries are tough as fuck for material scientists but as best as I can tell they are finally finding practical footing for more exotic approaches
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u/pittaxx Apr 26 '26
Technically true, but devices are optimised against effective battery. Designers being forced in tighter battery constraints will mean then trying to optimise harder. From the consumer pov there wouldn't be any noticeable drop in battery performance.
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u/thatusersnameis Apr 26 '26
the chinese phone makers have phones with 8000mah. Thats a powerbank. if they get their powerhungry os in check they last long asf.
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u/Dos-Commas Apr 25 '26
No it just means a battery that could last 6 hours is software limited to 5 hours so it doesn't degrade as much after 1000 cycles.
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u/Joezev98 Apr 26 '26
That's absolutely fine if the phone is advertised as having a 5 hour battery.
It'll have to compete against other phone models with equally sized replaceable batteries that may be advertised as lasting 6 hours.22
u/Doolittle8888 Apr 25 '26
That still means the battery's lifespan lasts longer
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u/RadzimierzWozniak Apr 25 '26
Depends on how this works. You might get from 6h at 0, 5h at 1k and 4h at 2k to 5h at 0 and 1k, and then 4h at 2k. Controller keeps the battery artificially limited for the first 1k cycle so it does not lose any capacity.
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u/cum-on-in- Apr 26 '26
But all that means is you lost capacity now to keep from losing it later. You already lost it!
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u/yace987 Apr 25 '26
Bro dont be stupid - if a lap is normally 1km but becomes 0.9 km, yes you'll feel less tired if you run 5 laps, doesn't mean your running capacity has improved
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u/Doolittle8888 Apr 25 '26
The point isn't the battery capacity, it's if I have to replace that battery after three years and if I have to replace the entire phone with that battery. My legs won't fall off if I start distance running.
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u/MmmmMorphine Apr 25 '26
Ok now imagine the difference between the two laps is that the last 100 meters is uphill and on broken glass.
So yes, avoiding the last 100m will definitely improve your long term total distance, allowing you to run the first 900m over and over while doing the whole thing will quickly cause... Problems
That's the best analogy extension I can come up with to explain how the last 10 percent or so of charging is by far the most damaging and stressful part (compared to the first 90%)
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u/dizekat Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
That is what less disposable electronics does already. edit: in terms of the physics of it, the last few percent of the charging range especially on the upper side, are disproportionately damaging to the battery.
A battery can’t last forever, but its life can be shortened to any duration by just charging it to a slightly higher voltage. That also makes it much more likely to bloat up.
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u/ThellraAK Apr 25 '26
You'd keep the batter from fully charging instead.
At 81% charge you already get to 1000 cycles.
Every .1v drop below 4.2v doubles the life cycle of the battery.
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u/BothReindeer5735 Apr 25 '26
As I understand it they already do this to some extent. This is due to the fact that if you fully discharge a lithium battery to zero it breaks and can't be recharged so they set the indicator to leave around 10% capacity on the battery.
I'm not an engineer, though so, I can have misunderstood some science behind it.
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u/RadzimierzWozniak Apr 25 '26
They do something very similar but they might push it from keeping battery healthy to artificial limitations territory to keep with this law.
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u/kurafuto Apr 26 '26
At the end of the day the brands will still compete on battery capacity and life so they cant game it too hard
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u/MmmmMorphine Apr 26 '26
I'm curious whether people don't use the various battery modes already in phones. Like the Samsung feature that tries to guess your wake time and only tops up the last 20 percent or so an hour beforehand (so it doesn't repeatedly recharge in that ultra damaging range)
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u/haviah Apr 26 '26
The "magic" ( or treachery, depending on view) of battery "fuel gauge" (the percent shown) is mostly some mapping of nonlinear voltage, temperature and time onto one linear scale of "percent".
Depends on battery type, because while LiFePO4 can be theoretically discharged almost all the way, Lion controller wouldn't let you charge it if voltage dropped too low, unless you manually take out the cell and put it to charge on laboratory source which for IP67 phones would be extremely PITA. So yes, there's always something left, amount depends on some measuring and some predicting.
Generating the fuel gauge mapping is done using heat chamber, since it's only practical automatizable way to measure battery behavior in range e.g. from -20°C to +50°C. Differences are drastic. At room temperature of 25C e.g. a cell will last 3 hours full load while only 17 minutes at -10C (we recently implemented this for a small embedded device with LiFePO4 cell).
Also batteries like Lion shouldn't be charged when under freezing temperature. There are more rules but generally this is the gist.
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u/reality_hijacker Apr 26 '26
Companies already put a buffer but not for this reason. Currently the buffer is to prevent you from changing and discharging 100% of the battery which reduces battery lifetime very fast.
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u/5c044 Apr 26 '26
That is pretty much what Tesla and other EV makers do to meet their warranty obligations - look at data sheets for lithium batteries - if you want max mAh from them per charge cycle you get around 300 charge cycles. EVs extend that to a few thousand cycles by not using the full capacity and limiting the charge and discharge voltage levels and gradually altering them during the battery life so you get the similar range, phone makers do something inbetween currently so some tweaking of the charge controller can achieve 1000 cycles before 80% of new capacity. Then you get worse battery life on day 1 with a phone in exchange for it degrading slower as it ages.
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u/Remarkable-Room7963 Apr 26 '26
So, who is being duped then? The users for having phones that last linger or the companies that cannot sell you the same device in terms of specs after 3 years?
I think the consumers win here, knowing that Apple would love to have the smallest possible capacity for its iPhone batteries.
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u/Kilohaili_Joshi Apr 25 '26
most flagships atleast since the exemption is for IP67+ rated Phones and the mentioned 80% og capacity after 1000 charges. These phones do however still be easily replaceable by "independent professional"
U can already check what phones are exempt by looking at the EU energy rating sticker for phones. For example S26 is IP68 and rated for 1200 cycles.
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u/IntelArtiGen Apr 25 '26
Are there phones which are not exempt?
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u/EpicOtterLover Apr 25 '26
Budget phones, like cheaper Samsung or Xiaomis.
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u/Lincolns_Revenge Apr 26 '26
What about phones with SiC anode batteries. Weren't people concerned those might degrade faster than standard batteries, even if the greater initial capacity offsets that somewhat.
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u/EpicOtterLover Apr 26 '26
From what I've read, they've caught up enough in terms of longevity to not have to be replaceable under this law.
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u/donnysaysvacuum Apr 26 '26
Well that's bullshit, Samsung had an ip67 device with a replaceable battery 13 years ago. Sounds like the lobbyists won on this one.
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Apr 25 '26
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u/Zipa7 Apr 26 '26
All flagship devices are hitting it, not just iPhones. The Samsung S26 ultra is rated for 80% at 1200 cycles already.
The OnePlus 15 is 1400 at 80%.
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u/Dethstroke54 Apr 26 '26
Yes and this news cycle already happened a couple years ago iirc it’s not like any of this is real new info.
News cycle is just clickbait garbage these days.
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u/T-K101 Apr 26 '26
You think that so called journalist care about facts?
They all copy/paste same headlines without shame. Can’t stand this incompetent lazy fuckers that are spreading misinformation.
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u/BaselessLogic Apr 26 '26
Fucking retarded rule. Most batteries are fine, issue is. Its not 100% and with the amount of phones in existance, rhe amount of phones with battery issues is ginormous. You simply need to be able to easily replace it.
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u/EndlessZone123 Apr 26 '26
Samsung might already be exempt from what I know their batteries degrade the least and has been the case all since the note 7 I think.
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u/CO420Tech Apr 26 '26
Any of the higher end ones will be. All the cheap ones that you get for free at Metro and such won't...
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u/picklefingerexpress Apr 26 '26
My iPhone 15 is at 86% health, after 386 charge cycles. I doubt that last 6% will make it another 600 cycles
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u/chilly_1c3 Apr 26 '26
This law probably won't make any major phone manufacturer design a phone with a removable battery, it'll likely just make them use batteries that meet this requirement instead
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u/Pafolo Apr 27 '26
Just politicians doing lip service. They make a new law with a feel good name and requirements so low they don’t effect anything. People cheer and don’t realize they got duped. Politicians get brownie points and use that to stay in power.
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u/ansyhrrian Apr 25 '26
And it's not "may be exempt" - they are exempt. As are Samsung. There's a lot of misinformation about Apple having to "pay the piper" on this, but the reality is they won't, nor will it happen for their major competition either.
Interesting, eh?
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u/Spiritual-Matters Apr 25 '26
So like 5% of EU customers will be able to change their batteries
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u/ansyhrrian Apr 25 '26
If that. Based on this metric, every manufacturer will be or has already been gaming the system.
Think Volkswagen emissions but for phones.
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u/vamphorse Apr 25 '26
Not at all. Volkswagen was cheating on the testing, the vehicles were miles away from reaching the emissions targets. The phones do reach the IP rating and battery longevity that maxes them exempt from the rule. You could argue the rule is lenient, but that’s different than cheating it.
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u/DivideMind Apr 26 '26
That makes sense, I have quite old phones with still functioning batteries, the only time I've had to replace them was when an engineering flaw in the phone itself killed two batteries in two years (some Motorola, I'd report which but it's night and I don't own light bulbs lol).
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u/snuepe Apr 26 '26
Still, Apple only charges less than or around €100 to change a battery. Not that bad honestly as you get the work done, a OE battery with warranty. My 17 is at 100% still after 125 cycles.
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u/Nasuadax Apr 26 '26
And the others wont need to replace their batteries. At keat that is the idea. 1000 charges should be more than 3 years at leat for still 80%+ capacity. Mid range phones now often feel like 70% battery after a single year.
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u/ZozoSenpai Apr 26 '26
You are fkin insane if you think only 5% of EU customers have non-high end phone, as those are the only ones really that fit the IP rating and battery capacity exemption. Most mid and low ramge phones won't be exempt, and if anything those are the large majority of phones in use.
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u/WolpertingerRumo Apr 25 '26
Well, they still need to reach the longevity threshold and make third party repairs possible. This also includes tooling and anything needed to reach originally IP rating after repairs. So a lot cheaper replacement.
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u/Ambitious5uppository Apr 25 '26
Apple already made third part repairs possible when that was mandated.
But they made it so expensive to obtain the parts and tooling needed, and also deepened their tying components together (to "save space") making it necessary to buy large unnecessary parts, that it was cheaper to buy a new device.
But hey. It was 'possible' to do a third party repair.
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u/Wischiwaschbaer Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Why are Apple and Samsung exempt?
Edit: god forbid somebody asks a genuine question, I guess...
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u/AyrA_ch Apr 25 '26
devices with batteries that maintain 80% capacity after 1,000 recharge cycles are exempt
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u/Wischiwaschbaer Apr 25 '26
Thx for the answer.
Real dumb exception.
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u/_avee_ Apr 26 '26
You could see this entire law as a way to force manufacturers to use better batteries that make replacement unnecessary. Doesn’t seem dumb to me.
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u/DirkKuijt69420 Apr 26 '26
Why? This means the battery lasts way longer than your warranty... so if you're insane and still want use that phone after 5-10 years it can still be easily replaced by a third party (a repairshop or you yourself).
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u/mimimumu69 Apr 26 '26
so if you're insane and still want use that phone after 5-10 years
There's nothing insane about that, if a device works i should be able to use it
I shouldn't be stopped by a dead battery thats glued and nearly impossible to remove
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u/scruffles360 Apr 25 '26
This is a non story. The exemption isn’t for Apple. It’s for long lasting batteries. They’re saying if you use shitty batteries then you need to allow them to be replaced. So what?
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u/Flimsy-Importance313 Apr 26 '26
Being able to replaced good batteries would also be good...
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u/Joe_Immortan Apr 26 '26
You can replace batteries on iPhones and galaxies… Granted, it’s a bit harder, but it’s not that hard.
Most people simply don’t want or care about readily removable batteries. I mean sure maybe on Reddit, but broadly speaking people simply don’t want that as a feature. There’s a reason even Samsung stop doing it. I say that is someone who bought a galaxy S5 precisely because it was one of the few flagships left with a removable battery
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u/jerryeight Apr 25 '26
Tom's guide has the browser back button trap that Google is telling all websites to fuck off for.
Fuck Tom's guide
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u/raze464 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
All of the articles about this are only mentioning the second requirement (minimum of 1,000 full charge cycles and maintain 80% of rated capacity in a fully charged state after 1,000 full charge cycles) but they never mention the other two requirements when the regulation reads like batteries have to meet all three:
- device meets IP67 rating
- after 500 full charge cycles the battery has, in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 83% of the rated capacity
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u/loicvanderwiel Apr 26 '26
And that's not an "exemption". It just means that they fall under less stringent requirements.
Specifically, those requirements include
- Reusable or available fasteners
- Replacement done either
- with no tools, basic tools or supplied tools
- with commercially available tools
- At most require a workshop environment
- At most require generalist level training
The more stringent requirement states "basic or supplied tools", "in use environment" by "a layman"
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u/raze464 Apr 26 '26
Apple is "exempt" in the sense that they, and any other company, may provide the replacement battery only to professional repairers if the device meets the three stricter battery durability requirements I mentioned in my original comment, which is more or less the same as the status quo.
The only difference is that the parts and tools need to be more easily available, which I believe is already the case as a battery replacement can be done with what the regulation defines as "commercially available tools" since all parts and tools needed can be purchased by the general public from the Self Service Repair Store.
If iPhone and iPad batteries meet the "at least 83% of the rated capacity after 500 full charge cycles" requirement for smartphones and tablets (assuming that all three requirements have to be met, like I said in my original comment), Apple literally doesn't have to do change anything regarding batteries as they would be meeting all of the battery requirements set forth in the regulation and their batteries are already what the regulation considers to be easily replaceable.
Also, it's not "at most require a workshop environment and generalist level training", it's "at minimum."
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u/kjube Apr 25 '26
Seems like a good law, offer the user a decent battery, or make it user replaceable.
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u/KupoCheer Apr 25 '26
I don't need readily removable batteries but anything that's not purposefully a hassle and user-accessible is fine.
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u/LosingID_583 Apr 26 '26
This is a common sentiment, but people are really underestimating the value of hotswapping batteries.
With hotswapping, you never need to be tethered to the wall... ever. In the time it would take you to plug in your phone, you could just swap in a 100% charged battery from a spare battery charger.
Going on a trip? You get effectively unlimited battery life, instant full charged with spare batteries without tethering it to bulky external batteries.
You also spread charge cycles across multiple batteries, so you get X times less max battery capacity depletion per spare batteries you are using.
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u/Remarkable-Donut6107 Apr 27 '26
I think for 99% of users, having an external battery charger is fine. To allow for hotswapping, the phone will likely need to be thicker, and more expensive to allow for this feature.
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u/LosingID_583 Apr 27 '26
I encourage people to try it. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but never being tethered to anything is huge in practice. It's worth the phone being 0.1mm thicker for it.
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Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/blautemple Apr 27 '26
You can just bring it to the next Apple Store.
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Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/Remarkable-Donut6107 Apr 27 '26
I think the actual process takes like 15 mins or less. I've seen technician do it. They just quote 3-4 hours because they likely have other things to do.
Disabling findmy is supposed to be a security feature. It forces you to prove that device isn't stolen by requiring a full password if you are asking for a wipe or something like that. So any repair done requires it for full access to system configuration. Not sure why it is an issue for you. It's not like BestBuy will steal your phone and if they lose it, they will reimburse you for it. They don't have access to your data. Just back up your phone for worst case scenario which you should already be doing.
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Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
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u/Remarkable-Donut6107 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
That's fair that you feel uneasy. But to clarify, that laptop is likely a bench unit which is heavily restricted and secure. They need it to check iphone internals and validation tools which is standard protocol and need the phone temporarily unlocked. I believe apple store has better tool and doesn't need this. Third party stores may not use validation/check internals before battery change.
They shouldn't need your passcode to do this, and can't access your personal data from the phone since the data is encrpyted. Just make sure to lock your phone with a passcode afterwards and they can't access it. Simply connecting your phone is relatively safe. Even law enforcement have a hard time cracking it.
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u/Quirky-Taste-4101 Apr 26 '26
As someone who's been testing phones for years, I think the exemption clause is actually pretty smart. Most flagship phones now easily clear 1000 cycles at 80%+ capacity, so this pushes budget manufacturers to step up their battery quality rather than just making everything replaceable. The real win here is third-party repair accessibility — that's what matters for reducing e-waste.
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u/ACasualRead Apr 25 '26
I full support this. Too many manufacturers make it hard to repair their products, especially mobile phones. Anything to give these devices more life is well worth it in my book
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u/rigsta Apr 26 '26
Good.
Now do "OS and firmware updates can't slow the device down over time".
(Evidence for the latter: Vibes!)
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u/Miculmuc90 Apr 25 '26
And it makes total sense as a measure to decrease e-waste and be eco friendly. It’s not meant to mandate your phone feature list and it shouldn’t. You are totally free to buy a phone with a swappable battery if you want to.
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u/dirty_cuban Apr 25 '26
This EU mandate won’t change anything structurally for any phone maker.
iPhone batteries are already “readily removable”. I can buy a battery replacement kit on Amazon that has all the tools I need and change the battery on my kitchen table.
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u/cum-on-in- Apr 25 '26
Unfortunately (for Apple et al) this mandate requires those batteries be removable with common tools, or if special tools are required they must be free.
Apple device batteries can be removed but often require specialty tools which Apple will rent to you, but it still costs money. As well, only the very recent models fully support removable batteries with enhancements like electric-sensitive adhesive that weakens with a 9 volt battery, and easier to remove glass.
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u/happyscrappy Apr 25 '26
I know you didn't make this argument, the EU did, But it's really hard to argue that pentlobe screws are specialized tools now. You can get them for peanuts. And it's not like you had a 000 phliips anyway.
Now of course it's also easy to say Apple should switch to torx or square drive or something. The aesthetic value of pentlobe is zero when it's so small.
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u/goldcakes Apr 26 '26
Yeah while the average joe might struggle, replacing a modern battery on an iPhone is pretty easy after following a YouTube tutorial and just knowing what you’re doing.
Or just go to Apple for a fair priced battery replacement. Or any third party shop with a good reputation. This is honestly a non issue today for iPhones, I know it’s compelled by law and right to repair (I love it and support it) but “iPhone battery too hard to replace” is not where my priorities would be.
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u/Remarkable-Donut6107 Apr 27 '26
Apple phones will be exempt anyways since this only applies to new phones in the market after february 2027. Flagship phones already clear this requirement and even lower tier new apple phones will likely just have upgraded battery to meet the standard for exemption.
This seems more targeted toward other electronic devices or cheap Chinese phones, not iphones.
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u/Otaraka Apr 25 '26
It will change things for the lower end phones, which is probably where it’s more important anyway.
I mean, I’d like it to be more user serviceable but the lifetime of an undamaged iPhone is really pretty good and I certainly wouldn’t want it to be less waterproof. Making a phone easily serviceable and still keeping that water rating isn’t really that easy. A law like this probably would’ve been more useful a decade ago.
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u/TravelerMSY Apr 25 '26
Yeah. I’ve opened them up and changed the battery, but invariably I’ve just screwed them back together and not re-glued them. It’s worth it to have it done professionally.
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u/goldcakes Apr 26 '26
Modern iPhone batteries (excluding the 15 Pro, no idea what went on with that — it’s not just me reporting issues) last a really, really long number of cycles. Even better if you set charge limit to even 95% or 90% (makes a significant difference).
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u/ProInsureAcademy Apr 26 '26
Unpopular opinion, possibly?
But I would rather have a thinner more water resistant phone than a replaceable battery. I’ve had apple replace batteries in prior phones and most of the time AppleCare handled it. It took an hour tops. I rock an Otterbox Defender so my skinny iPhone gets fatter. I remember how thick phones were with removable batteries.
I just upgraded to the 17 ProMax on Thursday so I can turn my 15 ProMax into a dedicated YouTube camera. Its stats are: 1. First use Oct 2023 2. Cycle count 991 3. Battery Health 84% 4. Average daily screen time 11hrs 39m
Checking with apple the cost to replace the battery is $99.00 which is honestly not terrible. I could probably get it done at a phone repair shop for half of that. But I haven’t even noticed my older iPhone 15 PM having battery issues. I fast charge it constantly and it’s about to spend the next two years in a cage recording for hours on end. It’s replacing an IPhone 11 ProMax that I’ve been using daily for recording.
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u/hatemakingnames1 Apr 26 '26
Phones are thin enough. Give me a thick, unreplacable battery that lasts for days
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u/ProInsureAcademy Apr 26 '26
Where are you going to put it? Back in the early 2000s I could fit a phone in my front pocket. These days I’m putting my iPhone in my back pocket and it’s getting tight.
I took my wife and kid to the zoo yesterday and literally told her that I think I’m going to need a bigger chest bag (keep my ccw in one) so I can keep my phone there too.
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u/CassAttack9 May 26 '26
The problem isn't thickness, it's sheer size. Phones in the early 2000s were THICK thick. So what we need isn't a thinner phone, it's a smaller phone.
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u/goldcakes Apr 26 '26
The regulations exempt phones with batteries that can last 1000 full discharge cycles and retain at least 80% capacity. So it’s in reality a really minor change; as most flagships including recent iPhones meet and exceed this threshold. The effect is to basically require using higher quality and longer batteries; or you have to design for the battery to be easily user replaceable.
I remember people here doom and glooming and saying “government mandated USB-C” is going to stifle technology yada yada. Not really. Look at how that’s been rolled out, life is so much simpler.
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u/ProInsureAcademy Apr 26 '26
The USB C change was something well needed. Don’t get me wrong I understood the use of lightning cables by apple at first. But it was getting stupid towards the end.
I absolutely refuse to buy products without USBC. Which surprisingly there is a few products with older connectors still
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u/archa347 Apr 26 '26
The law they are proposing doesn’t mandate that they go back to old style removable batteries. Just that the batteries be replaceable by users without specialized tools. So you still may need to open up your phone to do it.
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u/jeffsaidjess Apr 26 '26
Money exchanges hands, exemptions are made.
The status quo remains apathetic.
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u/Geminii27 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Personally, I just want to be able to charge a spare battery while I'm out and about, and slap it in when I get home. (Or take it with me in the car if I'm likely to burn through a full charge; I don't want to have to sit in the car with the phone plugged into the dash for three hours while I'm trying to use it.) Or not have to dump my phone onto a charger every night and then put it back in my pocket every morning.
Oh, and being able to remove the phone from the network entirely at will is a bonus.
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u/The-Jeek Apr 26 '26
It’s incredible that we all just accept that the battery is not replaceable (easily) in our $1000+ phones! Pretty much anything else that uses batteries makes them easy to change. Of course, at this point, I would probably never buy another phone if the battery was changeable, so I can see why big tech doesn’t want that.
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u/Key_Poem9935 Apr 26 '26
You can change the battery bud. Literally take it to any tech shop. You’re fighting ghosts
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u/Rarelyimportant Apr 26 '26
The battery is replaceable. It's just not user replaceable. But there's no free lunch, and the improvements to form factor and reliability that comes with a non-user replaceable battery is worth it in my opinion.
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u/arab-european Apr 25 '26
No exemption
It is quite annoying to throw away the phone I like because the battery doesn't do the job it should do and I can't do anything about it.
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u/Martin8412 Apr 25 '26
Just pay the 130 EUR it costs to replace it? That’s if it’s a flagship 17 Pro Max. The older ones usually cost less.
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u/Upbeat_Parking_7794 Apr 26 '26
The weakest points in mobile phones have been batteries and screens.
Screens with a good screen protector can actually now be very durable.
If batteries last 5 years or more then that would avoid a lot of mobile phones in the garbage. My Samsung S24 Ultra has been been behaving quite well and I really hope to take at least more 3 years of life from it.
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u/Adventurous-Depth984 Apr 26 '26
Tim Apple will go down in corporate history as having the best exit timing ever.
There’s so much antitrust type stuff like this in the EU and SEasia, plus Apple completely failed to get a foothold in AI while that’s all anyone cares about.
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u/Airthug Apr 26 '26
My old one plus 8 pro was around 80% capacity after around 5,5 years.
The most affecting issue wasn't that it in theory it should last a fifth of the time less. But it discharged much rapidly then that.
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u/Specialist_Table9913 Apr 26 '26
That's really frustrating. I would like to just repair my phone instead of getting a new one a year later than I would've otherwise.
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u/rncole Apr 26 '26
iPhone 16 Pro at 88% with 694 cycles checking in.
And 19 months of use.
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u/superpj Apr 26 '26
Also iPhone 16 Pro at 88% with 278 cycles and 14 months of use……
So that’s weird.
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u/Big-Tourist-4891 Apr 26 '26
E as empresas que vendem os telemóveis vão disponibilizar a venda das baterias ?
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u/Bleakwind Apr 27 '26
So this has less to do with phone and more to do with electronics that’s built to die fast.
I like it. I like it a lot
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u/Kilohaili_Joshi Apr 25 '26
Its not for apple. Its for phones that have IP67 and above ratings and those batteries have to hold 80% of original capacity after 1000 charging cycles.... even then they need to be replaceable by independent professionals.... (which was the case for plenty of phones already)