Among the many changes, the new rules would require batteries in consumer devices like smartphones to be easily removable and replaceable. That's far from the case today...
I mean, I like replaceable batteries and I try to repair everything I can that I own so that it lasts longer (I even replaced the battery in my wireless earbuds’ case, doubling its lifetime so far), but swappable batteries have major downsides. Waterproofing is one, but a major thing is space. Sealed batteries don’t need protection, but replaceable batteries do, and that increases their size by a lot. The last phones I’ve had probably couldn’t even fit a replaceable battery inside of them how slim they are. So you either have to make phones much larger, or you have to reduce battery capacity. You also probably couldn’t have metal backs and would have to return to plastic ones.
Some of these problems could be fixed but it’d make phones cost even more.
I don’t know the answer to this, we should make phones more easily repairable, but I don’t feel like this is the right way. Maybe mandating that phones can be repaired more easily by repair technicians and make the batteries more easily available. But I don’t know how you could enforce that.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it’s gonna be easier to achieve than I believe, but I don’t see how it’s going to be possible without major downsides.
I agree, there are some things which are different for stupid reasons (looking at you lighting port), but others actually make sense. I think forcing companies to provide official support for technicians, and to not block third party spare parts would be good enough. Allow my local technician to use a random chinese battery after the official ones stop being produced, or keep producing batteries for at least 10 years after a phone’s release.
Even better, they could standardize batteries and battery sizes, needing to swap out the battery might mean a lot of downsides, but having a set of standard batteries that you build your phone around might not be that bad.
I guess the major question is, how much bigger are we talking here? I’m sure a lot of people would be fine if the phones were slightly thicker if that meant they could swap batteries and keep their entire phone for another 2-3 years.
Alternatively, they could reduce the size of the battery and work more on optimizing battery usage.
I mean, I like replaceable batteries and I try to repair everything I can that I own so that it lasts longer (I even replaced the battery in my wireless earbuds’ case, doubling its lifetime so far), but swappable batteries have major downsides. Waterproofing is one, but a major thing is space. Sealed batteries don’t need protection, but replaceable batteries do, and that increases their size by a lot. The last phones I’ve had probably couldn’t even fit a replaceable battery inside of them how slim they are. So you either have to make phones much larger, or you have to reduce battery capacity. You also probably couldn’t have metal backs and would have to return to plastic ones.
Some of these problems could be fixed but it’d make phones cost even more.
I don’t know the answer to this, we should make phones more easily repairable, but I don’t feel like this is the right way. Maybe mandating that phones can be repaired more easily by repair technicians and make the batteries more easily available. But I don’t know how you could enforce that.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe it’s gonna be easier to achieve than I believe, but I don’t see how it’s going to be possible without major downsides.
I agree, there are some things which are different for stupid reasons (looking at you lighting port), but others actually make sense. I think forcing companies to provide official support for technicians, and to not block third party spare parts would be good enough. Allow my local technician to use a random chinese battery after the official ones stop being produced, or keep producing batteries for at least 10 years after a phone’s release.
Even better, they could standardize batteries and battery sizes, needing to swap out the battery might mean a lot of downsides, but having a set of standard batteries that you build your phone around might not be that bad.
I guess the major question is, how much bigger are we talking here? I’m sure a lot of people would be fine if the phones were slightly thicker if that meant they could swap batteries and keep their entire phone for another 2-3 years.
Alternatively, they could reduce the size of the battery and work more on optimizing battery usage.