TL;DR
- The European Council has ended its adoption procedure for rules related to phones with replaceable batteries.
- By 2027, all phones released in the EU must have a battery the user can easily replace with no tools or expertise.
- The regulation intends to introduce a circular economy for batteries.
Want to replace the battery on your 2 years old smartphone that is perfectly good, but the battery doesn’t last as long?
Just grab a heat gun and melt the glue around the screen. With a suction cup, pull the screen apart and pry around the perimeter to separate the screen. This might end up in your display cracking if you apply too much force. After the screen is successfully separated unscrew a large number of screws of all shapes and sizes and make sure not to mix them when you put them back together after you’re done. Carefully disconnect the tiny flat cable connectors. Then you need to separate the battery itself. It has two pull tabs that makes a satisfying noise when pulled, in order to release the glue. But especially if you’re not experienced these are likely to tear, leaving the battery attached. Don’t try to pull the battery away as it may result in damage to the battery and turn it to an instant spicy pillow or twist the frame of the phone making it wonky. You can use isopropyl alcohol to weaken the remaining glue in order to free the battery. After it’s removal, put the new battery in it’s place. Make sure all the alcohol had evaporated. Then put the phone back together pretty much as you took it apart. Make sure not to forget any screws or mix between them. Then glue the screen back together with a strip of glue. If you used to have water resistance it is now likely compromised.
That’s what it means to replace the battery in some phones. This shouldn’t be legal.
Yeah, exactly that. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. I was surprised myself on my first try, then it a few more times. But even if you’re not comfortable doing it, I don’t know how it is in your place, but in my hometown there are tiny repair shops in every mall and every corner in between, that could do this for you in less than an hour. Most of those shops jobs are not batteries, though, nor screens, but broken usb ports, and you can’t make those swappable :(
Replacing the battery on my LG G4:
Remove the back. Then remove the battery.
That is way more complicated than not should be.
Why should I put up with that rather than just taken the back off and pop it out?
Less weight, less thickness, increased durability, reduced cost.
The downsides are:
Please explain why a phone would need to weigh more, be less durable and be thicker simply because it has a usable replaceable battery. The battery would surely be the same size and regardless.
Sure. A typical pillow battery that is in your phone is bendable, gets damaged easily and is in general a fire hazard. So, to make it usable by consumers it needs to have at least some casing around it. In addition, you effectively need two back covers - one for phone internals and another for the battery. If you’ve had an older phone you know what im talking about. For durability, that’s a bit out of ass but what Ive learned from experience is that durability is not about thick cases and rubber pads, but rather, it’s all about weight - the lighter the phone is the less likely it is to crack from a fall, and all that extra bulk would likely make it more fragile.