New Smartphone Labels For Battery Life and Repairability Are Coming To the EU (theverge.com) 27
The European Union has announced details of new mandatory labels for smartphones and tablets sold in the bloc, which include ratings for energy efficiency, durability, and repairability. From a report: Hardware will also have to meet new "ecodesign requirements" to be sold in the EU, including a requirement to make spare parts available for repair.
The labels, which will be required for any devices that go on sale from June 20th onwards, are similar to existing ones for home appliances and TVs. They display the product's energy efficiency rating, on a scale from A to G, along with battery life, the number of charge cycles the battery is rated for, letter grades for durability and repairability, and any applicable IP rating for protection from dust and water.
The labels, which will be required for any devices that go on sale from June 20th onwards, are similar to existing ones for home appliances and TVs. They display the product's energy efficiency rating, on a scale from A to G, along with battery life, the number of charge cycles the battery is rated for, letter grades for durability and repairability, and any applicable IP rating for protection from dust and water.
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The market has decided. End of story. If you really want an open source phone https://pine64.org/devices/pin... [pine64.org]
Batteries remain the main concern (Score:2)
I strongly approve of the idea though I think that much of this should be handled at the OS level. Can't speak for you, but the smartphones have already gone far beyond my requirements and I don't want to pay an arm and a leg every two years for fresh bells and whistles that I don't need, want, or use. Yes, sometimes I do adopt a new feature, but mostly I resent the time spent determining that I don't want to use various new features.
From my perspective, the main factor that forces phone replacement is the
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that may happen to apple if they don't drop the core fee on alt app stores.
Ecodesign requirements (Score:2)
The full requirements from EU's official site: https://energy-efficient-produ... [europa.eu]
Re:Ecodesign requirements (Score:4, Informative)
The ecodesign requirements will include:
— resistance to accidental drops or scratches and protection from dust and water
— sufficiently durable batteries which can withstand at least 800 charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their initial capacity
— rules on disassembly and repair, including obligations for producers to make critical spare parts available within 5-10 working days, and for 7 years after the end of sales of the product model on the EU market >
— availability of operating system upgrades for longer periods (at least 5 years from the date of the end of placement on the market of the last unit of a product model)
— non-discriminatory access for professional repairers to any software or firmware needed for the replacement
The (bolded) requirement of 5 years of OS upgrades from date of end placement on the market is huge for Android devices, as currently to get that you pretty much need to buy a high-end Samsung or Google Pixel device.
Regarding battery replacement, the above pages links to https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/... [europa.eu] in which section 4c, states:
From 20 June 2025, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives shall ensure that the process for battery replacement: meets the following criteria:
— fasteners shall be resupplied or reusable;
— the process for replacement shall be feasible with no tool, a tool or set of tools that is supplied with the product or spare part, or basic tools;
— the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out in a use environment;
— the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out by a layman.
It will be very interesting to see how device manufacturers deal with the battery replacement issue, and whether the whole "we have to glue your phone together to keep it waterproof!" argument holds any water.
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HMD, previously under the Nokia brand. They had some sort of collaboration with ifixit. ( They do sell here in Australia, will look at buying one of those models.)
And there's Fairphone, also out of Europe that focuses on being 'fair'. I don't know much about the brand given last I checked they don't ship to Asia Pacific.
Not sure on HMD's commitment to open source but Fairphone do seem to favour long term support.
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Several things I really like in there, but the main one is the 7-year thing. Maybe even a bit long for me, but the current two years definitely feels too short.
I'm skeptical about the "layman" replacement thing, especially when water resistance comes into the picture. Tools and adhesives?
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The (bolded) requirement of 5 years of OS upgrades from date of end placement on the market is huge for Android devices, as currently to get that you pretty much need to buy a high-end Samsung or Google Pixel device.
Actually, I can't recall any Android phone ever getting 5 years of OS upgrades . Security patches and updates, yes, at the high end of devices, but actual upgrades?
I suspect some lawyers will be cashing in over the distinction between "update" and "upgrade".
I also suspect that some vendors will automate a process to deploy a release of their current OS build every three months with just an increment to the minor version number.
Re:Ecodesign requirements (Score:5, Interesting)
whether the whole "we have to glue your phone together to keep it waterproof!" argument holds any water.
I see what you did there.
As someone who used to make devices that were supposed to be submerged for 5 years, I can tell you now that it's no problem at all to make a waterproof device that has a user replaceable battery. You can simply use rubber gaskets and arrange the screws so that they always apply the right amount of force. The gasket must be replaced along with the battery, but they cost very little.
Our products used to be like that because we used to do battery replacements on them and wanted to keep our costs down. No custom tooling or fancy gear required.
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I guarantee you no device meant to be submerged for 5 years will ever be the size of even a highly ruggedised smartphone. Your post is comparing a tractor to a family sedan in how disingenuous it is.
The thing is: Devices with replaceable batteries exist on the market. They are failures. The consumers have voted with their wallets. The layman requirement is a bit stupid anyway. Virtually everyone is in a position to have any phone battery replaced at their local shopping-mall / street corner electronics shop
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Either by accident or design, you are very much missing the point.
The previous post is saying that, because it is possible to have a trivially-serviceable battery in a submersible device, it is therefore possible to have the same in a phone that only needs to protect itself from water.
Off-the-shelf replaceable batteries were the default in phones - including smart-phones - for many years. It was only when battery life could comfortably outlast device warranties (up to three years in some countries) that man
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Fairphone seems to be doing okay.
Repairability class.. (Score:2)
...nice.
Given the trend towards worse and worse repairability in devices like phones it is nice seeing at least some progress of combatting that from the officials. It is intreseting to see how watered down it will be in actuality.
The critical sparepart availability is a nice idea, but given how companies have been practicing for evastions on this, I expect a lot of difficulty actually making companies make those parts available at reasonable prices, until there is a requirement to allow third party parts
I know it'll never happen (Score:5, Interesting)
I sometimes wonder exactly how much waste is built into our economy and our lives where we're not really getting any actual Joy or happiness or improvements to quality of life out of something we're just lining somebody's pockets.
I mean think about cars. Yeah we get to go vroom vroom in a big big vehicle that makes us feel like a kid again every time we step into it. But I don't think we really consider how much we actually have to spend at work busting our asses to support having that car instead of a proper walkable City with public transit. That's before we talk about what the smog is doing to our lungs.
I mean everybody thinks about their car payment and gas and maintenance and if you're really really on the ball you consider the taxes you pay for the roads.
But what about all the military expansion we do to maintain cheap oil and the cost from that? What about the cost of losing rights because at any time a cop can pull you over and rough you up and search on the off chance you might be drinking and driving. Hell I just saw a video of a cop planting evidence to make a drunk driving charge stick.
When I'm feeling particularly depressed and I want to feel more depressed I sometimes stop and consider what life would be like if we weren't constantly busting our asses for endless economic growth for its own sake and to keep the engine of Wall Street going for one more freaking quarter.
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You hit on a bugbear I have had for years....
Why do we make cars that go twice the speed limit or more????
I know you can do that speed on the Autobahn but really?
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Why do we make cars that go twice the speed limit or more????
Didn't you know? If you drive a fast car, women will be mysteriously attracted to you, your boss will respect you, and you'll never have need for male supplements.
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What do you mean? You can replace the battery quite easily yourself on newer smartphones. Sure it requires tools, but nothing too esoteric. Hell, they're not even expensive - iFixit sells DIY kits for $50 including all the tools and batteries.
You can also visit a cellphone repair s
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But I would kill for a law requiring cell phone batteries to be user replaceable. There is absolutely no reason why they can't be except it encourages you to buy a new cell phone because of the high cost of replacing the battery.
You're begging the question. there is no "high cost" of replacing the battery. You may not be able to do it, but there are plenty of 15 year olds who can, and as such it's a service that is offered by virtually every mobile corner shop in every supermarket for less than a cost of lunch + the cost of the battery. For something that needs to be done only every couple of years there is NO reason to mandate this.
Most people can't change the oil in their car either. Nearly all people can't do it without a dedica