16 June 2023. As planned, the European Union has approved new standards for the sustainability of batteries: material recovery, recycling efficiency, easy access to them. In a press release this week, and after approval of the standard, the Council of Europe publishes the adoption (final vote) of the new regulation.

The goal is for “portable batteries built into devices to be removable and replaceable” by 2027.“, a point that seems to clash head-to-head with much of the progress made in recent years.

Monolithic bodies came for a reason. Manufacturers have not arbitrarily stopped creating hidden mobile phones. The unibody designs brought everything that characterizes the design of current phones: they’re water and dust resistant, much thinner than before, highly durable (at least at body level), and have an increasingly efficient internal structure.

The arrival of the unibody meant goodbye to the removable battery with the bursting of the cover and the removal of a new part, now it was necessary to separate the back of the body of the terminal, in some cases breaking the few layers of adhesive that glued the battery together. base etc. In fact, on mobiles as popular as the POCO X3 Pro, you have to detach the camera module itself to access the battery. Something that is not in the hands of the average user.

Repairability has a leader and clear losers. ifixit is clear: iPhones are the phones with the best repairability index. Their only problem is that they need their own screws and parts, but other than that, screen, back glass and battery replacements are one of the issues Apple prioritizes when designing its phones.

For their part, they note that the battery of terminals like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is “strongly attached and requires extensive disassembly.” In other words, it is possible to give you a good breakdown of the process without having the right information and tools. The same goes for the Pixel 6 Pro, a phone where the charging port is soldered and the battery has strong adhesive.

These decisions coincide with the engineering in distribution and interior design that the terminal will have. Some will go for better or worse with repairability, but they assume the manufacturer understands it as the most optical way to place each component.

What do we mean when we say it can be removed?. The European Union is not entirely clear. The main requirement it puts on the table is that from 2027 the batteries are end-user removable. This means that manufacturers must provide all facilities for the user to perform the operation, but technically an iPhone’s battery can be replaced and removed.

The battery in the Galaxy S22 is replaceable and removable though difficult to operate. The text states that manufacturers will have to provide users with more convenience to perform the process. Without going any further, Apple sells a toolkit so anyone can fix their phone (spoiler: it doesn’t work).

changes will come. Although we should not expect the return of closed phones, manufacturers will have to gradually change the structure and design of their terminals to make them more suitable for repairs. It’s a push that should benefit users on paper, but it could be a blow for manufacturers whose design’s repairability is the last of their priorities.

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