June 16, 2023. As planned, a year ago the European Union approved new standards for the sustainability of batteries: material recovery, recycling efficiency, easy access to them. The goal is for “portable batteries built into devices to be removable and replaceable” by 2027.“, This seems to be a point at odds with much of the progress made in recent years.

There’s a reason why solid bodies are here. Manufacturers did not stop producing flip phones arbitrarily. Unibody designs have brought with them everything that characterizes the design of current phones: they are resistant to water and dust, they are much thinner than before, they are highly durable (at least at the body level) and they have an increasingly efficient internal structure.

The arrival of the unibody meant saying goodbye to the removable battery with a cover and a new part; now it’s a matter of removing the back of the terminal body, in some cases breaking several layers of adhesive that glue the battery to the base, etc. It was necessary. . In fact, on mobile phones as popular as POCO X3 Pro, you have to remove the camera module to access the battery. Something that is out of the hands of the average user.

There is a leader in repairability and there are clear losers. ifixit is clear: iPhones are the mobile phones with the best repairability index. The only difficulty is that they need their own screws and parts; Beyond that, screen, back glass and battery replacement is one of Apple’s priorities when designing its phones.

Variation. For their part, they note that the battery of terminals such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is “strongly jammed and requires extensive disassembly.” In other words, it’s possible to screw yourself up in the process without the right knowledge 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 correspond to the distribution and interior design engineering that the terminal will have. Some are more or less oriented towards repairability, but they represent what the manufacturer understands to be the most optical way of placing each component.

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

The Galaxy S22’s battery is replaceable and removable, although it’s difficult to work with. The text suggests that manufacturers should make it easy for users to perform the process. Before we go any further, Apple sells a toolkit so anyone can fix their phones (spoiler: it costs nothing).

changes will come. Although we should not expect the return of clamshell phones, manufacturers will have to make the structure and design of their terminals increasingly repairable. It’s a push that should benefit users on paper, but it could be a blow to manufacturers for whom repairability is a final priority in their designs.

Picture | manzana

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*An earlier version of this article was published in July 2023.