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Wonder how they define "user replaceable".

If the battery becomes a cartridge, users either loose battery capacity or significantly increase the bulk of the phone (due to added gaskets, component walls, whatever release switch is added etc). Think about the apple battery case, less than half the volume of that is the batter cell itself; any removable battery needs more things like a controller, contacts, and a sturdy housing (most of that would becomes extra environment waste over what an integrated battery would have).

People that use their phone heavily and are away from power for protracted periods have some sort of portable charger. These devices have more competition, more variety in style/shape, are more affordable, and have more capacity than any removable component that a phone would build in. And if you aren't one of these, you likely a) aren't going to buy a spare battery, invalidating the main "benefit" described and b) you have a bigger single unit battery that maximizes how much time you have with your phone and reduces the need for and waste of spares as much as possible.
The idea is that instead of having the e-Waste of an entire phone after a year or two, however long your battery lasts, you can replace the battery. Since it's not expected to be handled like your AA or 9 volt battery, you can keep the current battery envelope. There's no need to make the battery extra-durable. It's just like how we expect adults to be able to be responsible around gasoline or fertilizer.
 
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Define long life? Two years?
I think people conflate the two factors here. Possible intra-day augmenting capacity swaps due to deploeting a single cycle, and longer term service replacement as its capacity diminishes from use.

The poster you responded actually seemed to address both of those. They have no need for intra-day swapping after 3 years. Sounds pretty good and likely exceeds the expected life-span of the rest of the device for most users. I would guess this change would hurt a lot of users as it would trade cost and/or capacity for something that is not need.
 
What the EU should do is create an EU phone specification that qualifies for tax / VAT discounts, subsidies or rebates and allow manufacturers to voluntary manufacture and sell phones that meet the EU specs. Of course the EU can't and won't leave any potential revenue on the table and would rather compromise consumer choice and product innovation.
 
Here you go smarty-pants European Union; your smart phones will now be redesigned to use six of these....
DCELLBATTERY.jpg
 
How is this a bad thing?
It's bad because it is impossible to make the phone water proof if the user can change the battery (or at least for it to be water proof afterwards). It reduces battery life, because a user replaceable battery must be in a rigid enclosure to be handled by an end user, because there must be a mechanism to safely remove the battery and safely insert a new one that is usable by an end user without special tools, and because it is much harder to fill all available space in a phone with battery because user-replaceable batteries can't come in arbitrary spaces.
 
How is this a bad thing?

Because it's forcing manufacturers to design around a minority of use cases, to the detriment of the majority.

To be certain, if you make something easier to upgrade or replace, more people will upgrade or replace that component; this is generally a good thing.

But even in the halcyon days of expandable Macs where you could swap RAM easily, or batteries, or storage... most people *never did.* Most people treat their phones as disposable after two or three years; that wouldn't change even if they could throw in a new battery.

As mentioned, designing your phone around an easily swappable battery to be serviced by non-tech people means a massive potential set of tradeoffs that are antithetical to everything else people want in their phones. If everyone wanted removable batteries or headphone jacks or the like, those would be mainstream features instead of dwindling from all handsets.

Remember those modular phone concepts where you were going to be able to replace camera modules or SoCs? It never happened because it was a terrible idea divorced from the reality of how people use their phones.
 
And this is a perfect example of why the UK decided to leave the undemocratic EU.
Rubbish - if the UK was still in the EU when this came about, it would have had a vote (and you through your MEP, unless that MEP was Brexit and never in Brussels) on the matter. As it is, if it does happen UK will either get the same type of phone as Europe or the same glued together one that the rest of the world will get.
 
And after that do the same with MBPs too, EU. Thx!

Why are non-eu-user offended by this? You will still get your iPhones as before, don't worry.
 
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We cannot just point at Apple on the lack of removable batteries. Good luck finding a premium smartphone from any manufacturer that has one. Removable battery phones generally fall into the 200-300 dollar range budget phones.

If the EU implements this, I would think it would be easier and cheaper for premium phone manufacturers to just stop selling their flagship phones in the EU. The black market would thrive, so no real sales would be lost.
Apple will never give up those sales.
 
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Imagine thinking these two things were remotely comparable.

That being said... It’s not gonna happen, but I wish it would.
There are comparable because both not gonna happen

EU doesnt thing about world ? this is a bad thing for pollution and recycle...think about all those kids who will throw away thousands of battery when they exchange....Nowadays you have to exchange at apple service, and the service will take care of the used battery
 
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