Thank you EU for making life better for literally everyone
they’ll still block access to the battery in the US.
I mean, it would still be possible to get an iPhone with a removable battery.
import? in this economy? with these tariffs?
At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
This has been a massive no-brainer for quite a while. I think the only iPhone that was pretty close to having this a reality was the iPhone 4, it was really easy to just slide the back open and swap the battery. Not as easy as it could be, but certainly close.
Repairability has never been an Apple thing.
I’ve replaced the keyboard on a Macbook, I swear there were 40 screw in that thing, and I’m not exaggerating for effect or anything. About every 2 keys it was screwed to the case from the bottom.
I’ve also done an iphone battery a couple times for friends, it’s a nightmare, but now pretty much all phones are difficult. I have to do the batteries on my Razr soon and I’m not looking forward to it.
At least it was screws, often the keyboard is now attached using “plastic rivets” where the plastic was intentionally melted around the holes. Makes replacement of just the keyboard almost impossible.
FWIW they’re definitely improving in that regard, probably because they know legislation like this is coming.
The iPhone 16 replaced the frustrating glue strips with a special adhesive that unsticks with an electric current, and the MacBook Neo is apparently really easy to get into for simple repairs.
Still a long way to go, but it’s encouraging.
This was a thing with Samsung from the beginning all the way to the S7. The rational after that was the waterproof rating but I have a Zebra TC27 at work that’s IP rated WITH ad repalcable battery. So it’s easy to do, just cost more than not doing it and for Apple it’s a revenue stream replacing batteries.
The s5 was also water resistant, same rating as every other water resistant galaxy since. Used to have 2 batteries and a separate battery charger so I could just hot swap. I don’t think I ever actually plugged the phone into a charger.
Dude same. So nice to just trickle charge a battery to 80% gently, then just swap
🇪🇺
I wonder if this will take the wind out of the sails of fairphone
Playing devils advocate here.
How do you have a phone with replaceable battery and water resistance / proofing
You mean like a Samsung Galaxy S5?
Or any of the the ruggedized industrial phones available today?
Its one of those save a dollar in manufacturing and forced obsolecence decisions made in a boardroom.
They have gaslit people into thinking its because of waterproofing.
The way we always did, of course. I’ve an underwater camera from the 80s that has user replaceable batteries and film.
The idea that they have to be designed the way they are for dust/waterproofing reasons is just propaganda by the device manufacturers. There’s more money in them not being serviceable because that means that they can upcharge you for fixes, or better, push you to buy a new device when your current device doesn’t work the way it should.
Yea but that underwater camera is encased in a huge plastic shell. Are you going to be carrying around your phone in a huge plastic shell?
Take a look at the latest gopros. They work underwater, are tiny, and have replaceable batteries. All you need is a watertight seal, and they’ve gotten those down in size by quite a lot.
It’s actually not as large and bulky as you might think. These ideas aren’t mutually exclusive is the thing. My old work phone was a Samsung XCover. They have replaceable batteries and are waterproof.
They’re a little bulkier than my 16 Pro, but not by that much, and the bulk isn’t really for waterproofing reasons alone.
Seal the phone and leave the battery compartment just weather proof. You’ll still be able to drop the phone in the toilet or whatever and the phone will be basically identical except with a slide off back. We’ve done it before, it’s not impossible.
Again, the idea that having devices be user serviceable leads to them needing to be designed to not be dust or waterproof is just a lie sold to us by the manufacturers. They could make our devices user serviceable, but they choose not to. Every time they’ve been coaxed into even a little bit of consumer friendliness, they oblige in the most malicious ways they can.
What I’m saying is, you don’t need to play the Devil’s Advocate. His position isn’t based on reality.
The majority of people don’t need phones that can survive underwater. Most get exposed to a bit of rain occasionally and that’s it. So even if it was impossible for both to exist (it isn’t), we don’t need it anyway. People are sold “IP68” or whatever because it allows manufacturers to make their phones harder to repair, that’s the only reason.
I actually use the waterproofing on my phone fairly regularly. I’ve used it to take pictures in and under water and it’s handy to be able to wash it under running water. Also if I’m riding my bike in the rain I don’t have to worry about my phone getting wet or sweat getting into when it’s in my jersey pocket in the summer.
I think it will be pretty hard for Apple to design an iPhone with a removable battery without compromising somewhere. Making it waterproof, with a removable battery, not more bulky and with the same kind of sleek design sounds really hard. Still, it’s good that the EU is forcing them to figure it out.
Yes, you have, but the majority don’t, they only need basic splash protection.
Either way, there will be waterproof phones with removable batteries. They said the same thing when they removed the 3.5mm port, it’s all lies.
What about toilet drops 👀
What about drops from height? We don’t all use super rugged phones incase of that? Just don’t hold your phone over the toilet!
There are plenty of phones that were designed, manufactured and sold with these two features.
Not all of them use the “case around a camera” approach (although a lot do, admittedly). The Olympus Tough series of cameras don’t, for example. And really, phones would have pretty simple seams around the battery.
Screws and an adhesive gasket.
Aren’t screws a myth?
Back cover held by two tiny plastic tabs and your prayers
some thoughts also
Well, I’ve never seen one myself.
Galaxy S5 from 2014
Yes, I had this and it was great
