It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
I’m probably in the minority, but I’ll take slimmer, lighter and better sealed over user replaceable batteries. I’ve been using iPhones since changing from Androids to a iPhone 7, primarily because of getting tired of UIs changing constantly and not getting updates after a year or two. I know Samsung and Pixel phones do better with the updates now, but I think this would be more relevant to legislate about, instead of battery replacement.
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I know it doesn’t sound as much, but it’s one example and it is still 1.5mm thicker than my iPhone and ip67 instead of ip68. If it turns out, I have nothing to worry about then great, but atm I know what I have and gain nothing from user replaceable batteries as I’ve never had a phone/iPad where I wanted to change the battery. Others may prefer differently.
Throwing your “broken” phone away because the battery is out of cycles is like throwing your guitar away when a string breaks or throwing your bike away when a tire goes flat. It’s just stupid and wasteful, and it benefits nobody other than the companies that make and sell phones.