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.
Great! This “water-resistance” bullshit is the biggest bigtech scam ever, it’s insane how they almost killed repairability in the name of “water-resistance”, that scam should have never been allowed.
Yeah, it’s just a blatant lie that a phone with a removable battery can’t be waterproof without being massive. I had a galaxy s5 active years ago that was, and the difference in thickness between that and the standard one was negligible.
Phones are really at the point where there’s not really much point being thinner - hell most people put protective cases on phones anyway that dramatically increase the thickness, I know I do!
If they could instead build the added protection a case gives you into the phone, on top of a headphone jack and a microSD slot I’d be set - we need a Panasonic toughphone or something.
BRING BACK THE STRENGTH OF THE NOKIA 3310 - I WANT A SMARTPHONE AS INDESTRUCTIBLE AS THAT!
I love water resistance. You don’t need to get rid of water resistance for removal batteries, we had both, together, at the same time, before. Samsung s5 active.
As an owner of an S5 and S5 active, I had to say that I loved those phones.
It’s 100% imperative that some of the people in my circle have waterproof phones. My BIL sat down in the lake and forgot he had put his phone in his swim trunks pocket. Instakill.
My phones are constantly wet (not like that, degenerates) and IP68 has saved me more money than repairability.
I am pretty sure there were water resistant S class Samsungs with snapon back covers. Around 5th/6th generation.
There were, I had every odd Samsung flagship phone since the S3, and two of them (S5 and S7 or S7 and S9) were waterproof with removable backs to change the battery (and SD card)
Never forget the Samsung S5 Active was water resistant for 1m/30min and still had a removable battery. They’re pissing on our legs & telling us it’s raining – but the worst part is the majority of people believe them
The companies should try making water resistant devices. But the repairability or ease of changing batteries should not be neglected. Maybe another model that is a bit further expensive, covering the cost of making it water tight, should be also sold?