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.
This is great news. I am looking forward to seeing how the makers will react to this.
I think the biggest reaction will be that it will likely also impact the US and other markets. Just like with the previous EU regulation that mandated that everyone standardises on the same cables (USBC) it benifited the rest of the world as it was just cheaper to design and manufature one phone rather than multiple for the different markets. Probably the same here to.
I am curious to see how they will design around this requirement though. Curretly we’ve been ‘spoiled’ with some very sleek and clean designs, but if designers have to find a way for them to be easily openable either tooless or with non-propreietry tools and all the rest of it then it may change this.
Although, to be fair, I have noticed that phones have recently started getting bigger, heavier and clunkier. For example the difference between my recently retired Pixel 5 and new Pixel 7a is night and day. I actually regret upgrading - if it wasn’t for my son being ‘due’ for a new phone and being a little skint at the moment (easy ‘free’ birthday present), I wouldn’t have switched.
I went from a 5 to a 7a too and it’s not too bad. I had a brief try with a 6… that’s somewhat bigger and actually annoyed me so I returned it. I still think the 5 was the sweet spot for phone size though…