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 don’t care hugely about aesthetics, my concern is non-standard form factors. I don’t know how a phone like the Z Folds can be made with removable batteries, one of the 2 batteries is literally sandwiched between 2 screens. Implementing this would take it from feeling like a brick to being literally the size of a brick. Hopefully tech improves enough by 2027 to negate my concerns but I don’t see how.
It improved enough in the last years to allow foldable smartphones… it can improve enough by 2027 to make batteries replaceable.
Always possible, and given the choice between a phone without a replaceable battery vs [functionally] the same phone with one I’ll always take the latter, but consumer battery tech has moved at a glacial pace compared to screen tech. Samsung plays in both industries though so maybe this’ll light a fire for them to speed up battery development.
I don’t think it’s requiring the battery to be hot swappable. Just requires that the user can remove the back with a screwdriver and not have to worry about a bunch of different proprietary screws or absolutely require a third party repair option.
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t make a flip that can have the battery removable with just using universal screws and no glue etc
The flip is possibly doable, but as someone with a Fold4 there simply isn’t room in the device to start incorporating screws in the half with a screen on both sides. Only way I can see it working is putting the whole battery on the side with a normal back, but there isn’t enough room for the same size of battery. It’d probably also throw off the balance in the hand when open.