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.
What about waterproof phones? I remember that they were planned to be an exception…
When I first met my wife, she was rocking a Samsung Galaxy S5. It was water resistant and had a removable battery.
Also, devices that are sealed units and claim to be “waterproof” but do not cover water damage under warranty should not be considered waterproof.
Lobbyists brought this up, not me…
And there are devices which have a non removable but still no waterproofing.
If the reason for non removable batteries was to make phones waterproof…
Removable batteries do not prevent phones from being waterproof. I see no reason there would need to be an exception.
There is rationality and there is Lobbyism…
Let’s call things for what they are - corruption.
There is rationality and there is Lobbyism…
There were waterproof phones and replaceable batteries concurrently but I don’t think this is requiring batteries to literally be hot swappable. I think as long as you can remove the back and the battery with regular common tools, nothing proprietary, that would suffice.
It would be harder to do an IP68 rating with a hot swappable battery. Although having hot swappable battery is a huge advantage anyway. But I don’t think that’s the requirement here, just so normal people will be able to get the battery out with a screwdriver but not necessarily in 3 seconds so they can replace a battery while they’re out and about
All of that said companies exaggerate the benefits of an IP rating. All of these phones are water resistant, not waterproof and even then water damage is almost never covered by the warranty. An IP ratings are only tested once under optimal conditions, in real life the IP rating isn’t going to hold up after heavy use or one single submersion in water anyway.
So I tend to think the benefits of IP ratings are wildly overstated. Even phones without them hold up pretty well when submerged in water briefly like the Pixel 4a or the OnePlus 7 or the s20 FE.
There is, but it applies to devices which are mostly operated in wet conditions. Here is a quote from the commission’s decision:
Good point and I’m sure they will not overlook that. I’m also pretty sure mainstream phone makers will not start making them waterproof just to circumvent this
Phones have been waterproof long before removable batteries were removed.