““A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools””
Additionally, the manufacturer should make batteries available for SEVEN years after release.
A step in the right direction, IMO. Now mandate software support for that duration.
Agree it’s a step in the right direction.
I worry about “commercially available tools”. As it stands, lots of batteries can be replaced (at great difficulty and peril) with a heat gun and spudgers and patience. But that would be missing the point of this change.
The EU proposal doesn’t allow “proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents”
I wonder if this will finally take us back to the days of standardised battery sizes, instead of the random only-works-on-one-phone ones we get currently. I highly doubt manufacturers would want to invest too much for a single phone model for that long.
Europe has already standardized charging port to USB-C so standardization of batteries would be the most logical next step.
Not providing software support for more than three or so years, is a planned obsolescence and should be made illegal.
Even better, consumers should be able to easily install alternative operating systems on old smartphones, just like one can install Bodhi Linux on a 15-year-old laptop.
