As planned, the European Union approved new standards related to the sustainability of batteries: recovery of materials, recycling efficiency, easy access to them. In a press release issued this week, and following the approval of the regulation, the European Council publishes the acceptance of the new regulation (the final vote).

The goal is that, from 2027, "portable batteries incorporated into devices must be removable and replaceable", a point that seems to clash head-on with much of the progress that has been achieved in recent years.

The unibody bodies came for something

Manufacturers did not stop creating lid mobiles arbitrarily. Unibody designs have brought everything that characterizes the design of current phones: they are resistant to water and dust, much thinner than before, quite resistant (at least, at the body level) and have an increasingly efficient internal structure.

The arrival of the unibody meant the goodbye to the removable battery to blow lid and new part, being now necessary to take off the back of the body of the terminal, in several cases break several adhesive layers that adhere the battery to the base, etc. In fact, in cases of mobile phones as popular as the POCO X3 Pro, you have to take off the camera module itself to access the battery. Something that is not in the hands of the average user.

There's a leader in repairability, and clear losers

ifixit is clear: the iPhone are the phones with the best repairability index. Their only difficulty is that they require screws and own parts but, outside of there, the replacements of screen, back glass and battery are one of Apple's priorities when designing their phones.

On the other hand, they indicate that terminals such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra have the battery "strongly glued, requiring extensive disassembly." In other words, without the right knowledge and tools, it is possible to make a good breakdown in the process. The same goes for the Pixel 6 Pro, a phone in which the charging port is soldered and the battery has a strong glue.

These decisions correspond to the engineering on the distribution and internal design that the terminal will have. Some will be better or worse oriented to repairability, but they assume what the manufacturer understands as the most optical way to locate each component.

What we mean by removable?

The European Union is not entirely clear. The main requirement it puts on the table is that, from 2027, batteries must be able to be extracted by the end user. This will mean that manufacturers will have to put all the facilities to the user to perform the process but, technically, the battery of an iPhone is replaceable and removable.

The battery of a Galaxy S22, although difficult to work with, is replaceable and removable. The text points out that manufacturers will have to give more facilities to users to carry out the process. Without going any further, Apple sells a toolkit so that anyone can repair their phones (spoiler: it does not come to account).

Changes will come

While we should not expect the return of the mobile cover, manufacturers will be forced to, progressively, modify the structure and design of their terminals to make them friendlier in the face of repairs. A boost that, on paper, should benefit users, but that can be a blow to those manufacturers in whose designs repairability was the last priority.