New EU law says smartphone batteries should be easily replaceable

The EU is approving a new law that would make batteries in smartphones easily replaceable again. You know, like they used to be back in the days of yore. The law, which gained 587 votes in favor of the change, says that batteries in all gadgets in the EU should be easily replaceable, and this includes smartphones. The law states that consumers “shouldn’t need special tools” to swap out a battery. Which would mean manufacturers would have to change the way they design phones. This way consumers could get to the batteries without needing tools that are currently required to take phones apart.

These days, if you want to replace a smartphone battery, you need a few things. The battery, for one. But beyond that, you need some proper tools to get the pieces of the phone apart in addition to some free time. Because it’s not a simple process that takes less than 10 seconds.

Think back to the days of the Galaxy S5. If you needed to replace your battery, you could simply pop off the back and swap it out. This was useful for numerous reasons. You could keep spare batteries charged up and ready to go if the one in your phone needed a recharge. It also made things easy if the battery just needed to be replaced completely. None of that is possible now without extra time and equipment.

The EU law for easily replaceable batteries in smartphones could have a global impact

While this law is only going into effect in the EU, it’s unlikely that this won’t have a more far-reaching impact. Smartphone manufacturers would be wasting time and resources to create devices for the EU that meet the requirements of this law while making separate versions for the rest of the world that have batteries sealed up.

It’s also worth noting that the law in the EU doesn’t just apply to phones. It specifically refers to batteries and waste batteries. But nowhere is it mentioned that the law is limited to smartphones. Which means all future gadgets. That being said, the law isn’t immediate.

It doesn’t go into effect until early 2027. So companies have a few years to get things in order and comply with it.