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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.

    • ChillPill@lemmy.worldEnglish
      65·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
      123·
      1 year ago

      Removable batteries do not prevent phones from being waterproof. I see no reason there would need to be an exception.

    • UnstuckinTime@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • wizzor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      There is, but it applies to devices which are mostly operated in wet conditions. Here is a quote from the commission’s decision:

      … batteries concerning appliances that incorporate portable batteries and that are specificallydesigned to be used, for the majority of the active service of the appliance, in an environment that is regularly subject to splashing water, water streams or water immersion and that are intended to be washable or rinseable.

    • baked_tea@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      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