TL;DR
- The European Council has ended its adoption procedure for rules related to phones with replaceable batteries.
- By 2027, all phones released in the EU must have a battery the user can easily replace with no tools or expertise.
- The regulation intends to introduce a circular economy for batteries.
Battery shape (and connector) will sadly still be a thing for a long time, and usually it’s for engineering reasons, so I don’t really think it will be possible to standardize it
We really should just adopt the “best one” that becomes the standard. Only change it with significant advancement
There isn’t one “best one”. Always depends on requirements, which vary by device, underlying technology and use case.
It would certainly be ‘possible’ to standardize, I think that the costs would outweigh the benefits though.
We want phones that last a long time and we want innovation. Leaving the battery spec up to a regulatory board brings a very real risk of limiting phone design evolution and evolving battery tech.
IMO just having easily replaceable batteries is enough of a benefit that I wouldn’t mind the obvious drawbacks of non-standardization. It’s still a big leap forward for consumers compared to where we are today.