Of course they comply. Why does the headline imply that there ever was a realistic chance they would not?
Does this affect only one of the three batteries, or all of them?
Stuff like this is why you should tell all your friends and family to hold off on buying devices with non-replaceable batteries now.
edit: Contrary to what the article says though, this doesn’t guarantee they’re launching one with replaceable batteries (though it’s possible). AFAIK the regulation has a cop-out where if the battery is certified to last 1000 cycles at >80% health then the device is exempt from the regulation. This is what iPhones have already pretty much been confirmed to do.
> 80% after 1000 cycles AND at least IP67 protection. That’s the loophole. So anything that can’t be made waterproof is still affected by the law.
And IP67 is not trivial. That’s vacuum dust proof + 1 meter underwater for 30 minutes.
The iPhone passes this, yes, but it’s kind of crazy that it does. There’s no way the Switch and its joycons would.
inb4 waterproof Switch
Not doubting your AFAIK and without checking it myself. That’s a rubbish cop out - look at all the Gameboys and older consoles that people still enjoy and even put a premium on.
Edit - I did some research (a Google search):
The ecodesign requirements are set out in Annex II, including rules on:
- resistance to accidental drops or scratches and protection from dust and water;
- durability of batteries – batteries of smart phones and slate tablets should withstand at least 800 cycles of charge and discharge while retaining at least 80% of their initial capacity;
- disassembly and repair, including obligations for producers to make critical spare parts available to repairers within 5–10 working days, and until 7 years after the end of sales of the product model on the EU market;
- operating system upgrades for at least 5 years after the product has been placed on the market;
- non-discriminatory access for professional repairers to any software or firmware needed for the replacement.
If we take 800 cycles to be just over 2 years at one cycle a day,then I think that’s a bit limited. I often run phones that are over 2 years old and they are perfectly fine for everyday use performance-wise. In my opinion this is missing the whole point.
Yeah I feel like it’ll be pretty easy for most batteries to meet that standard, and 800 cycles isn’t that many for most devices.
A lot of manufacturers have opted for replaceable batteries anyway, perhaps anticipating future amendments to the regulation (I believe it was initially more strict).
That’s really awesome, thank you EU. Non-replacable batteries are giving the device a fixed lifespan and you really want to be able to use your devices for as long as you want
