504
All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027
(www.theolivepress.es)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
504 points (99.4% liked)
Hacker News
4769 readers
324 users here now
Posts from the RSS Feed of HackerNews.
The feed sometimes contains ads and posts that have been removed by the mod team at HN.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
That is what gaskets are designed to do. Admittedly I haven't read the regulations, but they could even go as far as making the gasket "single use". Meaning the battery is user replaceable, but not meant to be constantly swapped. Removing the back cover could require replacing the gasket and using a specific torque value and sequence on the screws the same way you would on any other gasket interface meant to keep dust and liquids in or out.
They could also potentially start waterproofing the circuit boards themselves with conformal coating the way they do with mission critical hardware that needs to still function even if there is some amount of water ingress. I'm not saying I'd be happy with that solution, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
What would also work is waterproofing the phone except of the battery case and use a waterproof connector between the battery and the phone.
That was my first thought as well. Granted phones these days are mostly batteries with as small a circuit board as they can get away with shoved in the remaining space
Which would make it pretty simple to just make this small area waterproof.
So what your saying is I could have a water cooled phone just like a pc
I like the idea, and I suspect gaskets will be the solution they go with, with the back cover applying pressure to the gasket to create a seal. but the EU regulation specifically says that no expertise should be required and you should be able to do it with commercial, standard tools (i.e screwdriver). I don't think they could make single-use gaskets where you have to purchase additional gaskets from the OEM. I suppose they could come with the battery itself, which the EU requires OEMs to sell for 5 years.
Requiring specific torque values are certainly violating the regulation as that would either require specialised tools are expertise that can't be expected from regular customers. It also is not necessary for securing water and dust protection. Single use seals are fine as the focus is repair, not battery capacity extension vua battery swap.
Do we know know if requiring specific torque values would violate the regulation? That's a genuine good faith question. The reason I ask, and what I was thinking of when I made my original comment was cars, and not the new bull shit we have. If I reference the shop manual for any of the vehicles I owned made in the late 80s to early 90s every fastener had a specific torque value specified for their installation from a lug but, to a cable management clip, to a head gasket bolt. Only one of those items I listed ever had a torque wrench brought out to be installed if they were worked on though by a mechanic or an owner.
I'm just wondering if it might be a similar situation.
I don't know the legislation word by word but I do know it requires that the repair is possible without specialised equipment. How should a simple consumer without special tools apply a precise torque.
Changing a phone battery should be simpler than repairing a car and the regulation also requires it to be simpler.
Well, that's kinda what I'm getting at. The kind of tool used by a mechanic to install a cable management clip (that the shop manual states has a torque value) is a simple screw driver. I think I have seen seen some computer heatsinks that have listed a recommended torque value as well. Of course I have never grabbed my torque wrench for this either, I have always just gone with feel.
To be clear, I'm not advocating that the manufacturer require users to buy a torque gauge of some kind and get away with it. It can be very helpful though to have a recommended torque value and sequence as a reference point though if they go the route of screws and gaskets. There are tons of other engineering solutions that are possible up to and including just not having an IP rating.
I'm currently using a Fairphone 5 with the back cover removed and in a case and I haven't ever had any issues.
There are two possibilities. Either the right torque is critical for successful repair. In which case skill is required with simple equipment that cannot be expected from a simple consumer, or the torque has such a high tolerance that the error margin is what a regular screw driver use would comply with, and therefore no torque has to be specified in the repair manual, other than maybe qualitative statements.
Riiiiiiight