Know before you buy: starting today, EU’s new labels shake up the smartphone market

https://www.gsmarena.com/eu_energy_labels_smartphones_mandatory_today_battery_life_durability_repairability-news-68345.php

by nimicdoareu

19 comments

  1. Starting today, all new smartphones and tablets sold in the EU are required to provide an energy efficiency label inside their packaging. The in-box sticker is similar to the ones shown on other consumer electronic devices sold in the EU/EEA market.

    The new regulation’s main goal is to help EU consumers make informed buying choices and help reduce CO₂ emissions.

  2. These two points are so nice to have!

    >Battery endurance per cycle (in hours and minutes) per full battery charge
    >Repairability class (from A to E)

    I don’t care much about the others but these two are truly invaluable to know when comparing phones.

  3. Its great for ensuring that no start up has ever the chance of producing anything in the EU.

    We should leave all tech to giant companies with huge compliance departments and lawers. Its impossible for any small companies to follow this.

    Edit. I guess nobody checked the minimum requirements :

    In addition, all new devices sold in the EU will have to meet five eco-design criteria:

    Durability: Devices should be resistant to accidental drops and protected against dust and water.

    Battery longevity: Batteries must endure at least 800 full charge and discharge cycles while retaining at least 80% of their original capacity.

    Repairability: Manufacturers must make critical spare parts available within 5 to 10 working days, and continue offering them for 7 years after the product is no longer sold in the EU.

    Software support: Devices must receive operating system upgrades for at least 5 years from the end-of-sale date.

  4. Inside the packaging though? Or the article is just worded badly? If it’s really inside the box and not on it, how is it supposed to serve its purpose, to give all these infos before purchase?

  5. This is really nice. Only wish the database would use the regular product names, instead of codenames for all devices. Really awkward to search for the correct device, when the options are Google GUR25, Google GEC77, Google GZC4K etc.

  7. It’s been 30 minutes and already someone is claiming that showing the phone’s battery life per charge will “stifle progress and innovation”

  9. A phone with a high repairability score and good battery life is probably a better investment long-term, even if it costs a little more upfront.

  10. I wish eu would push all elections using batteries to make them easy to replace not like old age just to be able to heat a back of a phone and snap battery out instead of taking the whole phone apart to take battery out

  11. the repairability thing is a great win. I mean obviously manufacturers will craft and whine about it driving prices up, but a company like fairphone has proven it can be done, and should be done.

    This fact alone will hopefully make a huge dent in e-waste.

  13. ok i have a question. how tf does energy efficiency ratings and co2 relate? I think that shouldnt count here rather they should more concern themselves with the energy supplier source of power.

  15. I’m so happy to live in the eu. I pity those who take these things for granted. The EU is really a capable of changing world markets thanks to its influence and wise leadership. Because besides the top bosses and so on, lawmakers and judges constantly work for us doing these things. Added up our lives are made so much easier in many contexts

  16. Will be interesting to see how manufacturers respond. 5 years updates and 7 years parts after end of sale is quite harsh. I’d expect them to only offer models for sale for 1 year in the EU, no more 2 year old discounted flagships.

  17. Manufacturers must make critical spare parts available within 5 to 10 working days, and continue offering them for 7 years after the product is no longer sold in the EU. 

    Huge

  18. Now if only we could get phone-sized phones instead of only mini-tablets.

  19. This is great, and especially welcome for the right to own, right to repair folks. However I am a bit worried about the repairability rating. There just seems like an infinite amount of ways to game this (as always), as well as not really touching on more fundamental problems like patent laws, software/subscriptions dependecies and changing prices. Companies can still invent pretty much any reason to squeeze you out. Even just considering that you may be locked to a OS and/or subscription and/or TOS.

    This is more consumer protection than right to repair. There are other ideological reasons for supporting right to repair/own. Environmental and upcycling being two. A true right to repair rating would probably look at the “repurposability” of individual parts and the degree to which people are locked in. This seems more “objective” as well. You can literally transplant the parts and then do a percentage of transplantable parts.

    I’m afraid this will lead to a an even more complex game that corporations will always win. The battery endurance indicator is begging to be gamed.

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