Why your smartphone will look very different by 2027

That seems set to be simply the primary change with new EU laws set to require a whole design rethink from each single smartphone model.

Passed with an awesome 587 votes in favour and simply 9 towards, the laws is geared toward making batteries extra sustainable and, most significantly, requiring the end-user to have the ability to swap out their very own battery with ease.

Launched in 2014, this was the final Samsung cellphone to have a battery you can come out your self by merely eradicating the again cowl.

Apple has by no means had that choice on any iPhone.

That is what the EU desires to return to, by means of their laws which seeks to “set out rules on the sustainability, performance, safety, collection, recycling and second life of batteries”.

Key to this modification, to be in place by 2027, is the requirement that smartphone batteries be detachable and changed by the proprietor of the cellphone with none particular instruments.

“A portable battery shall be considered readily removable by the end-user where it can be removed from a product with the use of commercially available tools, without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless provided free of charge with the product, proprietary tools, thermal energy, or solvents to disassemble the product,” the foundations state.

While it might be mentioned that that is “just in Europe”, as we have seen with the USB-C charger laws there’s little urge for food for a tool to be made for Europe and one other gadget for the remainder of the world.

This signifies that Samsung’s Galaxy S26 or 27 and Apple’s iPhone 18 or 19 would should be vastly totally different of their design and presumably capabilities.

Today, smartphones function spectacular mud and waterproofing scores – that is because of the tight seal created within the unibody design and the bonding brokers used to fuse all of it collectively.

A transfer again towards detachable batteries will convey us again to a time while you needed to be cautious about your cellphone within the rain – and definitely being dropped in a pool or a drink.

9news.com.au approached each Apple and Samsung for remark, however we’re but to obtain a response.

Conversely, one firm is already working towards this aim: Nokia.

“We welcome the decision by the European Union that will require batteries to be easily replaced in smartphones in the coming years,” Lars Silberbauer, CMO of HMD Global, the corporate behind the Nokia cellphone model, instructed 9news.com.au at the moment.

“As a company already leading the way globally in self-repairability, we see every day the benefits this can deliver to consumers mindful of both cost and waste, and how this can also lead to significant benefits to the environment over time.

“This resolution additionally ensures self-repair and e-waste discount stay entrance and centre of smartphone innovation enabling folks to maintain their cellphone for longer.”

Nokia already has two phones in the market in Australia which feature repairability with instructions and spares available to replace both the screen and the battery.

The likelihood of something like that coming to Apple or Samsung phones seems a long shot, with both companies supporting the “proper to restore” which makes genuine parts available to authorised repairers, but nothing in the way of self-repair for the end user.

No matter what the case, smartphones in 2027 are going to be very different to the ones we have today.