Apple's John Ternus says that removable batteries will reduce durability of iPhones
John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, has said that the iPhone could become less durable if it were to have a removable battery. The topic came up in an interview with the YouTube channel ORBIT, run by Kilian.
Killian interviewed Ternus, and Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, to discuss the environmental impact of the Cupertino company's products. The video touches upon the subject of removable batteries around the 14-minute mark. The question (spotted by Supercharged) was about whether the European Union's new law about easily removable batteries could impact products negatively, or improve them.
Apple executive says removable batteries will reduce durability of iPhones
Ternus called it a complicated situation, and mentioned that iPhones are IP68 water-resistant, and they continue to work even after being in water for days. He explained that this was possible due to highly engineered adhesives and seals that protect the internals of the phone. Ternus admitted that this made it difficult for people to open up the device for repairing it. Apple believes that there should be a safe and effective way for users to replace the batteries (via its stores and service partners), and balance the repairability and the durability of the device.
I hate to say it, but looking at the dead phone on my shelf that I accidentally dropped in water a few years ago, I have to agree that Ternus makes a good point about water resistance. If the back cover of a phone was easily removable, water could enter the phone and do a lot of damage. Everything from the chipset, the display, cameras, not to mention the Lithium-ion battery, could be destroyed by good old H2O. That said, Apple's Self Repair Kits aren't the proper solution to the problem either.
A few reports have been floating around the internet claiming that Apple may exit the EU and that it will not comply with the new rules regarding easier battery replacements. Neither Ternus nor an Apple spokesperson have said or implied that. Apple is a trillion-dollar company because it sells a lot of products worldwide, exiting Europe would be detrimental to its revenue. It cannot afford to quit markets willy-nilly, not even because of EU's stringent laws, that's what negotiations are for. Besides, there are some other things that we need to consider.
EU's battery regulations
Let's take a look at the regulations that were passed by the EU. The documentation in Annex II clearly states that manufacturers need not provide replaceable batteries if they meet some requirements. The phones' batteries need to retain a capacity of at least 83% of the rated capacity after 500 full charging cycles, and 80% capacity over 1000 cycles.
Apple's documentation about its batteries says that its current iPhones are designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles.
The 80% capacity over 1000 charging cycles requirement could be tough to achieve, but the Cupertino company could work out a solution by making some improvements to the battery technology and power efficiency of its devices, to ensure its batteries last longer. This is likely what Ternus meant when he talked about (around 9:30 in the video) designing parts of the phone that are so robust that they don't need to be repaired. The EU's law also a clause about IP 67 rating, i.e. water resistance. So there is a possibility that devices that meet these requirements could be exempted from the law.
Think about it, would you rather lose your phone because you dropped it in water for a few seconds. Or, would you prefer a device that has a removable battery. At the end of the day, I think the price tag is what will matter to the consumer. You could shell out a hundred bucks to get the battery replaced after a few years of use, or buy a new phone for a $1000 because your old phone was destroyed due to water damage.
It's quite difficult to choose between the two, why can't we have both?
Apple is so full of it. I can’t stand that company. I realize this comment doesn’t add anything of value but don’t care.
It’s hard to believe that one battery is able to lose power only for the fact that it’s removable. My aunt had an ancient Nokia with removable battery that was able to work a complete whole week, and my uncle still has a five years chinese phone (Huawei I think) that even with removable battery can work for three days long (very occasional use, of course). I am surprising about the older batteries, they worked better in my opinion. Currently my Samsung A52 only endure one single day with some luck by my side. Otherwise it can’t overpass 18 hours of normal use. I remember when I bought it, the battery endured more than 36 hours with no pain at all, such a surprise of wasted performance in only two years of use.
Why can’t Apple make the midframe and screen parts water proof and just have a cut out for the battery? Doesn’t seem to be that hard, other phone makers have done it. Apple must be cutting back on their engineering budget.
The odds of my dropping my phone into water are very low since I don’t ever use it somewhere where that can happen. I’d very gladly take the chance of that happening if the tradeoff is easily changed batteries.
In any case, John Ternus is being disingenuous (okay, he is lying) when he tries to turn the battery issue into one of durability. All you have to do is follow the money to realize where the truth lies. Dollars not durability explain why Apple will continue to fight to keep customers from being able to easily change batteries without having to either give Apple an inordinate amount of money to perform the change for them, or simply buy a new phone way before one is really needed.
Nah, we had watertight phones with removable batteries, it’s not rocket science or impossible.
I think Apple today has more resources and knowledge than Samsung did in 2014 when the S5 came out, so there is no excuse.
…That said, I don’t mind internal batteries that much, my brother has an iphone 6(?) and after undoing some pentalobe screws everything is easily accessible and tidy – if they had kept it this simple all this time, I would have sympathy for Apple, but they haven’t. Battery replacements on the newest iphones are pretty bad if I remember correctly.
“I hate to say it, but looking at the dead phone on my shelf that I accidentally dropped in water a few years ago, I have to agree that Ternus makes a good point about water resistance. If the back cover of a phone was easily removable, water could enter the phone and do a lot of damage. Everything from the chipset, the display, cameras, not to mention the Lithium-ion battery, could be destroyed by good old H2O. That said, Apple’s Self Repair Kits aren’t the proper solution to the problem either.”
Written by someone that has never seen an xcover phone. Not that those are premium or amazing, but they’re a decent modern example to show that the tech exists.
The use of adhesives and glue in technology is honestly very lazy, it’s a shame that standards have fallen so far.
Looks like Apple is gonna make their batteries as good as possible to avoid having to make them removable, the end user still (kinda) wins in this scenario
Lots of flip phone makers sell durable phones that are waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, and have user changeable batteries. I had one that lasted ten years. Only got rid of it because 3G went away.
Apple and major Android smartphone makers don’t design for replaceable batteries because they want to sell new new phones every two or three years. They have market power in this niche, consumers don’t. Time to break up the Apple and the Android oligopolies.