I have a few phones that I am afraid to use. They're not that old, but the manufacturers have stopped shipping updates for them. This is a much needed regulatory innovation, since there was very little hope any company wanted to provide OS updates for longer than a few years.
Shipping OS updates to 5 years after the sale of last phone is going to make the phones work longer and lower the amount of stupid and fixable security issues present in all the outdated phones now in the wild. I hope.
Perhaps manufacturers unlock bootloaders & whatnot after the 7 years so tinkerers et al can load 3rd party software to give the devices even longer lifelines?
When will the EU do the same for cars? There's no need for individual low cost parts to be integrated fused together as modules super expensive to replace.
Not just German ICE cars, but I follow what EV Clinic is doing and it's making my blood boil on how poorly designed against cheap and easy repairability EVs are.
Feels like this is the bigger environmental and societal issue than phones and tablets.
What about updates? The hardware might function for decades (basically forever), but that means nothing if you can't/are not allowed to update the SSL library.
People change smartphones every few years because they want the new shiny ones. I think it would be more effective and pragmatic to work in depth on recycling of smartphones and all electronics rather than mandating things that add cost and resources without necessarily making a difference in the end.
To me this is typical political handwaving, aiming at surpeficial "solutions" that will get easy support (because "obviously" it makes sense, even if, really, not so much...) while not addressing the deep, more complex but more beneficial to solve, issues.
> Under the Energy Labelling Regulation, smartphones and tablets must display information on energy efficiency, battery lifespan and resistance to dust, water and accidental drops.
Just my two cents and a bit of reckoning: You guys know the types of batteries? Like AAA, etc? There are a whole list of them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes) and it's standardized, allowing different vendor to corporate with each other automatically.
But it comes to the smartphones and laptops etc, their batteries comes in with all shapes and forms, aka non-standarded.
I think if EU really wants to make electronic more durable, maybe try standardize the not-so-durable parts of the device. For example, battery, data drives, charger etc. This enables other vendors to create replacement parts without breaking copyright and other laws.