It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
Unfortunately, people keep swallowing garbage changes on cell phones. Before, phones had removable batteries, cheap screen replacements, sturdier bodies, etc. since upgrading your phone from a 512 MB RAM to a 1GB RAM cell phone actually made a difference in performance. Now, my almost 5 year old pixel 3a can do everything my pixel 7 does. Companies saw the writing on the wall and started forcing customers to upgrade by crippling phones. Again, unfortunately, many just don’t notice that their iPhone 6S, Samsung S6, Pixel 3 XL, insert_4yr_phone was the peak in needed performance and didn’t need to be replaced. By then, removable batteries are phased out, micro SD are phased out, headphone jacks are started to be phased out, etc.
Yep, I’m still using a pixel 3a. Was running amazingly well up until a boot loop forced me to upgrade to android 12. It’s still okay, but you can feel it’s not as responsive. I don’t see a reason to upgrade while it is running so smoothly. I could be happier with a better camera, but I have a real camera, which I carry almost anywhere, so that’s okay.
When my current phone does, I’m checking out a Fairphone. Don’t know if they ship to/work in the Americas tho