Changing the battery should be a hot topic for most iPhone users, and apparently for Apple too: the company was just ashamed of the juicy price increase that was due on March 1st as a side note on a service page announced. This makes changing the battery a costly repair case, because Apple’s original batteries are usually significantly more expensive than replacement batteries from third-party manufacturers. But the inexpensive alternatives have their pitfalls.
The bottom line is that you have to estimate 80 to 120 euros for replacing the battery at Apple from March; Apple charges an additional 12 euros for postage. For around 120 euros, however, you can currently get a usable new Android smartphone with a new battery of similar capacity, including the Samsung Galaxy A04 with 32 GB of memory or a Motorola E40 with 64 GB of memory. However, the switch is likely to be an option for very few iPhone users. A technical reason for the expensive battery replacement is not apparent: Android and Apple smartphones rely on the same Li-Ion technology.
Like most other smartphones, the iPhone draws its power from a lithium-ion battery (bottom right in the picture). Depending on the model, Apple will charge up to 120 euros for the replacement of this wearing part from March.
EU demands easy repairability
The timing of the price increase seems clumsy to strange, because it was not until mid-December that the EU stipulated that batteries for electric cars, laptops, smartphones and other devices must be easy to change in the future and “by end users”. Also, no “special tools, thermal energy or solvents may be used” for disassembly.
That’s what it says in the Draft of the EU Commission for a battery regulation in Article 11: Built-in batteries must be easily removable and replaceable by the end-user or by independent operators during the lifetime of the device. More specifically, the Brussels Commission states that a battery is easily replaceable if, once removed from a device, it can be replaced with a similar one without affecting the function or performance of the device.
Since the regulation grants a transition period of three and a half years, Apple’s price increase seems like an attempt to get as much as possible out of this spare parts business until the end of the toleration.
From March 2023, Apple will charge 24 euros more for replacing the battery on iPhones up to and including model 13. The service costs for devices without a home button – iPhone X, XR, XS, 11, 12 and 13 – will increase from 75 euros to 99 euros. For models with a home button, such as the iPhone SE, 6s or 7, Apple and authorized workshops will not have to pay 55 euros for the installation of a new original battery as before, but 79 euros. For the devices of the current 14 series, the already expensive 119 euros remain.
The background is by no means an exchange rate adjustment, because the price for a new iPhone battery is also increasing in other countries, for example Apple is adding 20 US dollars to it in the USA. Independent workshops often offer iPhone battery replacement cheaper, but original batteries are not necessarily used there
External batteries with consequences
There are alternatives, but they are not without consequences: In the case of independent workshops, it should be noted that Apple excludes an iPhone from any further repairs if the new battery does not come from Apple’s supply chain but from the open market.
For iPhones of the 12 and 13 series, Apple offers suitable spare parts sets from 50 euros, but repairing it yourself requires sensitivity and is also very time-consuming due to unexpected hurdles such as electronic and telephone authorization.
Switching to another smartphone operating system is even less likely for many users, because the process can take days depending on the amount of data stored and requires a lot of experience, for example moving eSIMs, banking apps and Apple Pay credit cards .
In the end, many users could find themselves forced to have their worn-out iPhone battery replaced by Apple or an authorized workshop, even though there are cheaper alternatives.
Half-hearted battery management
Apple also contributes to the dissatisfaction with its half-hearted battery management. If you want to extend the service life, you can at best use pseudo-intelligent charging with a flattened charging curve. The battery is then slowly charged to 80 percent at night and quickly to 100 percent in the morning before the user usually picks it up again. This two-step method is designed to conserve battery power. But the calculation only works if you consistently start at the same time every day.
Apple’s iPhones can charge their battery gently, but unlike some Android devices and electric cars, there is no fixed upper limit for extending the service life.
Electric cars and many notebooks that use Li-ion batteries like smartphones, on the other hand, have had an upper limit for years. This protects the battery more sustainably because it basically prevents charging above 80 percent, for example. Some Android smartphones can now do this too, including the Samsung Galaxy A51 and A52.
iPhone users who want the same functionality will need additional hardware. The start-up Chargie has developed a plug, which is coupled via USB between the power supply and the smartphone. A smartphone app of the same name monitors the charging process and controls the USB plug. If you want, you can automatically prevent the battery from ever being charged over 80 percent. However, the plug costs 35 euros, which raises doubts as to whether it is even worthwhile, because even carefully charged Li-ion batteries age.
c’t 4/2023 )
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(dz)
