Your link says otherwise. From the Article 11 link, ANNEX II, A.1.1.(5):

(a) From 20 June 2025, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives shall ensure that the process for replacement of the display assembly and of parts referred to in point 1(a), with the exception of the battery or batteries, meets the following criteria: [...]

[...]

(c) From 20 June 2025, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives shall ensure that the process for battery replacement:

(i) meets the following criteria:

— fasteners shall be resupplied or reusable;

- the process for replacement shall be feasible with no tool, a tool or set of tools that is supplied with the product or spare part, or basic tools;

— the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out in a use environment;

— the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out by a layman.

(ii) or, as an alternative to point (i), ensure that:

— the process for battery replacement meets the criteria set out in (a);

— after 500 full charge cycles the battery must, in addition, have in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 83 % of the rated capacity;

— the battery endurance in cycles achieves a minimum of 1 000 full charge cycles, and after 1 000 full charge cycles the battery must, in addition, have in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 80 % of the rated capacity;

— the device is at least dust tight and protected against immersion in water up to one meter depth for a minimum of 30 minutes.

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So manufacturers must make the battery replaceable, or meet all the conditions from (a) for replacing non-battery components, and meet the 1000 cycle / 80% capacity requirement.

> This is not correct. There is no exemption for Apple devices

It was not said that Apple was exempted. What was said is that Apple complied with the exemption rules.

> covers exemptions but nothing to do with 1,000 cycles or Apple as far as i can see.

It appears what you're looking for is in B(5)(c)(ii).

> (c) From 20 June 2025, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives shall ensure that the process for battery replacement:

> (i) meets the following criteria:

> — fasteners shall be resupplied or reusable;

> — the process for replacement shall be feasible with no tool, a tool or set of tools that is supplied with the product or spare part, or basic tools;

> — the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out in a use environment;

> — the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out by a layman.

> (ii) or, as an alternative to point (i), ensure that

> — the process for battery replacement meets the criteria set out in (a);

> — after 500 full charge cycles the battery must have in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 83 % of the rated capacity;

> — the battery endurance in cycles achieves a minimum of 1 000 full charge cycles, and after 1 000 full charge cycles the battery must, in addition, have in a fully charged state, a remaining capacity of at least 80 % of the rated capacity;

> — the device is at least dust tight and protected against immersion in water up to one meter depth for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Don't fall for the 'glue cuz of protection' myth - there are and had been water-resistant phones way before Apple started glueing to avoid customers doing their own repairs and them losing out on new sales.

Conformal coating is a little more expensive than gasketing, but it works much, much better under pressure. Motorola does this.

Third parties offer new iphone batteries so it's clearly replaceable commercially

This sounds great. I would've loved to have set my phone to charge up to only 60% or 80% of its design capacity to reduce wear. I do this on my laptop.

Honestly we should define 80% as the new "100%" on such batteries and label "charging to full" as "overcharging".

Psychologically, people understand charging a battery to "125%" (or whatever) a lot better: Do it when you really need to but if you do it all the time it wears down the battery a lot faster.

Samsung phones let you limit them to 80% charge. I've had this enabled since I got my current phone.

Then don’t buy a phone from a company with a piss poor record of customer service.

Just looking in maps, there are three Apple Stores within a 45 minute drive from where I live in central Florida.

The situation is worse in my hometown in South GA admittedly, you have to drive 70 miles for same day service for an authorized repair place - mostly Best Buy.

> What if there are manufacturer errors?

Typically that's subject to some sort of recall or remediation through a service centre?

Are they behind? AFAIK the Pixel and the iPhone both typically charge in the ~25W range but can support up to ~45W.

Isn't this pretty much what Nothing are doing? At least one of their phones has a different battery rating in India than elsewhere, despite containing the same hardware.

> Forcing everyone’s iPhone to take all of the tradeoffs of replaceable batteries so some people can save $50 to replace their own battery isn’t a good deal.

This sounds like the exact opposite of real life. Every battery ages to the point of uselessness, not every phone gets to take a dive. It's not a stretch to say most phones never see more than some rain or a spilled drink. But the worst part of every discussion on this topic is this false (uninformed) dichotomy that water resistance and easily replaceable battery are mutually exclusive.

> and then pay $99 to have Apple professionally install a new battery for me in 3-4 years

In 3-4 years yes, but how about in 10-15 years? Apple will refuse to take your money then.

> Apple will send you the entire toolkit if you want complete with a return label.

Which is malicious compliance. They should allow the friendly neighborhood repair shop to purchase a toolkit so you can choose who does the repairs for you.

1 Cycle is discharging from 100-0 and charging from 0-100, regardless of how many times the phone is charged, so for a user that averages 50% battery drain each day, 1000 cycles would actually be ~6 years. I have no idea what the actual average is, but I'm betting that 1000 cycles is at least 4 years for the average user and possibly significantly longer.

Cycles are not days. My 7 month-old phone is currently sitting at 55 cycles. At that rate it would take me ~10 years to reach 1000 cycles.

It isn't quite that linear in practice but realistically it will still be at least 5+ years.

6-7 years for me on the current phone, double on the previous one. 7 years is a good limit.

Apple’s replacement program is $99 for out of warranty battery replacement

My battery’s at 70%, I could replace it for $50, but I consider it a feature to get me off my goddamn phone more.

> The regulation states that batteries must be removable using ‘commercially available’ tools

I’m pretty sure that’s more or less already the case, so…