Planned obsolescence is not one thing. It operates through several overlapping mechanisms, each individually defensible as a design choice and collectively functioning as a system that ensures a device’s useful life is shorter than it needs to be.
The lifespan the manufacturer assigned it, engineered through battery chemistry, software policy, availability of spare parts, and a set of design choices that ensure the device becomes unrepairable or artificially obsolete before its hardware wears out. The EU just made significant elements of that practice illegal in its markets.
Significant elements? Sounds like weasel words. The main bits of the law are quoted further on: it contains lots of flexible adjectives like “reasonable”. Better than nothing I guess.
Apparently in some countries planned obsolescence per se is illegal, but I didn’t see that any EU law includes that.
BTW often the software alone makes all the difference: I know one operating system that still runs & receives updates on 8yo phones and the hardware is still tip-top.
I know one operating system that still runs & receives updates on 8yo phones and the hardware is still tip-top.
You said it, mate. Lineage OS on Samsung is damn awesome. Makes my 9 y/o phone run like butter.
I just checked and Lineage would work for my phone! It’s starting to slow down. Lineage looks good, any tips or quirks I should know about before committing to it?
freedumb
the EU is still currently phasing out 3G networks though, so a lot of perfectly usable phones will still become e-waste due to that…
Sometimes the eu does brilliant shit. But then they do shit like banning plant based foods from using terms like milk and cream. I don’t know where to stand in terms of th Eu
Just showing how much power the meat industry has over the EU, and whole world.
I feel very lucky that my phone has lasted as long as it has (just about six years now). It’s slow and a little annoying but I’m thinking that I’ll probably dump some apps and photos and switch out the OS soon and that’ll probably help. My last laptop, on the other hand, made it three years before a Windows update rendered it completely useless. A friend of mine thinks he can get Linux on it and get it running again but I’m pretty pissed that it shit the bed like that after three years of moderate use.
My laptop before that one suddenly had a keyboard issue after five years… it would have been fine if I could have repaired the keyboard, but I had the one model that welded the keyboard to the goddamn chassis. A replacement keyboard was only 10 bucks. I’ll never let that one go ;-;
Sorry, I’m tired of this shit.
It’s already, today in the states, absurdly easy to repair your phone and battery. There is none of this bullshit preventing you from installing a new battery.
I’m not against phones being repairable, but they already mostly are and nobody gives or will give a fuck. People replace phones and cars because they have small scratches and are just old. They just want the latest and greatest every year and phone are a trival cost compared to rent 🤷♂️.
We’re burning shit down, stop passing the blame.
My ten year old phone has a battery that still lasts the day on a charge. I’m only looking to upgrade because it doesn’t get security updates any more. My bank app doesn’t work any more because of this.
That’s planned obsolescence.
You’re the minority keeping your phone that long.
You’ve got it backwards. People getting a new phone is a consequence of planned obsolescence. It’s the literal point.
No. People get rid of their perfectly fine phones all the time… They didn’t even look into replacing batteries.
Nah, the only reason any of my friends get a new phone is when their old phone breaks too. Hyperconsumerism is not normal.
Yeah I’m sure the guy hanging out in solar punk Lemmy is highly representative 👍
Modern smartphones are notoriously difficult to repair and get parts or diagrams for, idk what you’re on about
It’s both. I tried to repair my last phone but it would have cost me more in special parts than to just buy a new one. Meanwhile my family members are buying new phones because theirs are a little slow or have a crack in the screen. I’ve known so many people to ditch their iPhone for the latest model regardless of how well theirs was functioning. And I know a ton of people who are clinging onto an almost-new phone that randomly shuts off every 30 minutes because “it still works” or just keep buying new batteries until the software stops updating.
I guess what I’m saying is that planned obsolescence is bullshit AND we have a consumerist culture that encourages people to always want the latest and greatest. We need tech that lasts and is easily repaired and we need people to prioritize using what they have
Tell me you’ve never swapped a modern iphone’s battery without saying it.
I did. It’s a soft mess that isn’t easy to remove because it’s glued to the case. I was twisting and prying and suddenly it got extremely hot so I ripped it out before it destroyed the whole phone. The change was succesful, but I accidentally ripped out the flat cable connecting the volume rockers to the board.
Absurdly easy my ass.
👌👍
