The European Union (EU) is going to have a big impact on the iPhone later this year when the iPhone 15, if leaks are to be believed, features a USB-C charging port, ditching the proprietary Lightning connector Apple has used since the iPhone 5.
That looks set to be just the first change with new EU legislation set to require a complete design rethink from every single smartphone brand.
Passed with an overwhelming 587 votes in favour and just nine against, the legislation is aimed at making batteries more sustainable and, most importantly, requiring the end-user to be able to swap out their own battery with ease.
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Remember the Samsung Galaxy S5?
Launched in 2014, this was the last Samsung phone to have a battery you could pop out yourself by simply removing the back cover.
Apple has never had that option on any iPhone.
That is what the EU wants to return to, through their legislation which seeks to "set out rules on the sustainability, performance, safety, collection, recycling and second life of batteries".
Key to this change, to be in place by 2027, is the requirement that smartphone batteries be removable and replaced by the owner of the phone without any special tools.
"A portable battery shall be considered readily removable by the end-user where it can be removed from a product with the use of commercially available tools, without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless provided free of charge with the product, proprietary tools, thermal energy, or solvents to disassemble the product," the rules state.
While it could be said that this is "just in Europe", as we've seen with the USB-C charger legislation there's little appetite for a device to be made for Europe and another device for the rest of the world.
This means that Samsung's Galaxy S26 or 27 and Apple's iPhone 18 or 19 would need to be vastly different in their design and possibly capabilities.
Today, smartphones feature impressive dust and waterproofing ratings - this is thanks to the tight seal created in the unibody design and the bonding agents used to fuse it all together.
A move back toward removable batteries will bring us back to a time when you had to be careful about your phone in the rain - and certainly being dropped in a pool or a drink.
9news.com.au approached both Apple and Samsung for comment, but we are yet to receive a response.
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Conversely, one company is already working toward this goal: Nokia.
"We welcome the decision by the European Union that will require batteries to be easily replaced in smartphones in the coming years," Lars Silberbauer, CMO of HMD Global, the company behind the Nokia phone brand, told 9news.com.au today.
"As a company already leading the way globally in self-repairability, we see every day the benefits this can deliver to consumers mindful of both cost and waste, and how this can also lead to significant benefits to the environment over time.
"This decision also ensures self-repair and e-waste reduction remain front and centre of smartphone innovation enabling people to keep their phone for longer."
Nokia already has two phones in the market in Australia which feature repairability with instructions and spares available to replace both the screen and the battery.
The likelihood of something like that coming to Apple or Samsung phones seems a long shot, with both companies supporting the "right to repair" which makes genuine parts available to authorised repairers, but nothing in the way of self-repair for the end user.
No matter what the case, smartphones in 2027 are going to be very different to the ones we have today.
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