Looking at the pictures on the website, they look to be about at least twice the size of the most recent airpods pro, and much larger than the very first airpods (which are massive compared to the more recent ones).
I would have compared the weight directly, but PQ website only shows the weight for earbuds+case together (70g), couldn't find the weight of earbuds alone anywhere. Apple's website lists airpods pro 2 at 3g and the case at 50g.
In particular this legislation lets the maker build sealed and compact products as long as there's a reasonable way to open them and replace the battery.
Replaceability is very much about space. LiPoly batteries are very dangerous without an outer impact shell. If they're bent or punctured they'll catch fire or explode.
Batteries sealed in a device use the body of the device as their impact shell so get more battery mass and thus storage for a given envelope. A replaceable battery needing its own impact shell will have less storage for the same envelope volume.
This is very much a space problem. For any given envelope a replaceable battery will end up with less storage than a non-replaceable battery.
> A replaceable battery needing its own impact shell
Why ? Current battery replacements are sold without an impact shell, and the main issue is to have to remove all the parts to reach the battery at the very bottom of the stack and then deal with the dirty gluing.
A design where you remove the bottom first, unglue the battery through pull tabs and stick the new battery would have exactly the same properties, the body would still act as an impact shell, the only difference being it's a 5 or 6 step process instead of literaly 55.
Current LiPoly replacement batteries are not sold as consumer items. You can't buy them off a peg at a normal retail store. Take a look at phone batteries sometime and make note of the logos everyone ignores.
A UR mark (its a backwards printed UR) is a UL certification for components meant to go in a UL listed product but themselves aren't individually certified as UL products. Not that UL or any other testing labs are the end-all be-all of safety but in liability terms they are important.
The UR testing means the component isn't outright defective for purpose when installed in the UL listed device. So if there's ever a lawsuit around a device and all the components are UR labeled and the product is UL listed the manufacturer is unlikely to be forced to recall that entire class of device.
In order for a battery to get UL listed instead of UR listed it needs additional testing (money) and any sub-models or major changes need to be retested. It's much easier to get UR labeling for a component that can only be used in the intended UL listed device. Phone retailers do not want component-only certified things sitting in warehouses in shitty retail packaging.
Besides the whole liability issue there's issue of scale. Manufacturing a hundred million widgets with glue to hold batteries in place is more efficient than screws. Screws require screw holes, assembly is slower, and screws work themselves loose with thermal expansion/contraction. Glue is more efficient for assembly and overall safer over the life of the device (measured in the total manufacturing run divided by defects from battery slippage).
Devices could require fewer disassembly steps but it would be at the cost of assembly complexity. A $1 more in assembly costs is an extra hundred million it costs Apple or Samsung for just one model of phone.
I know Apple is just evil and can do no right but there are reasons shit is built they way it is. iPhones are far sturdier and resilient than they were ten years ago and their batteries last as long/longer despite higher power draw of their SoC and radios. Part of that sturdiness is gluing pieces together to better handle impacts and batteries that have more power storage per volume because they do t need thick impact shells. There's pretty good odds that making an iPhone with less glue and more easily replaced batteries would lead to more phones going in the trash due to them breaking more easily.
If I correctly get your point, the whole UL/UR system will need to be revised to adapt to more consumers directly buying replacement parts, as they'll expand beyond the nerds following iFixit tutorials.
On the glue part, sretch release strips are simple enough to deal with.
> If I correctly get your point, the whole UL/UR system will need to be revised to adapt to more consumers directly buying replacement parts, as they'll expand beyond the nerds following iFixit tutorials.
No, the underwriting and test labs system will not be "updated". User serviceable parts/devices would need significant structural changes to pass testing.
The whole point of testing labs is to give a liability sign-off for manufacturers. A UL listing just says "this particular product built to X specifications did not immediately explode, catch fire, or kill anyone during our testing". It means that design isn't immediately dangerous under normal use co dictions. The UR listing is really just a claim that the component can sit in its packaging in a warehouse (in normal conditions) and not explode, catch fire, and is unlikely to immediately kill someone before it's sent to be assembled into a UL listed device.
If a manufacturer is selling to consumers no retailer, wholeseller, warehouse, or shipping company will touch electronics without some sort of test lab underwriting. In order for batteries to get that underwriting they need to survive physical abuse tests that will cause most LiPoly batteries to explode or catch fire. Look up LiPoly battery fires on YouTube. It's common to use naked batteries with no protective cases in hobby projects.
In order to make LiPoly batteries that will pass those underwriting tests they will need outer impact and puncture resistant casings. For any given envelope for a battery the protective casing will eat into the battery's capacity. Depending on the material and envelope the casing could be up to 50% of the battery's volume.
Internal layouts for some phones would be untenable if the batteries were user serviceable and required a protective shell. The L-shaped batteries in phones like the iPhone XS would be an impractical shape.
The difference between a high capacity battery and bomb is really only the discharge speed. Lithium is incredibly reactive with oxygen. The only reason they're relatively safe to keep in your pocket is they're wrapped in a sturdy aluminum shell.
Sounds like you’re incredibly lucky that current products just happen to barely not exceed your deal-breaking threshold. A few years ago you wouldn’t have found any products meeting your requirements.
