An EU ruling means that European customers will soon see an energy rating when shopping for a new smartphone or tablet, just as they do with home appliances.
From 20 June of this year, any smartphone or tablet sold across the EU’s 27 member states will require a new colour-coded label outlining its battery life and efficiency, as well as its durability, repairability and more.
Interestingly, foldable devices appear to have been exempted from this requirement. Or, to use the European Commission’s own wording , “Mobile phones and tablets with a flexible main display which the user can unroll and roll up partly or fully”.
What will the EU smartphone energy label entail?
Manufacturers must provide accurate device information, which will then be verified by the European Commission. Each eligible smart device sold in the EU will receive a sticker containing seven key bits of information covering energy efficiency as well as durability metrics.
The top two will contain the familiar letter and colour-coded energy scale (from A to G), and where the device falls on it.
Most important of all, there’ll be a figure of how long the device can be expected to last on a single battery cycle, in hours and minutes.
The rest of the information relates to the device’s durability, battery endurance, repairability, and ingress protection (IP68 etc.) – all handy information to have to hand even if some users may need to Google the meaning of certain things.
European Commission
What about the UK?
Of course, we’re a UK-based site, so the matter of UK compliance on this is of interest to us.
Having left the EU in 2020, the UK is no longer beholden to legislation such as this. Indeed, the UK adopted its own separate energy labelling system for home appliances back in March of 2021.
It remains to be seen whether the UK will also follow the EU’s lead in labelling phones and tablets for their energy efficiency and durability. We certainly hope that it does so consumers have more details to make a more informed purchasing decision.
While we always devote a section of our reviews to discussing a smart device’s battery life, and discuss its durability and repairability where appropriate, these are always some of the trickier points to convey. Any initiative that encourages greater consumer awareness in this area would be extremely welcome.
Author: Jon Mundy, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Jon is a freelance journalist who got his start covering mobile games at the dawn of the App Store. He has since covered everything from smart home tech and laptops to food and culture, but always seems to return to his fascination with smartphones.
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