Replaceable batteries, Toyota electric cars and the return of HTC smartphones

This week was an opportunity for Toyota to unveil its electric car project, for the European Parliament to tackle batteries and for HTC to sign its return to smartphones in France. Here are the main tech news of the week.

Great news: EU to make smartphone and laptop batteries easy to replace

While the loss of autonomy is one of the biggest factors in the renewal of smartphones and the manufacture of a new model is particularly significant in terms of carbon footprint, the European Parliament took a strong decision this week. The assembly voted in favor of a directive requiring manufacturers to provide for the replaceability of batteries from the design of smartphones or laptops. In addition, this directive will encourage, by 2021, manufacturers to recycle 80% of the lithium and 95% of the cobalt used in batteries.

Toyota finally makes us dream, with electric cars with totally mind-blowing autonomy

All car manufacturers are getting into it, including the precursor to hybrid vehicles. The Japanese Toyota announced this week its plan to tackle electric vehicles. Among the firm’s projects, several vehicles offering more than 1,000 kilometers of autonomy on a single charge and even up to 1,500 km by 2030. For this, Toyota is betting above all on aerodynamics, allowing its cars to consume less at high speeds.

HTC signs its return to France with this very promising smartphone

While we thought that the Taiwanese manufacturer had put an end to its smartphones, this is not the case. HTC also announced this week a new mid-range smartphone, but with attractive features, the HTC U23 Pro. It is a smartphone with a 6.7-inch OLED 120 Hz Full HD screen, a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip, a 4600 mAh battery and a quadruple photo module on the back with ultra wide-angle, wide-angle, macro and depth. The HTC U23 Pro will be launched in France on June 28 at 549 euros.

Test of the week: Suunto Vertical

Announced a few weeks ago, the Suunto Vertical is now tested on CssTricks. And to do this, we did not go with a dead hand. To test this sports watch focused on mapping, autonomy and ultra-trail, we went to the roof of Europe, the summit of Mont-Blanc. Good news, it still reaches 4810 meters.