Logitech will pull a Nintendo one – only European mice will come with replaceable batteries

In June, Nintendo announced the new version of the Switch 2 which should allow you to easily replace its battery pack – but only in Europe. Logitech will do the same. User-replaceable batteries will be the rule in Europe in February 2027, but instead of bringing them to the rest of the world, Logitech plans to ship one version of its wireless mice to Europe and another version elsewhere.

These are the words from Logitech’s new boss, Robin Piispanen. We talked over vanilla desserts at my local cafe, soon after how Logitech isn’t sure they want to make another mobile game.

Why? Logitech believes that poorly designed peripherals can be superior, as long as you keep the product in mind.

“It’s not just the cost, you’re adding weight,” Piispanen said Seaside. It is said that Logitech usually ships devices with a soft lithium-ion battery inside, with a very thin cable, because the company knows that most people will not separate them. But this isn’t dangerous for you to do surgery, we can’t in good conscience give you this and say, hey, go replace the soft pack battery.

In fact, Logitech’s wireless products in Europe ship with a solid battery, a very sturdy design that is difficult to puncture accidentally. (Not to overstate the risk, but lithium-ion batteries can quickly start a fire.) For added safety, Piispanen says Logitech will supply certified batteries in Europe, too.

But they say they can’t send them to the United States, for example. He says Logitech ran the numbers, and his predictions show that few people will bother to replace the batteries.

“How many people are going to open up their mouse, take out the battery, and put in another one because the battery is old?” he asks. Piispanen says replaceable batteries make sense for expensive devices like laptops or phones, but people tend to replace Logitech’s $50 to $100 wireless mice when they wear out.

While I agree that Logitech mice are throwaways at this point, I disagree he should continue for it to be so. Isn’t it the right group to organize to change the worldview? Would consumers change their behavior if the devices were easy to repair?

That’s why I ask Piispanen, who says he believes in improving: Why doesn’t Logitech sell its ripped miceeven where does he say it? Why doesn’t it sell the rubber bands on the side of my Logitech G502 Lightspeed, which I have a hole in, or the mouse switch that has started to click twice on the side of my mouse?

It sounds like the answer is this: Logitech isn’t ready to rely on consumers to fix it themselves.

“The change in the mouse means you have to open the whole mouse, and you can break something,” he says. Replacing the fasteners means cleaning out the old adhesive and replacing it with new adhesive – “it’s the way to go.”

“I don’t want to, I’m going to sell you a part so you can destroy it and then feel sorry for yourself,” Piispanen said later.

That said, he says he’s seeing interest in the community, how some people are willing to void their warranty to replace their Logitech devices, and he seems to be getting my point that Logitech isn’t delivering. his promise to fix on.

He says the “big question” is how Logitech can create new products that don’t die out quickly. “The rat you are talking about was seven years old, and I salute you for wanting to continue using it,” he says.

But he also tells me that he will look at mousetraps: “I want to see what tools we need that are damaged, because if we’re talking about things that we can do, I want to look at that.”