Background information
Decoding every IP code
by Martin Jud
Important data at a glance: Energy label for smartphones and tablets
28.4.2025
Translation: machine translated
Soon the power consumption, battery life, robustness and repairability of smartphones and tablets will be visible at a glance. The EU is introducing energy labels for devices.
Energy consumption, battery life, robustness and repairability of smartphones and tablets will soon be visible at a glance. The EU is introducing energy labels for devices.
As part of the Ecodesign Directive, the EU will require energy labels for smartphones and tablets on the market from 20 June 2025. As with fridges, washing machines and televisions, this should make power consumption and other important key data quickly recognisable.
Key data for a quick overview
The energy label for smartphones and tablets has the display of the energy efficiency class in common with the larger household appliances. However, the differences are likely to be smaller for mobile devices than for large appliances.
Source: Europäische Union
Below the energy efficiency class, the battery life in hours and minutes appears first. This is based on the manufacturer's specifications and appears to indicate the standby time rather than the usage time. For robustness, as for reparability, there is only a rough indication in the classes A to E - with A being the best value.
In the bottom line, the energy label shows the number of charging cycles of the battery. Currently, 800 cycles, after which 80 per cent of the battery capacity is still available, is the desired standard. If available, the IP certification is shown next to it. This provides information on how dust and waterproof the smartphone or tablet is.
For tablets, the new requirements only apply to those with iOS or Android. The EU classifies Windows tablets as laptops and there is still no energy label for them.
Although Switzerland is not an EU member state, it generally adopts the energy label. We have already discovered the first ones on smartphones.
The EU hopes that the energy label will make buyers better informed. Ideally, they will buy a better device that they can use for longer. This alone would result in fewer resources being consumed.
However, the quick overview also has a disadvantage. It is not clear where the data comes from and what it relates to. The 52 hours for the Motorola Edge 60 on the Header image must be the standby time. It does not correspond to any scenario in which the smartphone is used.
Header image: Michelle Brändle
As a primary school pupil, I used to sit in a friend's living room with many of my classmates to play the Super NES. Now I get my hands on the latest technology and test it for you. In recent years at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, now at Digitec and Galaxus.
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