Samsung's battery chips: safety fix or repair lock?

Samsung plans to put security chips inside the batteries of its cheaper Galaxy phones, so the phone can tell a genuine Samsung battery from a knock-off. That's according to a report this week from Korean trade publication The Elec, picked up by TechRadar on Wednesday. Around 50 million phones a year could be affected.

The pitch is safety. Repair campaigners will hear something else: the first step towards phones that sulk when an independent shop fixes them.

A chip that knows its own battery

According to The Elec, the chips will debut in the Galaxy A series, Samsung's budget and mid-range line and its biggest seller by volume. It says the Galaxy A16 5G and Galaxy A06 were the fifth and sixth best-selling smartphones in the world in 2025. About 50 million chipped units are projected for 2027.

The technology is called a physical unclonable function, or PUF. In plain English, tiny random differences created when each chip is made give it a unique fingerprint that's very hard to copy. The Elec reports the chips will come from Analog Devices in the US and ICTK in South Korea, made on Samsung's own 28-nanometre factory process, with Samsung SDI building the battery packs.

The stated aim is to block unauthorised batteries and prevent safety incidents. The Elec puts the problem bluntly: "Consumers, however, sometimes use unauthorized batteries that cost less than genuine parts at independent repair shops." The chips can also record a battery's usage history, which could help recyclers handle each battery according to its condition.

Safety feature or repair lock?

TechRadar leans heavily on the safety case. It argues the chips "could be the one and only component that prevents your home from being engulfed in flames", and points out that cheap third-party batteries aren't always made to a proper standard. That's a fair concern. Lithium batteries that are badly made can overheat or catch fire.

But it isn't new, and the history is instructive. TechRadar notes that Apple did something similar with the iPhone XS back in 2018. This is the kind of check that worries repair campaigners, because a chip that spots a dodgy battery could, in principle, also flag a perfectly good one fitted by an independent shop.

Here's Ada's take. A chip that tells you a battery is genuine is useful. A chip that punishes you for a fake is defensible. A chip that nags, disables features or cuts performance when a competent independent shop fits a decent battery is a repair lock with a safety label on it. The report doesn't say which of these Samsung intends, and that's the whole question.

The UK has no phone repair rules to lean on

This is where UK buyers are exposed. Britain's right-to-repair rules, introduced in 2021, covered washing machines, dishwashers, fridges and electronic screens such as TVs. As the Restart Project pointed out at the time, smartphones and laptops weren't on the list, and even for covered products, spare parts only had to go to professional repairers, with no cap on what manufacturers can charge.

The EU has gone further. Cybernews reports that its Right to Repair Directive had to be written into national law across EU countries by 31 July 2026, and bars manufacturers from using "contractual clauses, hardware, or software techniques that impede the repair of goods." That is EU law and doesn't apply in Great Britain. But it does mean Samsung's battery checks will need to sit within those rules in Europe, and UK owners may benefit from whatever design it settles on.

What would reassure UK owners:

• genuine chipped batteries sold to independent repairers, not just Samsung's own service centres
• a warning at most, rather than disabled features, when a non-Samsung battery is fitted
• clear, fair pricing for replacement batteries

To be fair to Samsung

Counterfeit batteries are a real problem, especially on cheaper phones where owners are most tempted by a cheap fix. A battery that can prove where it came from makes life easier for honest repair shops too, and the recycling angle is a genuine environmental plus. Samsung also hasn't confirmed any plan to restrict third-party repairs. It's entirely possible the chips end up doing nothing more sinister than telling you what's inside your phone.

Mind the hype. A battery with a passport is fine, as long as it doesn't come with a border guard.

Sources: The Elec, TechRadar, The Restart Project, Cybernews