I think it might probably cheaper to make two different devices anyways, since we wouldn’t be in this planned obsolescence mess otherwise. I.e. people might start to buy new phones every 4-5 years instead of every 1-2 years, if they can easily replace the battery.

I mean. I’m not talking about the actual cost of making the device but rather the total cost. Ie the cost to their bottom line.

The cheapest would probably be to make a single device with a replaceable battery, and weld the battery in place outside of Europe, but that would probably be so blatant that they would get in trouble.