There are an enormous number of regulations around this, if you look at all the regulatory markings on most electronics. UL and Intertek being the biggest ones for electrical safety. I really hope Pine64 has gotten those certifications.

AFAIK one of the reasons phones typically leave logic like this in a binary blob on an IC is because the certification bodies stipulate that not only does a device have to comply with safety standards, but it can't be trivially modifiable by an end-user to violate those standards.

If you're marketing a phone where one of the advertised features is the ability to change the operating system, and the operating system is responsible for enforcing electrical safety, i don't really see how that's certifiable.

That's usually for radio emissions, not for stuff like thermals.

Radios are much more regulated.

This is the Pinephone's CE certificate:

http://files.pine64.org/doc/cert/PinePhone%20CE%20RED%20Cert...

Would be fun to see what of those articles are safety related, and what do testers test for actually.

I wonder, if pinephone were to sell a version that was an ikea-style assemble-it-yourself kit, would that still require those certifications?

CE and CCC are the most important as they cover Europe and China.