GoKawiilThe iPhone is the least fixable phone on the market, according to repairability experts. Phones from Samsung and Google are not far behind.
The latest repairability ratings are from an annual report called “Failing the Fix” put out today by the consumer advocacy group US PIRG. A 2021 French law required products to be labeled with repairability scores, and US PIRG says this is the first report since then that really shows which companies are—or are not—making progress. The answer is that repairability is progressing much more quickly in some places than others.
The results were good for phones made by Motorola, which got a B+. Google’s phones got a C–. The verdict was worse for Samsung phones, which got a D. Last on the list was Apple with a D–. Apple and Samsung did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Scores were better for laptops than smartphones, with Asus at the top with a B+ and Apple on the bottom with its MacBooks at a C–.
The authors of the report are hoping that publishing these low scores will encourage manufacturers to do better.
“Putting these right incentives in place could push these companies to make innovations that are actually beneficial,” says Nathan Proctor, senior director of the US PIRG campaign for the right to repair. “Instead of coming up with new ways to jam AI down our throats, you can make stuff that lasts and that we can fix.”
Despite many right-to-repair concessions companies have made—like making their tools, parts, and repair instructions publicly available—those rankings are lower than in years past, largely because of the new information that has been gleaned from European laws requiring repair scores to be printed on product packaging.
The French law grades products based on how easily they can be disassembled, whether documentation and tools are provided, and the availability and price of spare parts. In 2023, the European Union passed a law establishing the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling, a process that grades devices on key repairability factors like whether products have easy access and disassembly, battery endurance, ingress protection like waterproofing, and the durability to handle repeated falls. The rankings go from A to F.
To arrive at its own ratings, US PIRG collates the EPREL and France’s repair indexes with other US-specific factors, like whether companies are actively lobbying against the right to repair or are members of trade associations that do so.
“If you're buying your equipment from a company that's spending their money to lobby against your right to repair that thing, that doesn't speak well for their support, for your ability to fix that,” Proctor says. “So we also dock points for some of those legislative activities.”
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