GoKawiil
Tech News
A blogger describes a refurbished 2015 ThinkPad X250, upgraded to 8GB RAM, as their favourite laptop, citing its compact A4-sized form factor, 1.45kg weight, and extended 10-12 hour battery life with an aftermarket external battery. They also highlight its repairability, having personally replaced the internal battery, camera, keyboard, and motherboard using cheap, widely available parts.
iFixit's teardown of Apple's folding iPhone Duo revealed a matte nano-texture cover layer and angled oval subpixels designed to mask the screen crease, and awarded the device a 5/10 repairability rating, the highest iFixit has given a foldable. The outer texture layer can be replaced separately from the OLED panel, but full screen repairs remain costly, and the teardown found less dust intrusion than Samsung's Z Fold8 or Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold, though some dust reached the USB-C port, speakers and hinge.
iFixit has rated the latest Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, along with AirPods 5, as difficult to repair, with scores of 4 and 2 out of 10 respectively. While the Apple Watch Series 12 shows slight improvements over previous models, battery replacement remains a significant challenge. The teardown highlights ongoing issues with repair accessibility and potential non-compliance with US right-to-repair laws.
iFixit completed its teardown of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, finding the Ultra 4 unchanged in repairability at 4/10 while the Series 12 showed slight gains thanks to new stretch-release adhesive and a pull tab for battery removal. Both models still require prying off a glued display to access internals, with iFixit's Shahram Mokhtari noting the Series 12's tighter display tolerances raised concern about screen damage during disassembly.
The Fairphone 6+ has received positive reviews for its ease of repair and sustainability features. However, its retail price of $650 may limit its appeal to cost-conscious consumers. The device's design emphasizes longevity and repairability over cutting-edge specs.
iFixit's teardown of the AirPods 5 found that the batteries in each earbud can be removed and replaced without destroying the device, provided the repair is done carefully by a skilled technician. This earned the earbuds a repairability score of 2 out of 10, the first time any AirPods model has scored above zero since the original launched in 2016. iFixit noted the left and right batteries aren't interchangeable due to reversed polarity and different contact placement, and that everything else inside the earbuds and case remains sealed and unrepairable.
Fairphone confirmed to The Verge that its second-generation Fairbuds will officially launch on October 14th, following earlier leaks and a teaser posted on X. The earbuds retain seven fully replaceable and modular parts and add support for Sony's LDAC high-resolution audio codec, which the original model lacked. Fairbuds 2 will launch in Europe at €119 before arriving in the US at $119.
iFixit tore down Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro and awarded it a 7/10 repairability rating, matching the iPhone 17 Pro's score. The teardown found the camera and battery assemblies relatively easy to remove, though the phone's new variable aperture lens—its first in an iPhone—uses tiny rotating blades that iFixit says are nearly impossible to repair individually.
iFixit's teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max exposes the new variable aperture lens, which uses six overlapping blades thinner than a human hair to control light via a magnetic mechanism. The site praises the engineering that fits this system into the same camera footprint as last year's model, but warns the mechanism is essentially impossible to repair if it fails.
iFixIt disassembled four units of the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max and found that the plastic frame behind the display broke on three of them during removal. Since Apple doesn't sell that frame as a standalone part, a cracked one means replacing the entire display module. Separately, YouTuber Zach Nelson's own teardown didn't encounter the same issue and he rated the phone favorably for repairability.
Right to Repair Europe examined 2,334 smartphone model records in the EU's Product Registry for Energy Labelling and found that only about 18 percent link to a working page with spare-parts prices or repair instructions, a year after the rules took effect. Roughly half the entries leave the required URL blank, and 19 percent point to unrelated pages, while some manufacturers still award themselves top repairability grades despite the missing information.
Fairphone has released the 6 Plus, a modest upgrade to last year's Fairphone 6 featuring a newer midrange Snapdragon chipset and a new cobalt color option, and it's now officially for sale in the US. The device costs $649, includes 12GB of RAM, a five-year warranty, and up to six OS upgrades, while maintaining Fairphone's signature repairability with 12 user-replaceable parts.