How top smartphone and laptop brands stack up on repair

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

According to a new report, laptops and phones made by Apple, Microsoft, and others are less repair-friendly than those made by competitors. These findings are unsurprising to people who like to fix gadgets, but the data to back them up comes from the companies themselves.

The report was released by the US Public Research Interest Group's Education Fund. The law requires manufacturers of certain electronic devices, including cell phones and laptops, to score each of their products based on how easily repairable it is and make that score, along with the data that went into it, available to consumers at point-of-sale.

To make that information more accessible to Americans, US PIRG collaborated with iFixit and compiled French repair scores for 187 laptops and phones produced by 10 major US manufacturers. The US PIRG, which runs a right-to-repair advocacy campaign, decided to penalize companies that fight against legislation that would facilitate independent repair. The result is a hybrid score that shows how fixable companies are and whether the company is opposing consumers' right to fix them.

If a company lobbies to prevent access to parts, service information and repair tools, that indicates a hostile attitude toward repair choice, according to a report by the US PIRG.

France has a repairability index that tells consumers how fixable a product is based on five criteria: ease of disassembly, availability of repair manuals, spare parts availability, and a device-specific category. Companies assign their products points based on a number of sub-criteria. The law requires the overall score and the underlying worksheet to be published for French consumers. Apple has a website in France where you can find all of the work it has done for devices in that country.

The US PIRG calculated the repair score for each company. The most permanent and universal aspect of a device is being able to take it apart, and that is why it should be given more weight. If the company has a public record of lobbying against US right-to-repair bills, US PIRG deducted a point from the company's overall score.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Out of the 10 companies US PIRG ranked, Apple received the worst grades, with the 12 fairly recent MacBook Air and Pro models averaging 3.16 out of 10 points and 20 iPhone models dating back to the iPhone 7 receiving just 2.75 out of 10 points. US PIRG gave Microsoft a score of 4.5 out of 10 for the nine recent Surface laptops it scored, but they also gave low marks to the Pixel 4a, 6, and 6 Pro smartphones.

Dell and Asus were the top repairable laptops. The 36 Dell and 22 Asus laptops US PIRG scored, lists that include mostly the companies, averaged 7.81 and 7.61 points, respectively. The company received 7.77 out of 10 points on 18 phones.

Consumers who are interested in how physically fixable a company is can find that information in the report as well. For some companies, the two scores mirror one another closely, for instance, Apple's laptops received an average disassembly rating of 3.24 while Dell cleaned up in this category, with an average score of 9.55 out of 10 points. Microsoft is a notable outlier. Microsoft devices lost points in their French repair score due to lack of access to spare parts and repair documentation, but its computers scored fairly well on ease of disassemble (7.34). The company lost points for its history of lobbying against repair legislation.

While neither Apple nor Google commented on the report, each sent a statement reiterating their commitment to making long- lasting, repairable products. Microsoft didn't reply to the request for comment.

The report offers a high-level guide for consumers looking to buy more repairable devices and align their purchasing decisions with their values. According to a survey commissioned by the company, 86 percent of French consumers say their purchasing decisions will likely be impacted by the repair index going forward.

Some companies could change their practices because of that. Perhaps taking note of its survey results, it has quietly been working to boost its repair scores by releasing repair manuals in French. Microsoft committed to making its devices more repairable following a shareholder resolution, and other recent campaigns have demonstrated the power of putting a public spotlight on tech companies. After years of pressure from independent repair advocates, Apple announced a self-service repair program.

Tech giants could do more to foster independent repair, from abandoning proprietary glues in the design stage to supporting the right to repair in Congress. Maybe a report that ranks companies against their peers based on their own data will motivate them to work harder. I would rather be an employee of Asus than an employee of Apple.