How Repairable Are Modern Smartphones?

Before the advent of the most common smartphones today, manufacturers enabled device owners to, at the least, replace their phone battery themselves. With phones getting more complex and companies like Apple citing security and quality reasons for limiting at-home repairability, most modern smartphones require trained experts to switch out anything but the battery. And even then, replacing this specific part often requires third-party tools and a certain knack for crafting.

According to DIY repair website and right-to-repair advocate iFixit, strong glue and proprietary screws are among the chief reasons most current smartphones released by Apple, Google and Samsung earn low marks on their repairability index. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, which will be superseded by the Pixel 9 variants detailed yesterday at the annual Made by Google event, received a score of six out of ten from iFixit experts.

This score is calculated by the availability of documentation and repair parts and whether the device is designed for repairability. For example, if a battery is only glued down in easy-to-reach spots or if the manufacturer uses screws not necessitating a particular tool, the corresponding device receives better marks. The latter is mentioned, for example, in the discussion of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Even though the phone is scored at four out of ten, the usage of normal Phillips screws is seen as positive.

Apple smartphones reach four out of ten points across the board. However, iFixit still scores the current iPhone range on a provisional basis and lauds the ease of replacing batteries and screens from a mechanical standpoint. iPhones also get marked down due to the common praxis of parts pairing, which couples components with one specific device via a digital serial number. Since only proprietary software can uncouple a device and its parts, repairability by an independent repair shop or the owners is greatly diminished. Four out of ten points is also the threshold where iFixit suggests that consumers not try to repair their devices themselves because it would be "tougher than it needs to be".