Apple and Lenovo Have the Least Repairable Laptops, Analysis Finds (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0181410710
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/08/0543217/apple-and-lenovo-have-the-least-repairable-laptops-analysis-finds
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/apple-has-the-lowest-grades-in-laptop-phone-repairability-analysis/
> Apple earned the lowest grades in a report on laptop and smartphone repairability released today by the consumer advocacy group Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund. The report, which looks at how easy devices are to disassemble and how easy it is to find repairability information, [1]gave Apple a C-minus in laptop repairability and a D-minus in cell phone repairability . For its " [2]Failing the Fix (2026): Grading laptop and cell phone companies on the fixability of their products " report, PIRG analyzed the 10 newest laptops and phones that were available via manufacturers' French website in January. [...] Apple leads the list of laptop repairability losers, largely due to it having low disassembly scores. Apple, along with Dell and Samsung, also lost a full point for being members of TechNet and the CTA. Lenovo had the second-worst grade with a C-minus. Like Apple, Lenovo had low disassembly scores.
>
> It also lost 0.5 points for failing to properly post PDFs explaining the French repair scores for some of its newest laptops sold in the region, as required in France. This is especially noteworthy because Lenovo got an F in last year's report for missing this information on at least 12 laptops. At the time, Lenovo director of communications David Hamilton provided a statement to Ars saying that the missing information was "due to a backend web compatibility issue that temporarily prevented the display of repairability scores on our Lenovo France website" that was "widely resolved." However, it appears that over a year later, Lenovo still isn't providing sufficient information to meet France's requirements
>
> "While Lenovo has improved somewhat with their compliance with French consumer law by providing more repair score PDFs on their website, we urge the company to resolve this multi-year issue," this year's report says. PIRG's report concluded that "laptops are pretty stagnant in terms of repairability" across many of the eight most popular laptop brands in the US. However, Proctor noted to Ars that consumers' access to parts, tools, and information that vendors have has improved, but improvements around ease of disassembly "take longer to realize." He also praised vendors' efforts to release more repairable designs, such as Apple's MacBook Neo.
For its repairability index, PIRG weighed physical ease of disassembly most heavily, while also considering the availability of repair documentation, spare parts, spare-parts affordability, and other product-specific criteria. It then adjusted company grades by deducting points for membership in trade groups that oppose right-to-repair laws and adding small bonuses for manufacturers that supported right-to-repair legislation.
Acer stood out as the only laptop vendor that avoided the 0.5-point trade-group penalty, since it was not listed as a member of TechNet or the Consumer Technology Association.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/apple-has-the-lowest-grades-in-laptop-phone-repairability-analysis/
[2] https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/failing-the-fix-2026/
Most Thinkpads Quite Repairable (Score:2)
Most Thinkpads have customer removable units: drives and keyboards. Generally, the batteries are not glued in. There are no security screws. Mine is a P15 Gen 2. Lenovo's repair videos: [1]https://support.lenovo.com/us/... [lenovo.com]
[1] https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht505031
Re: (Score:2)
Couldn't find actual details on *which* models they looked at.
If you look at the non-ThinkPad Lenovo laptops... They are complete shit for repairability.
The ThinkPads on the other hand tend to be very very good.
But other issues make me wonder about their competency in writing the report. Notably they give Lenovo a "lobbying penalty" for being a member of a group that fights right to repair but gives Motorola a pass for not being in those groups.... Lenovo and Motorola are the same company, and they don't s
Do people really repair laptops that much? (Score:2)
I don't think I've attempted to repair a laptop in 20 years. Few laptops these days are very serviceable. They are also sufficiently reliable that it's pretty rare for anything to break unless they are physically dropped.
Re: (Score:2)
> I don't think I've attempted to repair a laptop in 20 years. Few laptops these days are very serviceable. They are also sufficiently reliable that it's pretty rare for anything to break unless they are physically dropped.
Repair? Not really. Swap memory and drives? All the time. I upgrade memory and drives in older laptops to keep them viable a little longer. Not possible with Apples, and it seems more brands have headed that direction over the years. You sorta have to hunt to find options that allow this to happen these days.
ThinkPad? (Score:2)
What Lenovo models does this apply to? ThinkPads were always extremely modular, it would be very sad if that is no longer the case.
Re: (Score:2)
Some have soldered RAM, and battery is often non easily removable (example T14) and you need to remove the whole back cover to service anything. But yes, you can still replace keyboard, RAM, M.2 SSD on many of them. But I wouldn't call them extremely modular.
Don't forget Framework (Score:1)
I recently bought a Framework 16, and the main reason I picked it was for its user-focused repair and upgrade design.
is the Neo being considered? (Score:2)
I thought there were a lot of groups praising the repairability of the new Neo? Did they not consider it? or is it more a matter of it being a single model in a larger brand of less repairables?
Values (Score:2)
When consumer more heavily weight price, aesthetics, and weight over repairability in their decision making and vendors have an greater financial incentive to sell a higher margin new device over repair parts and bear little of the cost of disposal, it's unsurprising that devices will trend towards less repairable.
So then when the free market trends towards something counter to public good, regulation is one of the few tools to correct. And then it's unsurprising for consumer devices makers to lobby against
Reliability? (Score:2)
Surely how often repairs are needed should be taken into account? Anecdata time: 26 years without a fault in any of my laptops (they're Apples, but I hear Lenovo and other brands can be quite reliable as well) or either of the desktops. No iPhone (since 3G) or iPad that I've owned has ever gone wrong either.
Previous Dells and other cheaper brands that I owned last century weren't so reliable for me and I would have cared about repairability.
Re: (Score:2)
It does seem a little odd that they would label that "reliability". They are jerks for how hard they make it to work on any of their devices that you own, but that isn't how you judge the reliability of a product.
Re: (Score:2)
Reliability does not negate repairability...
Batteries will always degrade and need replacing, unless you intend to replace the entire unit when the battery degrades.
Physical damage (eg smashed screen, spillages in keyboard etc) can always occur irrespective of how reliable a device is under normal usage etc.