Before the introduction of today’s most popular smartphones, manufacturers at least allowed device owners to replace the phone battery themselves. As phones become more complex, and companies like Apple cite safety and quality reasons as reasons for limiting at-home repair options, most modern smartphones require trained experts to replace everything except the battery. And even then, replacing that particular part often requires third-party tools and a certain level of DIY skill.
According to DIY repair website and right-to-repair advocate iFixit, strong glue and proprietary screws are one of the main reasons why most current smartphones from Apple, Google and Samsung get poor marks in their repair index. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, which will be succeeded by the Pixel 9 variants unveiled yesterday at the annual Made by Google event, received a score of six out of ten from iFixit experts.
This value is determined, among other things, by the availability of documentation and spare parts and whether the device is designed to be repairable. For example, if a battery is only glued in easily accessible places or if the manufacturer uses screws that do not require special tools, the corresponding device receives better marks. The latter is mentioned, for example, in the discussion of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Even if the phone only gets four out of ten points, the use of normal Phillips screws is considered positive.
Apple smartphones consistently score four out of ten. However, iFixit’s rating of the current iPhone range is still preliminary and praises the easy mechanical interchangeability of batteries and screens. iPhones are also downgraded because of the widespread practice of parts pairing, in which components are linked to a specific device via a digital serial number. Since only proprietary software can unpair a device and its parts, the ability to be repaired by an independent repair shop or the owners is severely limited. Four out of ten is also the threshold at which iFixit recommends consumers not to try to repair their devices themselves, as this would be “more difficult than necessary”.
