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John,
Last time you shopped for a new phone or laptop, I bet "difficult to repair" wasn't on your wish list of features.
But you may not have had much of a choice, because for too long, Apple, Samsung and Google have made products that are so difficult to fix that they're practically destined for the landfill once they start to malfunction.
Our 2025 tech report shows which products and brands are giving customers the resources and information to repair their devices and which are "failing the fix."[1] We've collected the main takeaways from the report so that you can choose electronics knowing they are durable and fixable.
PIRG investigated devices from some of the most popular electronics brands in the United States based on a repairability index that calculates how easily consumers can fix their own devices or access repair services. Here's what we found:
* Cellphones are becoming more repairable.
Apple, Samsung, Motorola and Google all improved or maintained their cellphones' repairability since last year. Specifically, they've all gotten easier to disassemble, which is what makes the biggest difference for people who want to open up the phone to fix it. Apple improved the most, followed by Motorola.
* Laptops didn't see much improvement.
There was no significant change across the eight most popular laptop brands in the U.S. in terms of repairability. Only Apple and Dell laptops both saw some improvement in ease of disassembly (though Apple still fares the worst by far).
* Many brands are part of an anti-Right to Repair trade association.
Almost every laptop and cellphone manufacturer we looked at belonged to at least one association that fights against Right to Repair laws. Google was the only manufacturer to fully offset its deductions for anti-repair memberships by supporting four Right to Repair bills in the past year.
Cellphones: Apple topped the scorecard for cellphone repairability with a B-, just ahead of Google, then Motorola, and Samsung in last place. Our report shows that some expensive models have low repair scores, while other more affordable models are very repairable. For example, the iPhone 16 retails for $899 and scored a 14.8 out of 20 for disassembly, while the $1099 Google Pixel 9 Pro scored a 9.8.
Laptops: Asus scored an A- for laptop repairability, coming out ahead of brands like Apple, Lenovo and HP that received a grade of C or lower. Similarly as for cellphones, a high price doesn't necessarily mean a more repairable product. While both the $2,499 Macbook Pro and $699.99 Dell Inspiron 16 are comparable 16-inch laptops, the Dell is much more repairable. The Inspiron scored a perfect 20 out of 20 on disassembly, while the more expensive Macbook Pro scored a 6.5.
Electronic waste is the fastest growing part of our domestic municipal waste stream. The more devices we repair instead of throwing away, the less money we have to spend replacing them, and the less pollution we add to our environment.
Americans could save a total of almost $50 billion a year if we were able to repair our products instead of replacing them.[2]
But despite the industry's efforts to block new Right to Repair laws, this movement is picking up steam.
At PIRG, we'll continue to advocate for policies that empower consumers, promote manufacturer responsibility, and address the growing harms of e-waste on the environment.
Thank you,
The team at U.S. PIRG Education Fund
P.S. Our right to repair campaigns are funded by grassroots supporters like you. Will you donate today to help keep this work going strong?
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1. Stephanie Markowitz and Lucas Gutterman, "'Failing the Fix' scorecard grades Apple, Samsung, Google, others on how fixable their devices are," PIRG Education Fund, February 20, 2025.
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2. Nathan Proctor, "Repair saves families big," PIRG, April 4, 2023.
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U.S. PIRG Education Fund
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