The repairability score that belongs on every gadget

iFixit’s teardown ratings predict total cost of ownership better than the launch reviews do. carmannews walks through how to factor repairability into a buying decision, with three worked examples.

Launch reviews tell you how a gadget performs on day one. They almost never tell you what happens when the battery wears out, the screen cracks, or the charging port stops holding a cable — which is when most devices actually get thrown away. Repairability is the missing axis. A device that’s cheap and easy to fix can outlast one that scored higher at launch but seals everything behind glue. Teardown ratings, most prominently the ones published by repair specialists, put a number on this, and learning to read that number changes how you shop.

What a repairability score measures

A repairability rating grades how realistically an owner — or an independent shop — can fix a device. It rewards a few concrete things and penalises others. In the device’s favour: parts held in with standard screws rather than glue, a battery you can remove without heat and solvents, common components that can be replaced individually instead of as one fused assembly, and the public availability of repair manuals and spare parts. Against it: everything sealed shut, proprietary screws, a battery glued to the chassis, and parts that are “paired” in software so a replacement won’t work unless the manufacturer blesses it.

The reason this predicts long-term cost so well is that the most common failures are mundane and repeatable. Batteries are consumable — they wear out on a schedule. Screens crack. Ports loosen from thousands of plug-ins. On a repairable device, each of those is a modest, cheap fix that buys years. On a sealed one, the same failure can cost nearly as much as a replacement, which means the device effectively dies at the first fault. The score is, in practice, a forecast of how often a small problem becomes a total loss.

Three ways the score plays out

The phone that dies with its battery

Two phones can launch with similar reviews and diverge entirely by year three. The one with an accessible battery and available parts gets a cheap battery swap and keeps going. The one with a glued-in battery and paired components hits the same worn-battery wall, but now the repair is expensive and awkward enough that the owner buys a new phone instead. Same fault, opposite outcome — and the repairability score saw it coming on day one.

The laptop you can keep current

Laptops show the upside most clearly. A machine where the memory and storage are removable, modular parts can be upgraded years later — more storage when you fill the drive, more memory when software gets heavier — extending its useful life well past where a sealed equivalent would feel obsolete. A laptop where everything is soldered to the board is whatever you bought on day one, forever; when it’s not enough, the only move is replacement. The repairable machine costs the same to buy and far less to live with.

The earbuds with no second act

At the unfixable end sit most wireless earbuds. They’re tiny, sealed, and built around small batteries that degrade with everyday charging. Because there’s almost no way in, a worn battery means the whole set is finished — there’s no repair, only landfill and a new purchase. That’s the profile worth recognising before you buy: a category where the score is low by design, the lifespan is effectively capped by the battery, and the honest move is to factor a limited life into the price you’re willing to pay.

How to use the score when you buy

Repairability isn’t the only thing that matters, and it shouldn’t override a device that’s clearly better for your needs. But it belongs in the decision, especially for anything you intend to keep for years. A few practical habits.

• Look up the teardown before you buy. For phones, laptops, tablets and many other gadgets, an independent repairability rating is usually a quick search away. Check it the way you’d check a review — it takes a minute and tells you about year three.
• Prioritise the battery and the screen. These are the two parts most likely to fail. A device where both are realistically replaceable has a long runway; one where neither is has a short one, whatever else it does well.
• Watch for parts pairing. Some manufacturers tie components to the device in software so independent replacements are rejected. This quietly turns even a physically repairable device into one only the maker can fix — a real constraint on long-term cost.
• Factor lifespan into price. A sealed gadget isn’t necessarily a bad buy — but it’s a worse value than its sticker suggests, because its life is shorter. Adjust what you’re willing to pay accordingly, and weigh it against a repairable alternative.

It’s worth being clear about the limits of the score, too. A high repairability rating means a device can be fixed; it doesn’t guarantee you personally will. For most people, “repairable” really means “an independent shop can fix it affordably,” which is still a huge advantage over a device nobody can open. And repairability shouldn’t trump everything: if one device is clearly better for your needs, a lower score isn’t a veto, just a cost to weigh. The point is to stop treating repairability as invisible and start pricing it into the decision alongside performance and looks.

Repair access is also shifting as right-to-repair rules expand in several regions, which is gradually pushing manufacturers toward more replaceable parts and published manuals. For a specific device’s score, current parts availability, and whether it uses parts pairing, check the independent teardown and the maker’s own repair pages before buying — these change with every product generation.

The review tells you how it feels on day one. The repairability score tells you whether a dead battery in year three means a cheap fix or a new purchase.

Kenji Tanaka, Tech Editor, carmannews