<story><title>There is now a European standard for measuring how easy it is to repair stuff</title><url>https://de.ifixit.com/News/35879/repairability-standard-en45554</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ThePhysicist</author><text>Apple seems to be one of the worst offenders in terms of repairability of their devices. You can watch e.g. Louis Rossmann&amp;#x27;s videos on Youtube, he goes into great detail on how Apple tries to make it impossible for anyone except themselves to service their laptops, even going as far as to restrict market suppliers from selling specific microchips (that were not invented by Apple) to anyone but Apple.&lt;p&gt;I imagine this will only become worse as they switch to their own CPUs in the near future. I expect that Macs will become more like iPhones in that Apple will restrict more and more which software you can easily run on them and how you can extend the devices.&lt;p&gt;Other manufacturers like Dell or Lenovo do a much better job in terms of repairability IMHO: They build their machines with mostly standard components that can be easily replaced and make them easy to open and service. Compare that to recent Apple devices: If you want more RAM or storage in your device they charge you 5-10 times the market price. They also make sure you will never be able to upgrade those things yourself by soldering them to the mainboard.</text></item><item><author>_ph_</author><text>Whenever repairability of modern electronic devices is discussed, I have to look at my mechanical wristwatch. Yes, there is an enormeous amount of technology integrated into a smartphone or compact laptop, but my wristwatch contains over 100 moving parts in a tiny volume. And still, every trained watchmaker can open and service it. It requires specialized tools, but those have been avialable to watchmakers for hundreds of years. A time traveller could buy a current Rolex and have it serviced in 1950, possibly even in 1850. The watchmakers of those times wouldn&amp;#x27;t have access to the right spare parts - those are surprisingly high-tech, but basic service would be possible.&lt;p&gt;And that is why I cannot stand the current state of repairs in the electronic world. I am especially looking at Apple in this respect, because they have demonstrated a surprising skill at making things repairable, which they want to be serviceable. Just look at the brilliant mount for the USB ports in the new Air.&lt;p&gt;While end-user serviceability might not be desirable for something highly-integrated, the benchmark really should be whether someone trained like a watch-maker has the ability to service a device. Which would be great for the local economy wherever in the world a customer is, because traditionally most towns would have at least one watchmaker, a well paid professional who would keep the money local vs. creating more electronic waste and shipping a new device around the world.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>theandrewbailey</author><text>I watched one of Louis&amp;#x27; videos[0] yesterday where he doesn&amp;#x27;t think Apple&amp;#x27;s ARM transition won&amp;#x27;t make things harder. He mentions that CPU failure is rare, and replacement CPUs aren&amp;#x27;t easy to get today, because they are salvaged from other machines, and can&amp;#x27;t be ordered from places like Newegg or Amazon. Almost all of his repairs involve components that aren&amp;#x27;t the CPU.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;T_2LnFAGypM?t=175&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;T_2LnFAGypM?t=175&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>There is now a European standard for measuring how easy it is to repair stuff</title><url>https://de.ifixit.com/News/35879/repairability-standard-en45554</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ThePhysicist</author><text>Apple seems to be one of the worst offenders in terms of repairability of their devices. You can watch e.g. Louis Rossmann&amp;#x27;s videos on Youtube, he goes into great detail on how Apple tries to make it impossible for anyone except themselves to service their laptops, even going as far as to restrict market suppliers from selling specific microchips (that were not invented by Apple) to anyone but Apple.&lt;p&gt;I imagine this will only become worse as they switch to their own CPUs in the near future. I expect that Macs will become more like iPhones in that Apple will restrict more and more which software you can easily run on them and how you can extend the devices.&lt;p&gt;Other manufacturers like Dell or Lenovo do a much better job in terms of repairability IMHO: They build their machines with mostly standard components that can be easily replaced and make them easy to open and service. Compare that to recent Apple devices: If you want more RAM or storage in your device they charge you 5-10 times the market price. They also make sure you will never be able to upgrade those things yourself by soldering them to the mainboard.</text></item><item><author>_ph_</author><text>Whenever repairability of modern electronic devices is discussed, I have to look at my mechanical wristwatch. Yes, there is an enormeous amount of technology integrated into a smartphone or compact laptop, but my wristwatch contains over 100 moving parts in a tiny volume. And still, every trained watchmaker can open and service it. It requires specialized tools, but those have been avialable to watchmakers for hundreds of years. A time traveller could buy a current Rolex and have it serviced in 1950, possibly even in 1850. The watchmakers of those times wouldn&amp;#x27;t have access to the right spare parts - those are surprisingly high-tech, but basic service would be possible.&lt;p&gt;And that is why I cannot stand the current state of repairs in the electronic world. I am especially looking at Apple in this respect, because they have demonstrated a surprising skill at making things repairable, which they want to be serviceable. Just look at the brilliant mount for the USB ports in the new Air.&lt;p&gt;While end-user serviceability might not be desirable for something highly-integrated, the benchmark really should be whether someone trained like a watch-maker has the ability to service a device. Which would be great for the local economy wherever in the world a customer is, because traditionally most towns would have at least one watchmaker, a well paid professional who would keep the money local vs. creating more electronic waste and shipping a new device around the world.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Scoundreller</author><text>On the other side, Apple’s approach means I’ve been able to re-capture about 50%+ of my 3-4 year old MacBook Airs by parting them out, instead of nearly 0 for commodity laptops.&lt;p&gt;It really reduced my TCO instead of letting that get captured by 3rd party manufactures.</text></comment>