In November, the European Parliament passed the Right to Repair Act that requires certain electronic products to be labeled with a repairability index of 10 in an attempt to reduce electronic waste. Last month, France became the first country in the EU to bring these repairability ratings to electronics, including smartphones and laptops, and now Apple’s French site officially supports labels for iPhone and MacBook.
The actual repairability score only appears after setting up your iPhone or MacBook. All the phones in the iPhone 12 series get a score of 6/10, while the older iPhone 11 gets a much lower rating of 4.6 / 10. The iPhone SE (2020) is actually the new iPhone. more repairable than you can buy directly from Apple with a score of 6.2 / 10.
Repairability indices for iPhone 12 and iPhone 11
The current scoring system has its flaws, as every manufacturer has to calculate their scores, and certain categories such as providing information for software updates and technical support skew the overall result in favor of the manufacturer. The predetermined categories for the scorecard include repairability documentation, ease of disassembly, availability of spare parts, and price. New iPhones tend to score higher due to the fact that they are easier to take apart and have more abundant and affordable spare parts.
The only other iPhone currently on sale by Apple is the iPhone XR and it comes out with a 4.5 / 10 rating. Apple also includes reviews for older phones like the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 7 series that you can view from this support page.
Repairability ratings for iPhone SE (2020) and iPhone XR
As for Apple’s MacBooks, the new 13-inch MacBook Air powered by M1 chip scores 6.5 / 10, the 13-inch Pro only manages 5.6 / 10 while the 16-inch variant goes up to 6.3 / 10.
Repairability ratings for MacBooks (13 “Air, 13” Pro and 16 “Pro)
Although required by law, the new repairability ratings only apply to a select group of electronic devices, including smartphones, laptops, televisions, washing machines and lawn mowers. Although they are required to provide an index score, manufacturers will not be fined for products with poor repairability scores before 2022.
PS You can find a detailed list of Android smartphones and their repairability scores here.
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