Smartphones Hardest to Repair When Broken: Famous Brands Have the Highest Costs

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Older smartphones like Nokia or Ericsson are known for their durability and resilience, lasting for years. However, modern smartphones today have a usage cycle of only 2-3 years, such as the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.

One of the reasons is that repairing damaged smartphones is very difficult due to their integrated design. Even if they can be repaired, the repair costs or component prices are very expensive, sometimes approaching the price of a new device.

Although smartphones are becoming more durable over time with larger memory and storage, applications also require greater processing power. Moreover, screens are getting larger and more prone to damage. As a result, issues like battery leaks or LCD damage frequently occur.

On the other hand, technology companies create rules that make it difficult for users to disassemble smartphones for repairs. For example, warranties are voided if the phone is repaired outside official stores.

This tendency of smartphone manufacturers to produce hard-to-repair products has prompted the European government to introduce regulations on the “right to repair,” or consumers’ rights to repair their own products.

One of them is the obligation for companies to provide detailed technical information and specifications in the “European Union’s European Product Registry for Energy Labelling.”

The US PIRG Education Fund uses information from Europe to compile a ranking of smartphone brands based on how easy or difficult they are to repair when damaged, in a report titled Failing the Fix.

The “repairability” score is compiled based on six categories. The first category is the steps required to access the components to be repaired, such as the battery.

Then, whether there are standard or special tools for repairing the smartphone. The next category is the availability of components and independent repair shops. The last two categories are the duration of software support from the manufacturer and access to repair documentation for the product.

Here is the ranking of smartphone brands based on how easy or difficult repairs are when damaged:

Motorola: B+

Google: C-

Samsung: D

Apple: D-

The authors of the Failing the Fix report state that the category making Apple’s products, namely the iPhone, the worst-scoring electronic product is software.

Apple uses software and “component pairing” rules to make it difficult for third parties to repair their hardware.

An example of restrictions applied by Apple is for replacing Face ID-related components and the use of Activation Lock, which prevents individual iPhone components from functioning if disassembled and reassembled.

For software, the method used by electronics manufacturers is to limit security support updates. Without security updates, hardware that could function well becomes unusable because the software inside is vulnerable to hacking.