Laptop Repairability Scores: What They Mean for Your Wallet

The Three Numbers That Tell Three Different Stories

When you look up a laptop's repairability before buying, you are likely to encounter at least one of three different scoring systems. They look similar. They are not.

iFixit runs the most granular device-level evaluation. Engineers physically disassemble each laptop, mapping what they call the disassembly tree, a simplified diagram of how each component comes apart. The system penalizes proprietary screws, adhesive bonds, and soldered components. It rewards tools that anyone can buy, flat disassembly structures where parts are independently accessible, and parts priced reasonably against the cost of the device itself. iFixit's scoring methodology specifies that full credit goes to replacement parts priced at 25% of a device's MSRP or less. The methodology also notes a behavioral threshold: once repair cost exceeds roughly one-third of a new device's price, most consumers choose replacement instead.

France's Repairability Index takes a different approach. Since 2021, French law has required manufacturers to display a repairability score at the point of sale for covered product categories. The index evaluates documentation availability, spare parts pricing, spare parts availability duration, and disassembly difficulty. It produces a 1–10 score visible on product packaging.

PIRG, the federation of US state public interest research groups, publishes an annual "Failing the Fix" report that incorporates French Index data, then layers additional criteria: whether a manufacturer's trade association membership actively lobbies against Right to Repair legislation, and whether documentation is accessible across a broad range of a brand's models. The result is a brand-level grade (A through F) rather than a device-level score.

The three systems share overlapping goals but measure different things at different levels of granularity. Understanding which system is answering which question is the first step in using any score correctly. PIRG's 2025 report graded ASUS at A- (8.0), Acer at B+, Dell/Microsoft/Samsung at B-, Apple at C-, and Lenovo at F. Those grades tell you something important about each brand's ecosystem, but they tell you almost nothing about what a specific repair on a specific model will cost.

We noted that Framework parts pricing reflects initial marketplace launch figures; current pricing should be verified on the Framework Marketplace directly.

Why Lenovo Scores First and Last Simultaneously

Lenovo's ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 earned the first perfect 10/10 from iFixit for an enterprise laptop; it received a failing grade from PIRG at almost the same time.

Both scores are accurate. They simply answer different questions. The iFixit 10/10 reflects that the ThinkPad T14 Gen 7's physical design is as close to ideal as any laptop currently manufactured: standard screws, independently accessible storage and memory using industry-standard parts, a battery replacement procedure that does not require heat guns or prying tools, and a keyboard swap that iFixit consistently calls best-in-class across all brands. iFixit's laptop repairability scores show the entire ThinkPad L-series at 9/10 and the Framework Laptop 12 achieving a perfect 10/10 for 2025. At the other end of that same list, the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 scores 4/10 and the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 scores 5 (provisional).

PIRG's F for Lenovo, meanwhile, was not a reflection of ThinkPad disassembly quality. The Register, citing PIRG campaign director Lucas Gutterman's direct confirmation, documented that PIRG could find French Repairability Index data for only 1 of 13 tested Lenovo models, compared to 9 or 10 models for other brands. Without that data, PIRG's formula had insufficient inputs to produce a passing grade regardless of the physical quality of Lenovo's devices. The same report documented a striking finding from PIRG's disassembly scoring: the Dell Inspiron 16, priced at $649.99, received a perfect 20/20 for disassembly. The MacBook Pro 16 M2 Pro, priced at $1,434.99, received 6.5/20 from the same rubric.

We confirmed through PIRG's published methodology that the F grade reflected documentation gaps, not physical disassembly quality.

Higher purchase price does not predict better repairability. It can predict the opposite. Premium devices from closed-ecosystem manufacturers invest engineering resources in thinness, weight reduction, and integrated battery capacity. Those goals frequently require the same design choices that make repair difficult: adhesive bonds, soldered components, and proprietary fasteners. A budget laptop from the same manufacturer may be more repairable precisely because it cannot afford those compromises.

Current iFixit Scores by Category

For reference, the current iFixit scores that most directly affect TCO comparisons:

• Framework Laptop 12 and Framework Laptop 16: 10/10.

• Lenovo ThinkPad L-series (2025): 9/10.

• Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6, T16 Gen 4: 9/10.

• Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: 8/10.

• MacBook Air 13-inch M4: 5 (provisional).

• MacBook Pro 14-inch M5: 4/10.

• ASUS and Dell mainstream consumer lines sit between 6 and 8 depending on model.

PIRG's highest grade goes to ASUS at A-. Acer earns B+. The divergence between these brand-level grades and device-level iFixit scores underlines the point: neither system alone tells the full story.

What Battery, Screen, and Keyboard Repairs Actually Cost by Brand

The aggregate repairability score becomes financially meaningful when translated into specific repair events. Three repair categories determine the overwhelming majority of a laptop's lifetime repair cost: battery replacement, screen replacement, and keyboard replacement. These are the components that fail first or most often; they are also the components where design choices create the largest price gaps between manufacturers.

Battery Replacement :

Battery replacement is the most predictable repair a laptop will need. Lithium-ion cells degrade with each charge cycle, and a battery that has lost 20% of its original capacity makes mobile use impractical for most users.

For Apple laptops, 9to5Mac documented Apple's official out-of-warranty repair pricing as follows: MacBook Neo, $149; MacBook Air, up to $199 depending on model; MacBook Pro, up to $249. A separate source places MacBook Pro battery service at $229 for certain configurations; the $249 figure reflects the high end across model tiers. The Neo's battery price is lower than every other MacBook regardless of which Pro figure applies, a reversal of the normal premium-tier pricing pattern.

For buyers who want a DIY path on MacBook Air models, iFixit's battery replacement kits run approximately $100 for current-generation Air models and around $130 for 2020 M1-era machines, saving $30 to $90 compared to Apple's out-of-warranty service price.

Framework laptops do not have publicly disclosed current battery pricing at time of writing; marketplace launch figures for earlier Framework 13 models started near $49 for first-party cells. For ThinkPad models, Lenovo sells replacement batteries directly, and third-party cells compatible with standard-tool installation are widely available.

Screen Replacement :

Screen replacement is the most expensive common repair. MacBook Pro screen assemblies carry the highest out-of-warranty costs in the consumer laptop market.

With AppleCare+ coverage, MacRumors confirmed Apple's pricing structure as: MacBook Neo, $49 per screen damage incident; all other MacBooks, $99 per incident. Without AppleCare+, the gap widens substantially. We note that Apple's out-of-warranty screen repair pricing for the MacBook Pro was not available as a single confirmed figure at time of research; the range reflects multiple model tiers. Third-party screen replacement for ThinkPad models is generally available through Lenovo's direct parts channel and the broader spare parts market.

Framework's screen assemblies are available directly from the Framework Marketplace; pricing at initial marketplace launch reflected a first-party philosophy of making panels available rather than requiring full lid assembly replacement.

Keyboard Replacement :

Keyboard replacement represents the clearest design divergence between Apple and ThinkPad lines. ThinkPad's keyboard replacement is considered best-in-class by iFixit across all current ThinkPad models: the keyboard is a standalone module, accessible without disassembling the entire top case. Prior MacBook designs bundled the keyboard with the entire top case assembly, turning a keyboard replacement into a nearly full-device rebuild.

The MacBook Neo changed this. iFixit's teardown confirmed the keyboard is now a standalone module on the Neo, matching the ThinkPad's approach. For current MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, the top-case bundle remains in effect.

National average computer repair labor runs $60 per hour with a typical range of $45 to $90 per hour. Keyboard replacements that require top-case assembly removal extend labor time significantly for the technician performing the repair, which is reflected in the final invoice regardless of parts cost.

The Five-Year Math: Where Repair Costs Compound

Most buyers think about repair as a single event: a battery dies, a screen cracks. The more accurate model treats repair as a series of potential events distributed across an ownership window that is longer than most people assume.

Sobrii's computer lifespan analysis, drawing on Test-Achats 2024 data and enterprise fleet records, found that Apple laptops average 7 years and 7 months of measured lifespan. Dell laptops average approximately 7 years. A separate analysis of 500,000 devices tracked over 20 years found that device failure rates do not follow the intuitive pattern of increasing sharply with age: failure rates stay flat between 0% and 0.2% well beyond year five.

The same source documented the battery threshold that matters most for TCO planning: lithium-ion cells in daily use typically drop to 80% of original capacity after 300 to 500 full charge cycles, which maps to roughly 3 years of enterprise daily use. For a laptop kept 7 years, that means at least one battery replacement is close to certain, and two is plausible.

A MacBook Pro battery replacement runs $249 out of warranty. A Framework 13 battery runs approximately $49 from the official marketplace. Over a five-year ownership period, with one battery replacement likely, that $200 gap is not the total picture.

The total divergence looks like this: a buyer who keeps a MacBook Pro for seven years and encounters one battery replacement and one screen damage event out of warranty may face $500 to $1,000 in repair costs, depending on model tier. The same buyer with a Framework laptop faces perhaps $100 to $250 for equivalent repairs using first-party components, or less if third-party parts are used. A ThinkPad buyer falls between these extremes, with official Lenovo parts available at moderate prices and third-party alternatives widely accessible.

The figures above represent out-of-warranty repairs and exclude labor costs for buyers who complete repairs themselves.

For buyers who are willing and able to pursue repair rather than replace, these numbers suggest a meaningful difference in total ownership cost. Once repair cost approaches one-third to one-half of a new device's purchase price, most consumers choose replacement instead. A $300 repair bill on a $600 laptop pushes most buyers toward replacement. The same $300 bill on a $1,600 laptop is worth paying for most. This dynamic is doubly unfavorable for owners of affordable devices: they are more price-sensitive, and repair costs hit them at precisely the threshold where replacement becomes the rational choice.

PIRG estimates that Americans could save almost $50 billion annually by repairing rather than replacing consumer products. The laptop market is one of the larger contributors to that figure, and the cost gap between high-repairability and low-repairability devices shows exactly how it accumulates.

The MacBook Neo as a Case Study in Legislated Repairability

Apple's overall trajectory on repairability has been characterized by resistance followed by incremental compliance. The MacBook Neo represents the sharpest turn yet in that trajectory, but understanding why it happened matters as much as noting that it did.

iFixit's March 2026 teardown of the MacBook Neo called it the most repairable MacBook in 14 years. The teardown confirmed three specific changes with direct financial consequences: the battery sits on a screwed tray rather than being bonded with adhesive, making replacement a standard procedure rather than a delicate extraction; the keyboard is a standalone module; and iFixit's testing of part swaps between two Neo units, including screen, battery, and Touch ID module, found no parts-pairing issues when using Apple's Repair Assistant software.

Previous MacBook batteries used stretch-release adhesive pull tabs, which made DIY replacement feasible but required care. Older designs before 2021 were fully glued, making battery replacement a job that demanded chemical adhesive remover and risked heat damage if pried too aggressively. The Neo's screwed tray is a meaningful step beyond either prior approach.

The Neo runs an A18 Pro chip, a mobile processor from the iPhone 16 Pro generation, which limits the machine to 8GB of RAM with no upgrade path and storage fixed at 256GB or 512GB. For buyers evaluating the Neo's repairability alongside its hardware constraints, a companion guide to what the MacBook Neo trades away to hit $599 maps those tradeoffs in detail, including which ones are invisible in regular use and which carry real day-to-day consequences.

Oregon's parts-pairing ban, effective for products manufactured after January 1, 2025, prohibits using parts-pairing techniques to prevent or inhibit the installation of otherwise functional components. Parts pairing, for buyers unfamiliar with the term, refers to the practice of using embedded microcontrollers to link a specific component to a specific device. When a paired part was replaced by a non-original component, the device would display warnings or restrict features, discouraging independent repair even when the replacement part was fully functional.

The EU Right to Repair Directive, finalized July 2024 with a member-state transposition deadline of July 31, 2026, takes this prohibition to a broader scale. The directive explicitly bans contractual clauses, hardware design choices, and software techniques that impede repair. It requires manufacturers to make 15 types of spare parts available to professional repairers for 7 years after product discontinuation, and 5 key parts available directly to consumers.

We note that Apple's Activation Lock problem remains unresolved; working MacBooks with locked iCloud accounts cannot be resold or parted out, which repairability scores do not capture.

Oregon banned parts pairing in 2024, and Apple's Repair Assistant reached MacBooks in September 2025. The MacBook Neo arrived in March 2026 with the lowest official repair pricing in Apple's laptop lineup.

This trajectory suggests, though it does not guarantee, that the MacBook Neo is the first product of a compliance-driven design shift rather than an isolated exception. Apple's Repair Assistant was introduced for iPhones first, then extended to MacBooks in September 2025 with macOS Tahoe. The Neo's screwed battery, modular keyboard, and sub-$50 AppleCare+ damage fees follow directly in the same sequence. For buyers who anticipate keeping a device 5 years or longer, the emerging regulatory environment is moving in a direction that benefits the total cost calculation, but the pace of change is uneven and the MacBook Air and Pro lines have not yet followed the Neo's example.

Matching the Right Score to Your Actual Buying Question

Three scoring systems exist. Each answers a different question. Choosing between them is not arbitrary.

If your question is: "How much will this specific model cost me to repair?"

Use iFixit's device-level score. It directly evaluates the physical design choices that determine how a repair proceeds and how much it costs. A device scoring 8 to 10 will, in most cases, have accessible batteries, available parts at reasonable prices, and keyboard/screen procedures that do not cascade into major disassembly. A device scoring 4 to 5 will likely require professional service for most repairs, with higher labor costs and potentially longer turnaround.

Our recommended starting point for most buyers is iFixit's device-level score, because it directly measures the physical design factors that determine how much a specific repair will cost.

If your question is: "Does this manufacturer support my right to repair their products over time?"

Use PIRG's brand-level grade, with the caveat that a failing grade may reflect documentation transparency failures rather than physical design. An A or B grade from PIRG indicates a manufacturer that is unlikely to use legislative lobbying to restrict independent repair options in your state or country. This matters most over a multi-year ownership window when regulatory changes may affect parts availability and independent repair shop access.

If your question is: "Will parts still be available in five years?"

Use the French Repairability Index data as a signal for spare parts commitment, particularly the manufacturer's stated availability duration. The EU Right to Repair Directive is shifting this floor across all manufacturers selling into European markets, and product changes made for European compliance often carry into US-market devices on the same production run.

The three-system approach is not redundant. A device can score 9/10 on iFixit (excellent physical design) while its manufacturer earns an F from PIRG (poor documentation transparency) and provides no French Index score at all. The full picture requires all three data points. For most buyers who are primarily concerned with out-of-pocket repair costs during the years they own the device, the iFixit score for their specific model is the single most financially relevant number. Once that score is combined with official repair pricing from the manufacturer, the five-year cost estimate becomes calculable.

FAQ

Does AppleCare+ significantly change the TCO calculation for a MacBook?

For the MacBook Neo specifically, the AppleCare+ math is unusually favorable. The plan costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. Under coverage, battery service is free, screen damage costs $49 per incident, and other accidental damage costs $149. For all other MacBook models with AppleCare+, screen damage costs $99 and other accidental damage costs $299. The Neo's covered repair fees are approximately half those of the Air and Pro lines.

Whether AppleCare+ improves TCO depends on how many incidents you experience. A single screen crack on a MacBook Pro without coverage could cost $500 or more. With AppleCare+ at $99 per incident, the plan can pay for several years of premiums in one event. For the Neo, the threshold is lower: $49 for screen damage means the coverage pays for itself after a single incident at roughly 10 months of premium payments.

The financial case for AppleCare+ on any MacBook weakens if you keep the device past the coverage window and do not encounter accidental damage. Apple's iFixit repairability scores, combined with the official repair pricing structure, suggest that post-warranty repair is more viable on the Neo than on any other current MacBook model.

Are Framework laptops realistically available for buyers outside the enthusiast market?

Framework laptops are not widely sold through mainstream retail channels. They ship direct through Framework's own website and a limited number of regional partners. The Framework Laptop 12 and Framework Laptop 16 both achieved perfect 10/10 iFixit scores in 2025, and Framework's first-party parts marketplace is the most comprehensive in the consumer laptop market, designed so that buyers can replace virtually every component using only a Phillips screwdriver.

The practical limitation is customer support and the purchasing experience. Framework's target buyer is someone comfortable with DIY assembly and confident troubleshooting hardware independently. For buyers who prefer to walk into a store, purchase from a well-known brand, and use a manufacturer's service network for repairs, ThinkPads offer the next-best combination of high iFixit scores (9/10 across current L-series and T-series models) and mainstream availability through Lenovo's own store, Amazon, and enterprise resellers.

Does right-to-repair legislation affect third-party parts, or only OEM replacements?

The current scope is primarily OEM-to-OEM. Oregon's parts-pairing ban removed software restrictions that blocked certified OEM parts from being installed without manufacturer authorization, but it does not require manufacturers to certify or support third-party parts. iFixit's analysis confirmed that Apple's parts-pairing changes do not cover aftermarket components, which can cost approximately half the price of official Apple parts.

The EU's approach is somewhat broader. The Right to Repair Directive's prohibition on hardware, software, and contractual barriers to repair is written broadly enough to challenge some parts-pairing implementations that go beyond software restrictions. Member states must transpose the directive by July 31, 2026, and how individual countries implement the prohibition on hardware-level pairing may affect third-party parts availability in European markets. Whether US legislation follows is uncertain; at least 20 states introduced Right to Repair legislation in 2025, and the proposed federal Fair Repair Act carries an estimate that passage could reduce household electronics spending by roughly 22%.

For buyers today, third-party parts for ThinkPads are broadly available with no software restrictions. For Apple devices, third-party parts exist but Apple's Repair Assistant, which handles post-repair calibration, was tested by iFixit only with OEM components on the MacBook Neo. Third-party parts on Apple hardware remain outside the current scope of the legislative progress made so far.