every year we tear down as many devices
as we can just to see how repairable
they are and we score those devices on a
repairability scale from one to ten ten
being the easiest to repair and this
year we tore down more devices than ever
and what we saw was both amazing and a
little disappointing which is why today
we're gonna talk about the best and
worst devices we tore down in 2019 is
the fairphone three from Tennessee
because it's the only ten we see from
2019 the previous models set the bar
high last year when it earned a 10 out
of 10 and we had no doubts the new fair
phone would do just as well so what made
this phone so repairable
well key components like the battery in
the screen are easy to access and you
only need a regular Phillips screwdriver
to remove them they even included visual
cues inside the phone to help with this
assembly to top it all off if you ever
need spare parts or replacement guides
they're readily available on the
fairphone website fair phone three takes
the cake for repair ability which is why
it earned a ten out of ten but what do
you think about the most repairable
phone in the world the Mac Pro blessed
us with its arrival just before the
holidays and thank goodness because I
wanted one as a gift but I didn't get
one little did we know we would be
giving this device a gift of a lifetime
by scoring it a nine out of ten the Mac
Pro probably would have gotten a 10 if
it had grated cheese a little better
some things that helped it earn a nine
the opening procedure couldn't be any
easier all you needed to do was turn and
lint that was easy when it comes to
repairs and upgrades a lot of them can
be done with standard tools some can
even be done without tools like swapping
out the RAM which is a must for a long
lifespan we also noticed that Apple
provided some step numbers and diagrams
right on the Mac Pro they even went and
published some free repair manuals for
some repair so you can get them right
way to end the year strong Apple when
Xbox announced that it was releasing the
Xbox 1s digital edition we had to see
what a non optical drive gaming system
would bring to the table this all
digital version earned an 8 out of 10 on
our ability meter and rightfully so
clips were all that we're in the way
between the lower case and the body the
clips do need a little brute force to
get off but it's still better than glue
or screws once you're inside the design
is modular and allows for basically all
the components to be
and the best thing is that it only took
a few tools to disassemble this entire
device and we like simplicity on the
other side of the spectrum we have the
devices that are on our not-so-good list
the first one is the foldable galaxy
fold review units had noticeably weird
bumps in the display a removable display
covering that you weren't supposed to
take off along with other random
failures Samsung saw these reviews and
pulled the device before it was released
to the public and when it was finally
released
Samsung promised that they had fixed all
the issues but the Galaxy fold still had
problems that would complicate repair as
an example if you want to get into this
device you need to remove the glass rear
panel which means greater risk of
breaking the phone just to get in the
mechanics of the fold can wear over time
and cause stress on the hinges and the
display which can make display
replacements a bear and as with most
phones you can always see glutton
batteries and the fold is no exception
to that so this phone is just a pain in
the butt all around and we hope you
didn't buy this $2,000 taka Apple
released their 16 inch MacBook Pro in
mid November of 2019 and this time it
came with a butterfly list keyboard so
we were hopeful that Apple was finally
thinking about repairability
and while it was easy to open up the
rest of the device is a nightmare to
disassemble glue or rivets secure the
keyboard touch bar speakers and battery
making them almost impossible to repair
and the processor RAM and flash memory
are all soldered to the logic board
while we did see some minor modular
components like the Thunderbolt ports
all of these negatives are what made us
bring the score down to a 1 out of 10 on
our ability scale and if you thought
things couldn't get any worse man do we
have news for you the air pods Pro
arrived in 2019 with a new form factor
that we were hoping would have a new and
improved way of being repaired while
opening them was easier and they had new
coin cell batteries that you can
theoretically replace the air pods Pro
are still pretty much impossible to
repair everything and we mean everything
is glued in these little buggers can't
get past anything without having to pull
out some form of glue how anyone could
ever reassemble ear pods Pro is beyond
me we think it's safe to say that these
were not designed with repair in mind no
surprise here the air pods Pro scored a
0 out of 10 while the next device wasn't
one to score the highest or the lowest
we think it deserves a mention
from most improved the Microsoft Surface
laptop went from scoring a zero out of
ten to scoring a decent five out of ten
the opening procedure was no longer
destructive thanks to screws and magnets
the SSD is easy to access and now
upgradeable and while the inside has an
intricate layered construction parts are
still modular and replaceable and what's
the best thing about all this Microsoft
was able to make a non repairable laptop
repairable all while keeping the same
form factor this is truly a great step
forward in the right direction we're
excited for what 20/20 has to offer and
we hope that more devices will score
even better this year if you want to see
all the tear downs that we've done head
over to ifixit.com slash teardown and be
sure to subscribe to the channel by
clicking the button below
happy fixing