A new report calls out the top smartphone makers in the US for their poor device repairability scores, but Google Pixel did come out ahead of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy devices.
The US PIRG, an organization that describes itself as “an advocate for consumers, advancing solutions to problems that affect our health, our safety and our wellbeing,” this week published “Failing the Fix (2026),” a report that effectively serves to call out major tech companies for how they handle repairability, whether that includes progress towards improvement or the opposite.
This year’s report ranks the top four US smartphone brands – which, at this point, is effectively all we’ve got left – in Apple, Samsung, Google, and Motorola when it comes to their repairability. And the results aren’t great.
- Motorola – B+
- Google Pixel – C-
- Samsung – D
- Apple – D-
Motorola is left as the “best,” with Google Pixel only slightly beating out Samsung and Apple while falling a whole letter grade behind Moto.
The report is based on data from the European Union’s European Product Registry for Energy Labelling, which includes a repairability score. Those scores are weighted to focus pretty heavily on the ease of which the device can be disassembled, but also includes factors such as documentation, availability of spare parts, and how many software updates each device gets – with that last one in mind, it’s wild that Motorola leads.
The report also ranks companies based on laptop repairability, where Apple ranks last with a C-, and Asus tops the list with a B+.
As the US PIRG noted to Wired, this report is published partially in hopes that “publishing these low scores will encourage manufacturers to do better.”
Google Pixel has been pushing for better repairability in recent years, especially on accessories within its ecosystem. Last year’s Pixel Watch 4 is fully repairable for the first time, while the Pixel Buds 2a introduce a rare replaceable battery to the case.
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