Greenpeace campaign gives bad repairability scores for iPads and MacBooks; iPhones get away with it

From year to year, we see launches of new smartphones, tablets and computers. And this periodicity, unlike a few decades ago, ends up making devices lagged much more quickly – both in software and in hardware.

It is not new, either, that instead of becoming more and more resistant, the devices today seem to be much more fragile, being designed in such a way that few can fix them in case something goes wrong with them. Most users are looking for durable devices, mainly because today it is not cheap to buy a good device. However, in this regard, companies have left a lot to be desired – and the Apple enter that package.

For this reason, the Greenpeace today launched the campaign “Rethink-it” in partnership with iFixit, in order to demonstrate the environmental impacts of devices with low repairability and what they called “planned obsolescence”. To support this idea, 21 smartphones, 14 tablets and 9 computers launched in the period from 2015 to 2017 were evaluated and received grades from 1 (worst) to 10 (best).

Today, our technology has a short shelf life. IT companies like Apple, Samsung and LG create electronic gadgets that just don’t last! In addition, they make repairs complicated and expensive, offer no short-term guarantees, and do not provide repair manuals or spare parts. This is called planned obsolescence.

10.5

In this campaign, the Apple products selected were the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, fifth-generation iPad, 13-inch MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook. The products have been classified according to the following categories: battery replacement, screen replacement, no special tools needed and spare parts available.

In the list of computers, the two MacBooks were in last place, achieving only 1/10 for not passing in any of the four categories (so far, nothing new). But if you think that only Apple is bad, you are wrong: Microsoft joined hands with Apple, obtaining the same 1/10 with its Surface Book.

Regarding tablets, Surface Pro 5 managed to be the last one on the list, also with 1/10. For very little, it is true, since the two iPads got 2/10, in the penultimate and antepenultimate places.

In the list of smartphones, Apple finally did a little better. Both the iPhone 7 and the 7 Plus scored 7/10, scoring a few more points for the “screen replacement” category. In this list, with 3/10, was the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

Disassembly of iPhone 7 Plus made by iFixit

Greenpeace is an organization that has already shown itself capable of influencing the behavior of companies, in favor of the environment and consumers. Apple, for the third consecutive time, achieved an “A” rating on the list of “greener” technology companies, according to the organization – even so, this ranking shows more of Apple’s operations as a company, the use of energy renewable, among other things.

As she always takes environmental issues into consideration, this new Greenpeace campaign should certainly attract her attention – perhaps making the company improve some points in this regard.

via 9to5Mac