Apple and Samsung score D and D- on the EU's new phone repairability index
Motorola scored a B+. Google landed a C-. Samsung came in at D. Apple, the world's most valuable phone maker, scored D-. Those are the first grades handed out under the EU's new smartphone repairability index, and they tell a story the industry has spent years avoiding: the phones people are most likely to buy are, on average, the hardest to fix.
The index has been mandatory on the EU energy label since June 20, 2025, using the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) to grade every phone sold in the bloc from A (excellent) to E (poor). It isn't a marketing gimmick — it's a structured score built from five measurable factors: how many steps it takes to replace a battery or screen, whether standard tools are needed or proprietary ones are required, how long spare parts stay available, how long software updates continue, and how transparent the published repair documentation is.
Why the big brands score worse than the underdogs
Motorola's B+ isn't an accident. Its recent flagship designs use fewer proprietary fasteners, ship official repair documentation, and commit to longer parts availability windows — decisions that cost Motorola nothing in performance but earn real points on the index. Samsung and Apple, by contrast, are penalized for the same design choices that make their phones thin and tightly sealed: adhesive-mounted batteries, non-standard screws, and software that has historically resisted third-party part recognition.
That last point is the one regulators are most aggressively targeting. "Part pairing" — software that detects a replacement part isn't factory-original and disables features or throws warnings — is explicitly banned under the EU's Right to Repair Directive, which becomes enforceable across all 27 member states on July 31, 2026. Apple and Samsung have both used part pairing in past device generations; the practice now carries direct legal exposure in the EU regardless of what the repairability index score says.
The obligations go well beyond a letter grade
The index sits on top of a separate, harder set of legal requirements. Manufacturers must make 15 categories of spare parts available to professional repairers within 5 to 10 working days, for seven years after a model is discontinued. Five of those part categories — including batteries, displays, and back covers — must also be available directly to consumers, not just authorized repair shops. Software locks that block third-party or used parts from functioning are prohibited outright.
The next major deadline is more disruptive than the labeling requirement itself: starting February 18, 2027, every smartphone sold in the EU must ship with a user-replaceable battery. That single rule forces a redesign that current flagship phones from Apple and Samsung do not meet, since both companies currently use adhesive-bonded batteries specifically to achieve thinner, more water-resistant chassis designs.
What this means if you're buying a phone
For consumers, the practical value of the repairability index is that it's now printed directly on the EU energy label next to the phone — the same place battery life and IP rating already appear, so it doesn't require hunting through a manufacturer's sustainability page to find. If your phone strategy is "buy it and keep it four-plus years," a B+ or better score has real financial value: it correlates directly with whether a battery replacement will cost $40 at an independent shop or $99+ plus a mail-in wait at an authorized service center.
For manufacturers, the message from these first scores is that repairability can no longer be treated as a niche feature for the Fairphone crowd. With enforcement of the Right to Repair Directive landing July 31, 2026, and the user-replaceable battery mandate following in February 2027, Apple and Samsung are heading into two consecutive years of regulatory deadlines that will force real hardware changes — not just better documentation.