Enlarge / US PIRG's "Chromebook Churn" report casts a harsh spotlight on flaws in Chromebook repairability and longevity. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Google is in the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) hot seat. This week, the nonprofit published its "Chromebook Churn" [ PDF ] report, pointing a finger at Google for enabling Chromebooks that “aren’t designed to last.” It highlighted Chromebook quirks, like seemingly pointless hardware tweaks across models that challenge parts-sourcing and automatic update expiration (AUE) dates, as examples of the repair-averse Chromebook culture Google has enabled. For target Chromebook markets, like schools, that opt for Chromebooks to save money, long-term costs may outweigh the immediate savings, PIRG’s analysis concluded.

The report focuses on Chromebooks in schools and is based on an unspecified number (we've reached out to PIRG for a firm head count) of interviews with "school IT directors, technicians, journalists, repair shop owners, parts suppliers, and teachers," as well as a "five-question survey with 13 school IT administrators and technicians." The sample size could be much larger, but the details in the report are also based on undisputed characteristics of ChromeOS devices. And while PIRG's paper emphasizes the impact this all has for schools, especially considering the influx of Chromebooks purchased for schools during the COVID-19 pandemic's height and beyond, it's food for thought for any current or prospective Chromebook owners or people who like to vote with their dollar.

Sneaky design changes hinder repairs

The report, written by PIRG's Designed to Last Campaign director, Lucas Rockett Gutterman, argues that because Chromebooks are largely web-based and don't vary in power as much as other laptops, it should be "easy" to offer modular designs that allow for parts to be shared across Chromebook models. Indeed, Framework's modular Chromebook proves this is possible. But in its "Failing the Fix" [ PDF ] report from February, PIRG reported that Chromebooks have an average French repairability index score of 5.8 out of 10, compared to 6.9 for all non-Chromebook laptops.

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  The Nokia G22. You can open it. [credit: iFixit ]

HMD and its licensed Nokia brand is taking a swing at a repairable smartphone with the Nokia G22 . Like Google and Samsung , HMD has struck up a partnership with iFixit to offer official parts and repair guides online. Besides the partnership, HMD goes one step further and claims: "Starting with Nokia G22, we’ll be designing and building smartphones that are easier to repair." It's great to see a company tout attempts at a more repairable design, but there isn't much in the G22 that makes it more repairable than a normal cheap phone.

The phone is a low-end $179 (179 euro) device with a 6.52-inch, 90 Hz, 1200×720 LCD. The SoC is a 'Unisoc T606'—a 12 nm chip with two Cortex A75 Arm cores, two A55 cores, and an ARM Mali-G57 MP1. It has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 5050 mAh battery with 20 W charging. The phone has a side fingerprint reader, a headphone jack, MicroSD slot, and, if you get the "TA-1528" model, NFC. The phone comes with Android 12 and has two years of major OS updates and three years of monthly security updates, which are both pretty good for a cheap phone. It'll be for sale on March 8 in the UK for 149.99 pounds ($179), with sales also happening in Europe and Australia eventually.

As for iFixit's half of this partnership, there are four parts for sale in the parts store : A screen for $53, a battery for $26, a charge port for $20, and a new plastic back panel for $26. There are also the usual high-quality guides from iFixit that detail every screw and clip you'll have to deal with to replace those parts, along with a recommended list of tools.

Enlarge / He's also selling AirPods Pro cases modded to use USB-C. (credit: Exploring the Simulation/YouTube )

AirPods are a convenient accessory... until the charging case breaks. Functioning earpieces are useless without a case to juice them up. And as one user has detailed , Apple would rather you buy a whole new case than fix the one you have. Well, considering the e-waste the planet's drowning in and the premium price of Apple's wireless headphones, that's an inconvenient truth. But now if you're willing to break your warranty and put your faith in the hands of a clever tech tinkerer, you can get the printed circuit board (PCB) needed to replace the battery in your AirPods Pro case and give it a USB-C port while you're at it.

The mod comes from Ken Pillonel's Exploring the Simulation YouTube channel. Pillonel's the same guy who brought you an Android phone with a Lightning port and an iPhone with USB-C . About six months ago, he also posted a video demoing how to make a PCB and 3D-printed case for repairing the first- and second-generation AirPods and equipping them with USB-C.

On Wednesday, Pillonel brought his mad genius to the AirPods Pro . The DIYer has shared on GitHub how to 3D-print an AirPods Pro case, since it's hard to open the things for repair without breaking them.

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There's not much new to the Surface Pro 9 on the outside, as our review points out . Inside, however, there is evidence of a lot of work by Microsoft to make the device more repairable, as shown in an iFixit teardown .

iFixit has consulted with Microsoft's hardware teams for a while now, providing advice on making devices more repairable. As evidence of this, Microsoft claims in a statement that it will:

• Make repair guides available for the Surface Pro 9's components by the end of the year
• Work with "a major US retailer" to build out an authorized (in-store) repair network by early 2023
• Offer parts to individuals and repair shops by the first half of 2023

All these factors improve repairability, both in practice and in iFixit's (and French , European , and potentially other nations') repair scores.

Enlarge / A new hard-case battery inside the Apple Watch Ultra is easier to remove for DIY fixers. Getting to that battery is still a tricky, tight-space operation, iFixit writes. (credit: iFixit )

Like the iPhone 14, the Apple Watch Ultra has a quietly revolutionary aspect that went under the radar—at least until the people at iFixit tore down the device . Apple's new category of wearables is "a potentially giant step towards making the Watch more repairable," iFixit writes, and it all starts with the screws.

Four pentalobe screws on the back of the Watch Ultra, unique among all Apple's Watch models, suggested the same kind of front-and-back access that iFixit's iPhone 14 teardown revealed . But opening from the back will almost certainly damage the Ultra's waterproof gasket. And the experienced teardown team at iFixit also lost one of the band release button's springs during removal. Most disappointingly, there's not much to be replaced from the back other than the back itself and its sensor array.

The promising but ultimately non-revelatory screws, making their first appearance on an Apple Watch exterior. (credit: iFixit )

As such, replacing the battery on an Apple Watch Ultra will likely take days, not hours, and will be done at a regional service depot, not in-store, iFixit's Sam Goldheart writes. "It's a missed opportunity—if Apple could get the battery under the [system-in-a-package], then these new screws on the bottom could enable a battery swap without going through the extremely well-sealed display."