iFixit News

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 Teardown Reveals a Gap in Right to Repair Coverage

Elizabeth Chamberlain — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 19:31:33 +0000

We just tore down the two latest Apple Watches. And Apple, we need to have a talk. Let’s cut to the chase: there’s no big repairability news here. The Series 12 got a battery pull tab, which, along with some other small architecture changes, brought it up by a point on our repairability scale. The Ultra 4 is essentially the same as its predecessors. Apple Watch is falling behind the rest…

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“I Used to Just Call a Guy”: The Struggle to Get Repair Information

Thomas Opsomer — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:10:50 +0000

This article originally appeared on repair.eu, the site of the Right to Repair Europe coalition, on September 16, 2026. We recently reported on the hit-or-miss availability of repair-related information that consumers are entitled to in our blog post “One Year Into EU Ecodesign Rules, 80% of Smartphones Still Lack Required Repair Information“. While you may have a hard time accessing repair…

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AirPods 5 Are the Least Unrepairable AirPods Yet

Elizabeth Chamberlain — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 20:25:43 +0000

We’ve bled for AirPods. We’ve sliced them, melted them, cursed at them. For ten years, Apple’s wireless earbuds have earned a well-deserved 0 out of 10 for repairability. The AirPods 5 finally broke that streak. They’re the most repairable AirPods earbuds ever. Which isn’t saying much: they still earn just a 2 out of 10, and the charging case is as difficult to open as ever. But for the first…

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Steam Frame Teardown: We’re Fans. Except of the Fan

Elizabeth Chamberlain — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:01:11 +0000

Finally, finally, the Steam Frame is here! Five years ago, rumors of an internal Valve project codenamed Deckard rocked the VR enthusiast world. Since then, gamers have salivated over the dream of a wearable all-in-one PC that could play both dedicated VR games and the rest of their Steam libraries, without the hassle of a tether or base stations. We’ve been partnered with Valve since…

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Inside the Tiny Unfixable Eye: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max Teardown

Elizabeth Chamberlain — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 22:00:57 +0000

The iPhone 18 Pro’s little mechanical pupil is irresistible. A bunch of moving parts make for a good excuse to put our brand new camera under the microscope. We weren’t prepared for the screen’s plastic frame to tear apart on three of the four phones we opened, though. More on that later. There’s plenty to admire inside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, from that intricate variable aperture…

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Repair in the Wild: A Summer With Europe’s Repair Communities

Claire Miesch — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:28:55 +0000

From a spring kickoff in Italy to a summer full of hacker camps and Maker Faires, iFixit tools and the Street Team showed up at events across Europe this year. Different places, same idea: repair knowledge grows when people share it. Come along for the ride and meet some of the Street Team members who make it happen. Our first stop was Hackaday Europe in Lecco, where hardware hackers…

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One Year Into EU Ecodesign Rules, 80% of Smartphones Still Lack Required Repair Information

Thomas Opsomer — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:41:36 +0000

This article originally appeared on repair.eu, the site of the Right to Repair Europe coalition, on September 7, 2026. Since June 20th, 2025, smartphones and tablets sold in the EU are subject to repairability requirements1. These also include a mandatory repairability score and an obligation to publish repair information. The repairability score is self-reported by…

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Will the iPhone Duo Be Repairable? We’re Skeptical

Elizabeth Chamberlain — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:53:51 +0000

Today, like so much of the tech world, as Apple announced their Fall 2026 product lineup, the iFixit team readied our bingo cards and placed bets on whether John Ternus would say “one more thing” (Matt won). Usually we’re a pretty optimistic bunch. But looking at the iPhone Duo today we agreed: This one probably won’t be fixable. We’ve been tearing down foldable smartphones for…

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The Evolution of Foldables, Told in X-Rays

Shahram Mokhtari — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 23:38:16 +0000

Foldable smartphones have come a long way. The complex devices on the market today incorporate folding OLED panels, flexible glass, and increasingly sophisticated hinge mechanisms to deliver tablet size screens in a phone shaped form factor. But the origin story of the foldable phone is far less glitzy. It all started as nothing more than a plastic flip cover held in place by two plastic nubs…

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FixHub Soldering Tips: How to Clean, How to Use, and Tip Tips in General

Charlie Sorrel — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:30:25 +0000

Good news! We just released seven new soldering tips for our FixHub Smart Soldering Iron. If you’ve been waiting with bated breath, pop on over to our store. New today: Bevel Cup 1.5, Bevel Cup 2.6, Angle Knife, Angle Cone, Bent Cone, Wedge 4.0, and Heat Insert Tip. Shop Now But if you just read that paragraph thinking, “You can get different tips for your soldering iron!?”…

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