7 Laptop Brands, Ranked By Repairability

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Buying a laptop is often a significant investment, and ideally, you should be able to use it without worrying about faulty components. Repairs are always possible, but in practice, a lot of laptops can be unnecessarily complicated when it comes to fixes. A worn-out battery is one thing, but a broken charging port, damaged keyboard, or cracked display can be a bigger problem when the manufacturer makes replacement parts difficult to access or install. Overall repairability depends on the ease of the disassembly process, whether components are soldered to the motherboard, and whether compatible replacements and repair instructions are readily available.

Some manufacturers have started paying more attention to repairability, with Lenovo’s more repairable ThinkPad designs being a great example. Modular laptops are also a solid approach if fixability is important to you, even if they come at a premium. However, repairability isn’t always necessarily consistent across an entire brand’s lineup. But based on published repair guides, teardowns, and repairability studies, we can get an idea of what to expect from major brands. Here’s how major laptop brands compare when it comes to overall repairability.

If repairability and upgrades are your top priority, you should consider getting a Framework laptop. All of Framework’s models are designed around modular components, which means you can swap out the RAM, storage, battery, keyboard, and even expansion ports. The Framework Laptop 12 and Laptop 16 both earned a 10/10 repairability score from iFixit. With these laptops, most of the components are easy to access, and Framework sells almost every replacement part you’ll ever need for your device. The company’s repair-first approach is so central to its identity that its CEO has even called out the MacBook Neo’s less upgrade-friendly design, particularly its non-replaceable RAM and storage. 

Framework also sells DIY Editions of its laptops, letting you skip preinstalled solid-state drives (SSDs) or RAM and install your own components instead. The brand even offers refurbished parts, from professionally restored displays down to Wi-Fi adapters. If you’re sick of Windows, Framework will also sell you laptops without an OS, so you can go down the Linux route if you prefer. These are options that you just don’t get with other mainstream manufacturers, which is why Framework dominates in repairability and customization.

Lenovo’s ThinkPads are common business machines with a strong record of repairability. You’ll find plenty of ThinkPad laptops earning a 9/10 repairability score from iFixit, and models like the ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 and ThinkPad T16 Gen 5 earned an impressive 10/10. These particular models feature easy-to-replace keyboards, replaceable Thunderbolt ports, and hot-swappable RAM and SSDs. According to Servnet, over 65% of Lenovo’s business laptops come with upgradeable memory, and its ThinkPad lineup is likely the main contributor. All of this does help Lenovo’s reputation for repairability, but it’s not exactly an open-and-shut case.

When it comes to Lenovo’s more consumer-facing devices, repairability can take a backseat. For example, the IdeaPad Slim 3 Gen 8 features non-upgradable RAM and soldered USB-C ports. Even some ThinkPad models, like the more travel-friendly ThinkPad X13 Gen 7, also feature soldered memory. However, Lenovo does let you replace the SSD in most of its laptops, as seen in the new Lenovo Googlebook 15. Ultimately, it’s worth checking the repairability of a specific model before buying, especially if you want to upgrade or replace components yourself.

Dell lands third in this ranking, as its business laptops can offer straightforward access to components like batteries and SSDs. For example, the Dell Pro 14 Premium features a removable battery and M.2 SSD. The RAM and Wi-Fi card are soldered to the motherboard, but at least the laptop is easy to disassemble for servicing. In PIRG‘s Failing The Fix report, the sampled Dell laptops received an average disassembly score of 8.2/10, and the brand received a B- grade for overall repairability.

Some Dell laptops do feature upgradeable memory, but these are mainly business machines that companies buy in bulk, like the Dell Pro 5. But even most of these commodity machines, such as the Latitude 7450, feature soldered Wi-Fi cards. Fortunately, Dell does make it easy for you to service your laptops by providing official service manuals, 3D teardown instructions, and replacement parts. This doesn’t automatically make every Dell laptop easily repairable, but it does give you a starting point when something breaks.

HP has a good track record of repairability, mainly due to certain upgrade-friendly models that offset the shortcomings across its wider lineup. The 2026 OmniBook 5 is particularly impressive, as it lets you replace its memory, SSD, battery, and Wi-Fi adapter. It’s already a great laptop for work and entertainment, and its repairability makes it worth it in the long run. Another positive for HP is that nearly 65% of the 145 HP laptops featured in Servnet’s upgradeability report feature replaceable memory. HP also has a partnership with iFixit, with iFixit providing parts and guides for the EliteBook line.

However, the HP consumer lineup is rife with less repair-friendly designs. For example, the HP Envy x360 earned a 40% repairability score in Notebookcheck‘s review, mainly because of the bottom panel that’s difficult to remove. HP also earned a 7.5/10 disassembly score in PIRG’s reliability report, which is lower than Dell’s 8.2 rating. That lower score is likely because of tougher disassembly in models similar to the Envy x360, though PIRG does not mention specific models.

In PIRG’s laptop repairability report, ASUS earned a B+ grade and an average disassembly score of 8/10. But this repairability assessment does not mean much once you start looking at specific examples. For example, ASUS itself gave its ROG Flow Z13 a 10/10 repairability score based on France’s repairability index. iFixit noted that the French repairability index focuses more on factors such as remote assistance and provision of spare parts. In contrast, iFixit focuses on ease of disassembly and reassembly, and they gave the ASUS 2-in-1 laptop a 7/10 for repairability.

This proves that you can’t just trust a repairability grade or score extracted from a report. Even PIRG’s testing focuses mainly on disassembly, not on soldered parts. With that said, higher-end ASUS laptops, like the ROG Zephyrus G14, feature replaceable SSDs and Wi-Fi modules. The same is true for the ASUS TUF A14 (2026), which even offers an extra M.2 slot. Overall, there’s a reasonable balance here with higher-end ASUS devices and gaming laptops, but then you have models that look good on paper and end up making major compromises in some areas, as revealed by iFixit.

On paper, Acer laptops can be easy to take apart if we go by PIRG’s 8/10 disassembly score. However, just because a laptop is relatively easy to open, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s flexible for repairs or upgrades. This is best illustrated by the 2026 Acer Swift Go 14, which lets you easily get inside by just removing four screws. Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, the Wi-Fi adapter is integrated, and a cable running over the drive means you need to be careful when replacing the SSD. The laptop may be easy to open up, but there’s not much you can do after that.

Another device, the Aspire 14 AI, scored a disappointing 40% repairability rating in Notebookcheck‘s review. Again, this laptop is easy to open, but the soldered RAM and Wi-Fi adapter don’t allow much in the way of upgrades or repairs. Acer makes a lot of budget laptops, and many only have eight gigabytes (GB) of memory soldered on, like the Aspire Go 15. This ultimately gives cheaper Acer laptops a shorter lifespan, especially when it’s hard to recommend 8 GB Windows laptops these days. One final example of Acer’s repairability issues is the TravelMate P4. This one does feature a replaceable Wi-Fi card, SSD, and RAM, but keyboard repair is quite complicated.

Apple silicon is always impressive in terms of performance, power efficiency, and battery life, but those strengths don’t mean much at all for repairability. In fact, Apple ranks last among eight laptop brands in PIRG’s Failing the Fix report, earning a C- grade and an average disassembly score of just 5.7/10. The 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro received a 4/10 repairability score from iFixit, mainly because of non-upgradeable storage and a hard-to-repair keyboard. Apple also uses proprietary pentalobe screws on all its laptops, so you need a dedicated screwdriver to remove the bottom cover.

Apple’s M-series chips use a unified memory architecture, meaning the CPU and GPU share the same memory pool. This means the memory is integrated into the chip package rather than installed in replaceable RAM slots. With that said, Apple is making some improvements as of late: iFixit found that the MacBook Neo is easy to disassemble, there are no software issues after replacing parts, and the battery is easier to swap out. But even with these improvements, the Neo scored 6/10 in repairability, as the keyboard repair process and pentalobe screws continue to be frustrating.

To rank these laptop brands on repairability, we focused on model-level teardown and fixability assessments, looking at how easily laptops can be opened, which components can be replaced or upgraded once inside, and which parts are soldered or otherwise difficult to service. iFixit is an excellent source when it comes to repairability ratings, and we consulted their assessments when they were available. We also referenced PIRG’s Failing the Fix laptop repairability report. However, PIRG gives significant weight to physical disassembly, which does not necessarily reflect the ease of repairs once inside a laptop. We therefore treated the report as a starting point for assessing how easily each brand’s laptops can be disassembled, rather than as a definitive measure of overall repairability.

Since repairability varies across models and product lines, our rankings reflect the available evidence rather than a definitive assessment of every laptop each brand sells. Framework is your only safe bet here (at the time of writing), as it’s the only brand that reliably makes modular laptops that put repairability and customization first. As for the rest, it always helps to know how well a brand generally performs, but we recommend checking specific model reviews before you buy.