The Right To Repair and Repairable Devices

My broken trackpad

Last night, as I was adjusting my new Uplift standing desk (which is awesome BTW), a speaker on the desk collided with the shelf above which was just enough to cause a candle to wobble and fall directly onto my trackpad. As you can see it completely shattered. Although it is still functional, it is just a matter of time before this gets worse.

The big problem is when I took it in to get an estimate to repair the damage, it came out to $693. How is it that replacing a $10 piece of glass can cost that much you ask? It is because Macs now only have a few replaceable parts. In this instance, it requires an entirely new top case. That includes a new top metal casing, keyboard, battery and trackpad. I was not surprised by this as this is the second time I will need to replace the trackpad on this laptop.

I have become increasingly disappointed in the newer Macs. They are built to be disposable, and are generally not upgradeable. That is why I have tended to hang on to my older Macs, but at some point CPUs and GPUs just can’t keep up anymore.

I have written before about the importance of right to repair legislation, legislation that Apple has been fighting. I believe it is critical for not only the DIYers, but for regular consumers to be able to fix equipment rather than throw it away. Considering Apple’s efforts to be more “green” you would think they would see repair as a good path to a cleaner future. I am not a fan of this quest for thinness with laptops. I would much rather have one that is a few millimeters thicker, but has a solid keyboard and replaceable RAM and SSD.

Not only is it important for people to have the right and necessary documentation and tools to repair their devices, it is equally important to have equipment that is repairable. By gluing or soldering all of the parts Apple has created a situation where the whole top case needs to be replaced just to fix a small square of broken glass.

So as you can imagine, this has slowed me down a bit, and I am working to catch up on getting more content up. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the EFF who is working to fix some of these problems.

And if you are interested in one of these awesome Uplift Desks, You can find it here on Amazon