The quick version
- Check the screws, glue and battery first, since they decide how hard every other repair will be.
- Soldered RAM is fixed at the factory, so buy the memory you'll need for the next few years.
- Repairability scores help, but confirm parts sales and the service manual for the exact model.
- Scores for brand-new models can be provisional, so look for a working parts portal before you commit.
Pop the bottom cover off some thin laptops and you'll find the battery glued down so tightly that a shop has to heat it before it lifts. Other models let you undo a few screws and swap the cell in minutes. You can tell which kind you're buying before you pay, and you won't need a screwdriver to do it.
A repairable laptop is one where the parts that fail most often can be reached, replaced and documented without wrecking anything else. Those parts usually include the battery, storage, keyboard, screen and memory. Most of what you need to judge them is printed on a spec sheet or sitting in a teardown video.
Two public scores can help. iFixit's teardown ratings are out of 10 and built on a public rubric covering design, documentation, parts availability and cost. Europe uses a letter scale from A to E, and the EU label so far covers phones and tablets. Laptops aren't on that label yet, and one independent tracker expects laptops to fall under EU repair rules from 2027.
Check the screws and the glue
Screws are the easiest signal to read. A laptop held shut with ordinary fasteners is simpler to open than one glued along its edges. According to one 2026 breakdown of iFixit's ratings, the makers that score well tend to use screws instead of adhesive.
Watch for special-head screws too. Some premium models still use proprietary pentalobe screws that need a specific bit. That's a small annoyance, but you don't want to find out halfway through a repair that your driver set is useless.
Try this today: search the model name followed by "teardown" and watch the first few minutes of any video. You'll see how many screws come out and whether the bottom panel lifts off cleanly or fights you the whole way.
Find out whether the battery comes out
The battery is usually the first part people replace, so it deserves the closest look. On Lenovo's newest ThinkPads, iFixit describes the battery swap as close to tool-free. The T14 Gen 7 and T16 Gen 5 both earned a 10 out of 10 on that scale.
At the other end, one independent ranking says a battery swap on the Surface Laptop 6 would mean destroying the machine. That's the kind of detail that's easy to miss on a product page and very easy to learn from a teardown.
Ask two questions. Is the battery held in by screws or glue? And does the service manual treat it as a part you can replace yourself? Lithium cells can swell or puncture, so if the swap looks involved, a qualified technician is the safer call.
Confirm the RAM can grow
RAM is where many upgrade plans quietly die. Soldered memory is attached to the board at the factory, so the amount you buy on day one is the amount you keep. Socketed memory sits in SO-DIMM slots that you can replace or add to.
Hybrid designs are common. One soldered block plus one open slot lets you go up from the base amount, but you can never drop below that soldered baseline. Read the spec sheet carefully so you know which half you're getting.
Check the ceiling too. The maximum total depends on the chipset and BIOS, not just on how many slots the board has. A laptop with two open slots can still stop at a fairly modest total.
Here's the quick way to check. Find the exact model number, open the spec sheet or service documentation, and look for the words soldered or SO-DIMM. Manufacturer documents such as Lenovo's PSREF sheets list memory options for each model, which makes the soldered question easy to settle. If you already own a similar machine, Task Manager shows how many slots exist and how many are filled.
Memory packaged inside the processor is a different story. A repair shop may be able to swap discrete memory chips on the board, but it can't upgrade memory built into the CPU package. Treat that capacity as permanent. If you rarely upgrade and replace laptops every few years anyway, buying the right amount up front is a reasonable choice. A common rule of thumb is 8GB for light use, 16GB for multitasking and 32GB or more for video editing.
Check parts access and spare parts
A part you can open is no help if nobody sells it. iFixit's rubric looks at whether manufacturers sell parts directly to owners, and whether a new part needs an authorised check before it works at full strength. Some parts need re-pairing, and the best systems offer that step for free to owners and independent shops.
Modularity is the strongest signal. The Framework Laptop earned a perfect 10 out of 10 in iFixit's 2024 Surface comparison, and the newest ThinkPads let you replace individual Thunderbolt ports. Those are the designs to look at if you plan to repair for years.
Even top scorers have limits. iFixit notes that some lower-use ports still sit on the main board, the Wi-Fi module isn't practical to upgrade, and deeper display work still involves adhesive. A 10 out of 10 means the repair path is good, not that everything is modular.
Look for a real repair manual
A service manual is the most useful document you can find before buying. PCWorld reported that Microsoft posted service manuals for its 2024 Surface devices on day one, which it called a win for repair. A manufacturer that publishes these early is signalling that it expects owners to fix things.
iFixit's own guides matter too. For the ThinkPads, the ranking points to iFixit guides, active Lenovo parts portals and authorised service networks across Europe. Those three things together make a repair plan realistic.
Be careful with brand-new scores. iFixit's 10 out of 10 for the T14 Gen 7 was labelled provisional, to be finalised once official parts and instructions appeared on Lenovo's support site. Search "[model] service manual" and see whether it downloads for free. If the only option sits behind a dealer login, you've learned something important.
Which kind of laptop suits you
- Tinkerers and long-term upgraders: Modular designs such as the Framework Laptop suit people who want to swap parts over the years and don't mind a different design approach.
- Office and school users who want service support: Business lines such as the ThinkPad T-series and HP EliteBook are built around repair. The EliteBook 840 G6 earned a 10 out of 10 in iFixit's ratings.
- Light, thin buyers who rarely upgrade: Soldered memory is fine if you pick the right amount at purchase. Buying exactly what you need now makes sense if you replace laptops on a regular schedule anyway.
- Mac and Arm fans: Expect soldered memory and storage. On the MacBook Air M2, one independent ranking notes the SSD is soldered to the main board, so a storage failure can mean replacing that board.
Pitfalls that catch buyers out
Not every score is checked the same way. Some repairability index scores are self-reported by manufacturers, with limited government oversight. Treat a score as a strong starting point, not a final verdict.
Don't assume a whole product line is equally repairable. The ThinkPad T14 moved from 9 out of 10 in its 2024 generation to 10 out of 10 in 2026, so the exact model and year matter. Two laptops with the same name can differ a lot.
Check the cost of parts as well as their availability. The French index, for example, scores how much spare parts cost, not just whether they exist. A part that's technically sold but priced close to a new machine doesn't make a laptop repairable in practice.
Your first move
Pick two or three finalists, then do three things tonight. Look up each exact model's iFixit score, find its service manual and confirm on the spec sheet whether the RAM is soldered or socketed. Count the screws in a teardown video if you can find one.
If your current laptop feels slow because of the network rather than the machine, our article on ten checks for slow home Wi-Fi covers the fixes worth trying first. Repairs involving lithium batteries or the main board are best left to a qualified technician.
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Quick answers
Is a repairable laptop the same as an upgradeable one?
Not quite. Upgradeable usually means you can add or swap memory and storage, while repairable covers a wider list of parts such as batteries, keyboards and screens. A laptop can be easy to repair and still have soldered RAM.
Where can I find a laptop's repairability score?
iFixit publishes teardown scores out of 10 for many laptops, and the EU label currently covers phones and tablets rather than laptops. Scores for brand-new models can be provisional, so check whether the parts and manuals have actually been released.
Can I upgrade soldered RAM later?
No. Soldered memory is fixed to the board, so you can't swap it out later. Your options are to live with the amount you bought, or to buy a new machine with more memory.
