Repairable by design

This is good:

HMD Global, which took over the Nokia brand for phones, has launched a smartphone designed to be fixed by the owner, with repair site iFixit providing guides and replacement parts.

The Nokia G22 is one of three handsets launched by HMD at this week’s MWC in Barcelona. It is claimed to be the first Nokia smartphone to come with repairability at its core, enabling owners to replace a damaged display, bent charging port or dead battery.

HMD’s link up with iFixit means that some online guides are already available to help with repairing parts of the G22, while replacement parts for the same are also available from the site, with the G22 getting a dedicated Repair Hub area on iFixit.com.

The current cycle of constantly replacing devices that has come to define the mobile phone market, as well as many others, is expensive, wasteful and environmentally disastrous. As such, it is great to see a major manufacturer embracing repairability. This is especially positive because, as the article makes clear, HMD sees repairability as a selling point and not something with with they are forced to grudgingly comply.

Many years ago, I treated myself to a first edition Fairphone and was delighted to discover just how easy a well-designed phone makes it to replace parts (mainly screens in my case). Obviously, a bigger organisation such as HMD is better able to demand a consistent supply of spare parts, and this is something we should all support.

Repairability should be the norm. Not just for phones, but for everything, and we should support initiatives that move towards making it so.