Repairability

I bought the 2015 Macbook Pro which developed the "staingate" issue. In first world countries, I hear that Apple replaced the screens for customers for free (I'm not sure if this is true or whether it's astroturfing). There is no such system here. Both speakers in this Macbook developed tearing and are no longer audible. Other laptops - Samsung, Lenovo, etc. in my household have worked perfectly. One laptop developed an issue with the keyboard, which was replaced for $50.

I received Airpods as a gift this year in February. One earphone stopped working within 8 months. Apple told me they weren't going to do anything about it. I must have used them about 20 times total. I also own knock-off Airpods. They work perfectly.

I follow Louis Rossman's YouTube channel where he opens up the devices and showcases the various corners that have been cut in the manufacturing process. He also exposes the unethical behaviour of the Apple "Genius" employees who overcharge customers for simple repairs. In one case he just plugged a loose connection back in and charged the customer for 20 minutes of labour whereas Apple said it would require a screen replacement for roughly ~30% of the cost of the device.

Repairability is becoming near impossible with these products now. At one point in time you could salvage together parts from dead devices to gather spares, but now Apple is working on technology to ensure that parts from different devices will not be compatible with each other.

Without legislation they will continue to operate like this with impunity. If enough key markets push for something like "right to repair" there is a small possibility that something will be done about this, otherwise the way things are headed, there will essentially be no accountability for cases like this.

I would not be surprised if there will come a point where they make devices stop working if you open them, and only they can restore the device back to a working state.

Even older MacBooks would boot with the battery disconnected (in some sort of safe mode).

https://osxdaily.com/2019/06/14/how-boot-macbook-pro-without...

Newer ones likely wait to check the battery properly.

I've not come across any laptop or Android smartphone that wouldn't power up without a battery.

However, I do not have any experience with USB-C powered laptops, those might be different seeing as they need to negotiate power first.

Do you have any proof for that? It sounds very unrealistic to me. These days there aren't even any magnetic disks to spin up at boot time.

Apple has more and more in common with other luxury goods, such as expensive cars, which have a glamourous reputation but are notoriously unreliable after only a few years. Then they are eye wateringly expensive to repair.

For someone buying simply for utility, Apple is best avoided. Their market position and financial incentives are aligned against selling you a machine that is solid in the long term.