Great question, and sorry for the delay! There's been a lot of questions on here and I had to get some sleep, but I'm back at it first thing this morning.

Repairability includes a lot of factors. Parts pricing is really important to whether repairs can happen in the real world, but because we rate products on Day 1 of their release, we have no way of factoring that into our score. The French repair scorecard, on the other hand, is assessed by manufacturers themselves, who have parts pricing, so they can factor this in.

The iPhone 14 scores a 6.9 out of 10 on the French Scorecard, pretty similar to iFixit's 7. Here's the detailed French breakdown (in French, of course).

So let's talk about parts pairing. We've been scoring iPhones for a long time now. As a baseline, we scored the iPhones X, SE, XR, XS, 11, 12, and 13 all a 6 out of 10. We've given every Galaxy a 3 since the S10 because of the glue and difficulty getting to the screen and the annoying glue on the battery. Those scores have not been controversial (until now)—lots more iPhones get fixed than Galaxy phones.

A disclaimer: We work directly with Samsung to sell parts for their phones. We have no business relationship with Apple.

Our repairability scoring heavily factors in the availability of service manuals and parts. Since the 13 came out, Apple has rolled out an independent repair program that provides parts and tools to consumers without onerous legal agreements. That is guaranteed to increase our score relative to a device that has no repair information. Fairphone wouldn't have received a 10 / 10 without parts and manuals.

Parts pairing is a major issue, and we published a report with extensive analysis on this situation, just like we have with past phones. The iPhone 14 parts pairing situation is substantially the same as the iPhone 13. Here's what we said at the time:

Parts pairing threatens that choice, by making independent and self-repair impossible or unreasonably expensive. Together with the support of the repair community, we’ve raised the alarm over parts pairing, which many view as an attempt to monopolize repair at the expense of customers and independent repair businesses.

That’s why we’re keeping such a close eye on which parts, specifically, you can and can’t swap between iPhone models. It’s Apple’s best strategy for keeping repair behind their own lock and key, and we keep finding more parts that can’t be swapped.

While we can’t report any improvement in relation to parts pairing, we’re relieved that no new restrictions appear to have been implemented [in the 14 relative to the 13].

Likewise, repairing a device gives it depth and character; it imbues the object with a story all its own. Repair is the antithesis of conformity and can be fashioned into the ultimate statement of individuality—an attitude core to the Japanese art of kintsugi and its modern cousin, visible mending.

Whether done to restore the polished factory perfection of a device or emphasize the story of the fixer, repair should be available to all. Parts pairing threatens that reality, and we’ll keep looking for it, swapping one part at a time.

The iPhone 14 also has a very innovative new front + back opening approach that is better mechanically than anything that we have seen from any flagship smartphone. Whichever side of a smartphone you access last is hard to repair: Glass back repairs are a pain on previous iPhones, and display repairs are a pain on Galaxy models.

So how do we score the 14?

• + some points for service manuals and parts, that weren't factored into the 13's score (arguably, if we were going to retroactively rescore the 13 based on the parts and manuals Apple posted mid-year, it should have a 7 right now).
• + some points for the easier to open mechanical architecture
• - some points for paired together parts (but nothing is new about this situation)

With a completely redesigned phone, and a commitment to make parts and manuals available for the first time, we think that Apple earned a one point bump over the previous model.

We reserve the right to change these scores over time. The repair market is particularly dynamic right now, with new laws like New York’s Right to Repair bill making optional points a minimum baseline, and dubious innovations like Apple’s SPOT remote repair verification process.

We abhor parts pairing in all its forms. I wrote text into the New York bill that explicitly bans internet-based parts activation. If Governor Hochul signs it, this whole debate may soon be moot.