TL;DR
- Google has confirmed to us that the Pixel Watch 3 can’t be repaired and can only be replaced.
- This is bad news for environmental reasons, suggesting that broken watches will end up in landfills.
- This isn’t the first Pixel Watch model that can’t be repaired, though.
One of the reasons I bought a steam deck is because it’s one of very few consumer electronics that allows the user to buy replacement parts and repair it themselves.
I was so mad at the video of Louis Rossmann being upset about valves repair video because valve’s the only tech company not actively making stuff harder to repair. Even if the video is cringy and overestimates lithium ion batteries, the help it’s given right to repair (what Louis fights for) is large and it’s upsetting to see him bash the deck as a whole. Here’s a comment that summed it up pretty well,
Valve:
-is safe from lawsuits because someone died while
handling a lipo battery with a knife.
I get:
-repair documentation
-replacement parts
-upgrade path
great device that has a potential to finally bring desktop Linux to the masses.