In the guide to ethical smartphones we analysed why no high-end phone on the market escapes Congolese cobalt in its battery. The situation with laptops and headphones is different — not because supply chains are simpler, but because there are market players doing something different — and it is worth analysing separately.
The base problem: Taiwan, South Korea and China
Global consumer electronics has three centres of gravity: Taiwan (EIU 8.99, full democracy), South Korea (EIU 8.09, full democracy) and China (EIU 2.12, authoritarian). Taiwan manufactures more than 90% of the world's advanced chips (TSMC), and virtually all laptops on the market contain Taiwanese components. South Korea produces the leading OLED panels (Samsung Display, LG Display) and a large share of DRAM and NAND memory.
China is where most consumer electronics is assembled. A laptop designed in the US, with chips from Taiwan, memory from South Korea and a display from Japan or Korea, is almost certainly assembled in Shenzhen or a similar region of southern China.
EIU 2025 — Key countries in the electronics supply chain: Taiwan 8.99 (full democracy ✓), South Korea 8.09 (full democracy ✓), Japan 8.40 (full democracy ✓), US 7.85 (flawed democracy ✓), Germany 8.58 (full democracy ✓), Malaysia 7.29 (flawed democracy ✓), Vietnam 2.94 (authoritarian ✗), China 2.12 (authoritarian ✗), DRC 1.76 (authoritarian ✗) — cobalt for batteries.
Framework: the repairable laptop that changes the model
Framework Computer is a US startup (EIU 7.85) that has launched the only modular, fully repairable laptop on the mainstream market. The Framework Laptop allows you to change the processor, memory, battery and ports without specialised tools. Components are sold in their online store indefinitely.
Framework does not have a fully democratic origin — it assembles in Taiwan, which is a full democracy, but the production of individual components still follows complex routes — but it is the most serious bet in the mainstream market for repairability and longevity. A laptop that lasts 10 years instead of 3 reduces the cumulative impact of its supply chain by 70% per year of use.
Apple M-series: democratic design, non-democratic assembly
Apple laptops with M chips (MacBook Air M2, MacBook Pro M3) have chips designed and manufactured in the US and Taiwan — both with high EIU scores — and use LPDDR5 memory from Samsung or Micron hubs (US/Korea). The M chip itself is a component with a solid democratic origin.
The problem is assembly: MacBooks are built in Zhengzhou (China, Foxconn) or Shenzhen. Apple has published conflict mineral traceability data since 2020, and has been more transparent than any other laptop manufacturer in that respect. But assembly in China (EIU 2.12) is a variable that cannot be ignored.
Dell, HP, Lenovo: the harder option
Dell (US), HP (US) and Lenovo (China, EIU 2.12) are the three largest laptop manufacturers in the world. Lenovo is directly Chinese. Dell and HP assemble primarily in China or in countries with low EIU scores such as Vietnam.
There is the option of 'assembled in Europe' laptops: HP and Dell have lines assembled in the Czech Republic or Poland (both with EIU above 7.0), but these lines are a minority of their total production and are not always available in the general consumer market. They require specific ordering in corporate configurations.
Headphones: the most differentiated case
Headphones have a shorter supply chain than a laptop, and there is more room for brands with differentiated origins. The reference brands in audio quality — Sennheiser (Germany, EIU 8.58), beyerdynamic (Germany), Focal (France, 7.99), Grado (US, 7.85) — design and partly manufacture in countries with high EIU scores.
Sennheiser manufactures its high-end headphones (HD800, HD650) in Wedemark (Germany). beyerdynamic manufactures entirely in Heilbronn (Germany). Focal builds its reference headphones in Normandy (France). These are companies where 'made in' genuinely coincides with the origin of manual labour, not just design or labelling.
In the wireless headphone segment, Sony (Japan, EIU 8.40) and Bose (US, 7.85) are the noise cancellation references. Both countries exceed the threshold. Headphones are partly assembled in Malaysia (EIU 7.29, above threshold) and Thailand (EIU 4.32, below threshold). Granularity matters: a Sony WH-1000XM5 assembled in Malaysia has a better democratic profile than the same model assembled in Vietnam.
Democratic Market will index headphones manufactured in verifiable EIU ≥ 6.0 countries. In practice: Sennheiser HD series (Germany), beyerdynamic (Germany), Focal (France), and in the wireless segment, products with documented assembly in Malaysia or Japan. Laptops remain a difficult segment — Framework is the clearest candidate.
The software problem and technological sovereignty
There is a vector rarely included in the democratic analysis of electronics: software. A laptop manufactured in Taiwan may come with a US company's operating system, US company chips and US company cloud services. But if that same laptop has mandatory access to a Chinese government cloud, the origin analysis changes.
China's National Security Law (2020) obliges Chinese companies to hand over data to the government on request. Lenovo, being a Chinese company, is subject to this law. This does not mean Lenovo installs spyware in its laptops — there is no evidence of that — but it does mean it operates under a legal framework that does not exist for manufacturers from Taiwan, South Korea, the US or Europe. It is a relevant fact in a complete democratic analysis.
The European laptop market has an emerging movement worth attention: the right to repair. The EU's Ecodesign Sustainable Products Regulation is extending its scope to laptops and consumer electronics with requirements for spare parts availability, accessible technical documentation, and repairable software. Framework Laptop (USA, 7.85 EIU) manufactures modular laptops specifically designed for user repair and component upgrading, with interchangeable parts available in its online store. Not European manufacturing, but the repairability business model aligns product longevity with reduced demand for new production in democratically problematic chains.
Lenovo, the world's largest laptop manufacturer, is a Chinese company (2.12 EIU) legally headquartered in Hong Kong, founded from IBM's PC division acquisition in 2005. The ThinkPad brand that many European professionals associate with IBM's American engineering heritage is now Chinese-owned with mixed manufacturing in China, Mexico, and partially the US for specific lines. The contrast with HP (USA, 7.85 EIU) or Dell (USA) is one of corporate ownership, not manufacturing: all major laptop manufacturers have predominantly Asian production, but Lenovo is the only one of the three with Chinese corporate ownership. That difference matters for the democratic criterion even if it doesn't change the assembly plant reality.
This article was originally published at Democratic Market. Read the full version with additional analysis on our site.
