Microsoft Surface Book is one of the more interesting and innovative pieces of hardware to come out of the Redmond technology giant in at least a decade. It's also, apparently, one of the least repairable devices you can buy.
The teardown masters at iFixit got their hands on the coveted Windows 10 portable and did what they always do, tore it apart in an effort to measure repairability. In the process, they also learned a lot about what goes inside the laptop/tablet hybrid.
Windows device lead Panos Panay shared quite a bit with me about how Microsoft developed and designed the Surface Book, but he certainly didn’t get to this level of detail.
iFixit's most interesting discoveries include:
- A sprawling motherboard that spreads throughout the base.
- Lots of glued-down parts.
- A large heat pipe in the display (which is also the computer) connected to the fan that shuttles heat away from the primary components.
- The Surface Book uses the same memory as its cousin, the new Surface Pro 4.
- An up-close look at the muscle lock components, including the tiny rod that holds the Surface Book Clipboard screen onto the keyboard base.
- The innovative dynamic fulcrum hinge is probably a replaceable part.
- A number of Apple-esque touches, like a heat-sink mounted on the Nvidia Custom GeForce graphics card (found only in the base of the $2,099 models)
- The glass-covered trackpad is made by capacitive wizards Synaptics.
Overall, the iFixit team awarded the Surface Book a 1 out of a possible 10 on its repairability scale.
It's probably not the result Microsoft would hope for. However, in this day and age, when most companies simply replace faulty devices with new or refurbished models, does a device's repairability impact your tech buying decisions?
You can see the full Surface Book teardown here.
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