Microsoft Surface Book Disappoints, Scores 1 in Repairability

Microsoft last month unveiled several new products at its hardware event in New York including Microsoft Band 2, Lumia Smartphones, Surface Pro 4 tablet, HoloLens Project X-ray and Surface Book.

The last one in the list, Surface Book, is Microsoft’s first-ever laptop, which it claims to be the “ultimate” laptop. Priced at $1499, some of its key features include 13.5” PixelSense display, detachable keyboard, 5.0MP front-facing camera, 8.0MP rear-facing camera with autofocus, with 1080p HD video recording. Storage options of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB are available and it supports 6th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and i5: Intel HD graphics 520, i5/i7: NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Processor.

However, it seems that the Surface Book is not after all the ultimate laptop as claimed, as revealed by iFixit teardown. The device scored just 1 out of 10 in repairability, meaning that fixing the Surface Book is difficult.

Explaining the reasons for such a low score, iFixit said that strong adhesive is used for keeping many components in place, including the display, base cover, and both batteries. It said:

• While the SSD can be replaced and even the “glued” battery in the display, the base battery is very heavily glued.
• Removing and replacing the display assembly (consisting of a fused glass panel and LCD) is difficult.
• The processor and RAM are soldered to the motherboard.
• As, many components are on the backs of their respective boards, replacing simple components requires removing the motherboard.