iFixit Tears Down Microsoft’s Surface Book, Finds A Complicated Interior

At a much-anticipated event held early last month, Microsoft had quite a bit up its sleeve to show us. That included a surprise in the form of the Surface Book, a sleek convertible notebook that’s designed to offer a great computing experience in a seriously slim form-factor. It looks great, has a couple of neat perks, and as iFixit found out, is ridiculously complicated to self-repair.

The easiest part of the entire dismantling process is removing the screen from the keyboard, and that’s thanks entirely to the fact that this is a convertible notebook. Actually breaking inside the hardware is a different story. The entire unit is protected with lots of glue, so heat is going to be needed to get into either the top or bottom. Making matters worse, the motherboard is installed upside-down, making it very difficult to gain access to removable components.

iFixit notes that the reason why Microsoft chose to install the motherboard upside down is likely due to the fact that it will give the inside of the display something a bit flatter to lean up against. That’s all fine and good, but it seems even authorized technicians are going to have no fun getting into this thing.

As seen in the shot below, even the keyboard base has its own problems. After removing a couple of adhesive strips, it’s revealed that no screws are holding the back on. Instead, it’s copious amounts of glue. After warming the edges up, using a pry tool will help remove it from the rest of the base. With no screws, it means that the base would have to be re-glued after a repair.

This base includes a board that includes the NVIDIA graphics card as well as all peripheral connectivity. It also includes a battery to help bolster the overall battery-life of the entire device. iFixit notes that both batteries combine to deliver 69 Wh of power, which falls just a bit short of the 13-inch MacBook Pro’s 74.9 Wh.

Overall, the Surface Book is so complicated to repair, iFixit has rated it 1/10 – 10 being the most repairable. Suffice to say, unless you’re a professional, you’re not likely to be repairing this thing yourself.