One User’s Experience with Upgrading the Surface Pro mSATA SSD

In its tear-down of Microsoft’s Surface Pro last week, the folks at iFixit discovered one of the rare products that’s more difficult to repair than an iPad. In fact, it was awarded the worst possible 1/10 repairability rating, meaning it should not be tackled unless A) you’re a professional and B) you know what to expect (iFixit’s guide sure helps). Even then, you have to be confident that cracking it open is going to be worth it, because there are so many things that can go wrong.

An AnandTech reader named Tim decided to try his luck anyway, and with his experience he is now able to offer a fair warning to those who are looking to attempt it. While Tim was successfully able to upgrade his mSATA SSD, the device’s capacitive touchscreen no longer works. The conductive pen still does however, which is a good thing given the device as a whole is designed around both options.

It’s hard to understand why Microsoft required 90 screws and so much adhesive for its Surface Pro, but it’s very un-PC like. It also means that user upgrades are outside the realm of possibility, because with such a likely chance of breaking something, it’s simply not worth even chancing an upgrade. Perhaps Microsoft could have alleviated the issue with a 256GB model, as even a 128GB model nowadays which has 30% of its storage dedicated to the OS is pretty lacking.