Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 Turns Out To Be Far From Repair & Upgrade Friendly
Chris Hadley / 10 years ago
iFixit, a site dedicated to tearing mobiles, tablets, notebooks and other bits of hardware to bits in order to provide users with repair guides has wasted no time in getting their hands on the latest Surface Pro 3 from Microsoft. During the teardown, or breakdown as the case may be, it has been discovered that under the shiny surface, Microsoft have not really taken repair and upgrading into account as part of the build process.
During the tear-down, iFixit stumbled across a number of issues including ultra-strong adhesives that hold the tablet together in a unarguably over-the-top fashion, along with a screen that cracks as soon as you try to pry it up from the main body and finally a battery that deforms like hell as you try to pry it away from its footings which includes more super-strong adhesive. Now considering Microsoft have built the Surface Pro 3 to be rugged, the strong adhesive in-between the ultra-thin components is understandable, but what this means for the end users is that if they want to upgrade or have parts of their tablet replaced, there is a strong chance that the cost of replacing the battery in a few years time will also incur the cost of a new display. That said though, if you do manage to get everything apart without breaking anything (a point at which you must celebrate your achievement) there is the option to upgrade the mSATA SSD, but let’s be honest, the chance of this involving just the cost of an SSD is unlikely so personally I wouldn’t even bother considering it if I owned one myself.
Topping off the fragile built are a numerous connectors that don’t follow any market trends, but these are a minor thing aside the mass of different adhesives which Microsoft have poured into the chassis. As iFixit clearly described in their tear-down, this tablet is very much like the previous models of the Surface Pro so even though it is a powerful bit of kit, it is certainly not for anyone who wants to get their fingers inside its outer skin.
Source & images courtesy: iFixit
