Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop early last month alongside the stripped down Windows 10 S. At the time, the Surface Laptop seemed like any other thin-and-light PC Microsoft has pushed. It was a little under-powered and more expensive than the competition, but it was stylish with a fabric-covered frame and almost impossibly thin chassis. Well, it turns out that design comes with some major drawbacks if anything ever breaks.
According to iFixit, the Surface Laptop isn’t repairable at all. In fact, it got a 0 out of 10 for repairability and was labeled a “glue-filled monstrosity.” Ouch. That’s never happened before. The lowers scores previously were a 1 out of 10 for all previous iterations of the Surface Pro and the 2013 HTC One Android smartphone.
It’s clear that Microsoft never intended for the Surface Laptop to be repaired because it’s a completely sealed device. There aren’t even any screws to take out, so iFixit had to slice the fabric cover open to peel it away from the metal chassis. That’s never going back together. The inner metal shield is also devoid of screws, relying instead upon spot welds and glue. Again, this is probably not going to be reassembled.
The metal shield comes off with the keyboard and trackpad. Under that is where the meat of the machine lives. The top half of the chassis contains the motherboard and associated hardware, and the bottom half has the lithium-ion battery cells. The motherboard unsurprisingly contains the SSD and RAM, which are soldered in place. So, no upgrades here.
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