The Surface Pro is not a repair-friendly machine. In fact, it's one of the least repairable devices iFixit has seen: In a teardown of Microsoft's tablet-laptop hybrid, the company gave it a rock-bottom score of just one -- one! -- out of 10 for repairability, lower even than Apple's iPad and the Windows Surface RT.
Let's begin with its screen. It's held in place with what iFixit calls "a metric duckload of adhesive," meaning it's pretty much superglued in place. You'll need a heat gun and some guitar picks to even pry it off the device. There's more super-sticky adhesive inside. The battery is so strongly glued in place that you'll need a new back cover if you ever have to replace the battery.
Not that you'd want to. The majority of people who decide to take apart a Surface Pro will most likely break it. Four cables surround the inside perimeter of the display, so you will cut one of them unless you're extremely careful.
The Surface Pro isn't just all glue -- lots of pieces are dutifully screwed in. In fact, the Surface Pro has more than 90 screws in all, 23 of which hold down an internal plastic bezel and 29 of which hold down two metal side plates. Taking this laptop-hybrid apart will be a workout for your wrists.
Inside, iFixit found the Surface Pro's fans are significantly smaller than the MacBook Air's, explaining why they are so quiet in comparison. The 42Wh battery from LG also impressed the crew, which dubbed it the "Cadillac of batteries." Unfortunately, it's still not enough to keep the Surface Pro from running more than around four hours without a power supply.
While the Surface Pro might be a good computing choice for some users, it's a total fail in repairability. It simply is not designed to be opened or fixed at home, except perhaps by teardown experts. Even the iPad, a notoriously difficult device to repair, earned a score of 2 out of 10 for repairability.
The low score doesn't come as much of a surprise, considering Microsoft took the outward look and feel of the Surface Pro so seriously. The company aimed to fit a laptop into a tablet form factor, and that meant making several sacrifices for space. Unfortunately, the team at iFixit still points out that Microsoft made some unnecessary choices -- like gluing the battery in place and using so many screws -- that make it virtually impossible to repair a Surface Pro.
