Microsoft's line of surface devices has
never seemed to have repair ability or
longevity in mind the first surface
laptop earned the lowest repair ability
score we can possibly give a zero out of
ten and the surface pro line routinely
scores a one out of ten but the newly
released surface laptop three and the
surface pro X both had some promising
design changes is Microsoft finally
designing their devices to last we're
comparing our tear downs to find out
we've had a love-hate relationship with
Microsoft Surface laptop line the first
time we saw the surface laptop it felt a
lien with the fuzzy Alcantara keyboard
that had to be destroyed to get inside
you couldn't upgrade it since the
storage was soldered to the motherboard
and he had to do some intense prying to
remove the battery it seemed like
Microsoft designed a disposable laptop
which is why we had to give it a score
of zero at a ten for repair ability and
call it a glue filled monstrosity and
last year the surface laptop two
continued to disappoint there were no
changes to the form factor we don't even
know why they called it a two it was
more like a one point two five if you
count chip upgrades but then we were
pleasantly surprised by the design
updates in the surface laptop three
which earned it a solid five out of ten
for repair ability so on the upside we
have upsides the redesigned opening
procedure on the surface laptop three
uses clever magnets to hold the case in
place instead of welded joints you have
to break apart it's official Microsoft
finally designed a laptop that can be
opened without destroying it and they
filled it with a bunch of modular
components like the SSD and it's not
just laptops they're improving the
surface pro X got the same easy to
remove SSD and an improved opening
procedure of making it the most
repairable surface pro we've seen yet oh
and in case you didn't notice they made
all of these repair ability changes
while maintaining the same or even
slimmer form factor and since they're
already making changes we came up with a
few more things that Microsoft could do
to boost the repair ability score on the
surface devices all of their
manufacturers should take note the first
batteries are disposable and dangerous
so they must be easy to remove the glue
is already there
just give us some pull tabs for easy
removal next make parts and a service
manual available to consumers
we appreciate the ability to upgrade our
SSD in the surface
top-3 and the surface pro X but
according to Microsoft do you need a
skilled technician to do it by skilled
technician they must have meant anyone
with a sim eject tool and a Torx
screwdriver because that's all you need
to take it out next time Microsoft
instead of making us come in for
upgrades just sell us the parts and give
us the manual so we can do it ourselves
in speaking of replacement parts full
laptop upgrades would be possible with
modular RAM and CPU socket and
components like this may require a
slight change in form factor but the
ability to upgrade your machine will
increase its lifespan the evolution of
these surface devices is proof that
manufacturers can maintain a slim form
factor while keeping repair bill 'ti in
mind don't believe us watch the surface
laptop 1 and the surface laptop to tear
down videos on our channel to see for
yourself