we first found out about microsoft's
interest in building a dual screen
foldable way back in 2009 when they
revealed their microsoft courier concept
device
over 10 years later that dual screen
foldable is a reality
meet the microsoft surface duo the
surface duo has dual amoled screens and
a 360 degree hinge system that can
transform the device into a variety of
form factors
this is a novel idea even among fellow
foldables so we're very excited to crack
this thing open
and see how microsoft finally realized
their now 10 year old idea
a cursory inspection of the surface duo
reveals a back cover where it's
relatively easy to get an opening pick
inserted
so that seems like a good place to start
our opening procedures the adhesive
holding down the rear panel is deeper
than we're used to though requiring us
to insert our picks almost halfway in
just to get it cut all away
this adhesive is also extremely tough
and stringy making deep blind prying
feel eerily similar to that dreaded
feeling
of slicing delicate cables ugh not a
great start
bringing the rear panel we spot a
battery which hold on i have no memory
of disconnecting that
oh that's why the cable's been pried
right off the battery
it seems like the correct way of
entering this device might be through
the display
since it's here let's go ahead and take
a look at this battery this is the
larger of the two batteries inside the
duo and it's rated at 10.37 watt hours
and as far as i can tell there are no
adhesive tabs to make removal any easier
for you
if you disassemble your surface duo the
correct way oh and before we move on
since this duo is still working no one
in the comments is allowed to say we
broke it
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let's just take a moment to check out
this full x-ray of the device that we
wish we had before we started taking
things apart
thanks to creative electron for building
the machines that give us such a cool
insider's perspective
so let's see how things would have gone
if i had started with the display
we're still dealing with strong adhesive
and just like the back cover i feel
certain i'm tearing cables
all over the place the display is very
thin and fragile and even our thinnest
opening tool is delaminating the display
from the glass
at this point maybe this video should
just be a list of ways i can break this
thing
with the last of the adhesive taken care
of we're able to lift the first display
up and away and miraculously no cables
were damaged in the process
next to where that battery should be
there's a really thin circuit board
i'm guessing this is just an
interconnect board to receive power
data and a display signal from the other
side of the device where there's
probably a larger board like we're used
to seeing
once we get that smaller circuit board
out we find the rest of the battery
cable
rest in peace little guy now that we
know how we should get in
let's hope that's the last casualty of
the day i'm going to move on to the
second display and see what's hiding on
the other side of the duo
things are much easier now that i'm
entering into the correct side of the
device
and the disassembly process is much
smoother repeating the same process of
heating and gentle prying
we're able to get our second display off
while this side has a much smaller
battery which we'll go ahead and
disconnect
keeping the cable intact this time we've
got a much bigger board which will start
freeing by disconnecting some cables
and removing a ton of screws which are
securing it annoyingly there are several
very thin cables that run from the
buttons along the side
and the port at the bottom that are
glued down and covered with stickers and
foam
with all of that taken care of the
motherboard is mostly free
but some very sturdy tape running
underneath the battery and stuck to the
back of the motherboard
complicates taking it all the way out
finally the motherboard is out and we
can finally get a look at the chips that
drive the surface duo
right away we spot the qualcomm
snapdragon 855
layered under six gigabytes of sk hynex
dram and just below it 128 gigabytes of
toshiba flash storage
finally a little alcohol helps me loosen
the adhesive securing the second smaller
battery
this little guy is a 2.89 watt hour
which brings the duo's total battery
capacity to 13.26 watt hours
with that we've reached the end of our
disassembly we broke more things than
we'd like but honestly
it probably wasn't our fault which
brings us to repairability the surface
duo scored a 2 out of 10 on a
repairability scale
thanks to its gluten batteries that
require a lot of disassembly to get to
a solder usb c port especially delicate
oled panels
and stubborn glue pretty much everywhere
if you enjoyed watching us break our
surface duo during this teardown and are
still dying for more content
head on over to ifixit.com to check out
our written teardown that includes a
peek inside the 360 degree hinge
but before you go make sure you're
subscribed to our channel it's teardown
season and we have a lot of amazing
content coming up soon
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