since 2012 Microsoft has given us a new
surface pro every year and every year it
scored a 1 out of 10 on our
repairability scale well we've gotten
our hands on the fourth version of the
surface pro and we're hoping that this
is the one that's going to buck the
trend and be much easier to disassemble
and repair will the surface pro 4 get a
better score let's tear it down and find
out
hi I'm Gwendolyn with iFixit and today
we're tearing down the Microsoft Surface
pro 4 the surface pro 4 measures in at
290 2.1 millimeters by 200 and 1.42
millimeters is 8.45 millimeters thin and
weighs in at 766 grams compared to some
other popular tablets on the market iPad
the surface pro 4 is loaded with ports
including a micro SD card reader a
service connect cord a USB 3.0 port and
a mini displayport getting into a
surface pro has always been annoying to
say the least but we know what to expect
so we pulled out our eye opener eyes
clack and opening picks we were happy to
find that the adhesive is less
challenging than previous generations
but our excitement for the easier
adhesive was cut short when we saw not
one but two display cables trapped under
a snapped on metal shield in addition to
the new connector encasement technique
Microsoft positions the display cables
on either side of the display far enough
from the edges to prevent easy access
for a the twelve point three inch
PixelSense display is finally free this
display has a resolution of 27 36 by 18
24 and a pixel density of 267 pixels per
inch
it also has it's very own board with a
few chips in particular we notice a
number of intrigue ICS that likely
control the hardware for the surface pin
getting our first real look at the
insides of the surface pro 4 we spy a
suspicious gap next to the motherboard
we presume this is for the fan that
drives the hybrid cooling system absent
from our 4.5 watt core m3 model the SSD
was next to come out and fortunately for
us it's only held in place by a single
screw
the surface pro 4 s Samsung branded SSD
appears to be a more standard size
compared to previous versions and is a
128 gigabyte PM 951 SSD next out is the
new funky-looking heat sink which is
undergone an impressive makeover it now
sports copper heat pipes and a large
copper plate for heat dissipation
designed as a hybrid cooling system the
pro 4 takes advantage of both passive
and active cooling more powerful models
have a fan that activates when
temperatures get too high for passive
cooling on our way to the motherboard we
remove the tablets three cameras which
include an infrared face detection
camera supporting windows hello a front
facing five megapixel camera and a
rear-facing 8 megapixel camera the
motherboard comes out next and on the
board we see the Intel skylake core m3
processor and four gigabytes of Samsung
made lpddr3 Ram to see the complete list
of chips we've identified head on over
to the teardown
and ifixit.com batteries in the surface
pro line are notoriously hard to get out
even with the proper tools and this
battery is no exception
after a lot of heat and scraping we
finally get the battery out and give it
a closer look this is a 38 point 2 watt
hour 7 point 5 volt battery that yields
five thousand eighty-seven milliamp
hours less than the 5500 47 milliamp
hour battery in the surface pro 3
despite the smaller capacity the four
generally outperforms the three we
attribute the majority of this to
improved efficiency and design and the
size of the processor we've come to the
end of our teardown which means it's
time to talk repairability and iFixit
it's our mission to teach people how to
repair everything so we give every
gadget we tear down a repair ability
score between 1 and 10 10 being the
easiest to repair and 1 being the most
difficult the surface pro 4 got a 2 out
of 10 and here's why on the upside the
SSD is replaceable the battery is not
soldered to the motherboard but very
strong adhesive makes removal and
replacement a hazardous chore
non-standard connectors make for a
tricky display removal the display
removal procedure while difficult and
required for any repair is not as hard
as in previous generations due to less
stubborn
but on the downside the display assembly
consists of a fused glass panel and LCD
and is difficult to remove and replace
and finally adhesive holds many
components in place including the
display and battery and that's our
teardown for the complete teardown
including tons of beautiful high-quality
images head on over to ifixit.com
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