HOW IT’S DONE
Microsoft Surface Laptop
Teardown is the word of the day, and we’re diving into Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop right now. Will this carpeted Alcantara-clad laptop excel in our teardown room? The power is in our hands.
MAJOR TECH SPECS:
13.5-inch IPS PixelSense display, 2,256 x 1,504 resolution (201ppi) Intel Kaby Lake Core i5 (3M Cache, up to 3.1GHz) or Core i7 (4M Cache, 4.0GHz) CPU 4GB, 8GB or 16GB RAM 128GB, 256GB or 512GB PCIe ≠ SSD storage 720p front-facing camera with Windows Hello sign-in USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort and SurfaceConnect charging port 802.11ac Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11 a/ b/g/n compatible, Bluetooth 4.0
KEY FINDINGS:
We take a peek under the suspicious rubber footpads on the bottom of the laptop, but find metal feet instead of the screws we were hoping for. Looks like we have to peel up that (dubiously luxurious) Alcantara after all. Jimmy in hand, we start popping clips and peeling adhesive. Already, this doesn’t feel like it’ll go back together. We try to remove the fabric cover, but the going gets a lot tougher south of the keyboard. We have to pull out the knife now, to cut off the rest of the pelt. Layered underneath, we find a metal shield — the meat in our Surface sandwich. With more adhesive and plastic bits holding the shield from beneath, we fire up the iOpener. Now we have a clear look at the plastic, it seems these aren’t reusable clips at all, but weak ultrasonic spot welds that we’ve been busting through. This is definitely not going back together without a roll of duct tape. With the keyboard plate finally wrested free, we’re at least pleased to see the long cable connecting it to the body. However, our pleasure is short-lived: The connector is trapped under a clip-on shield on the motherboard. With the keyboard out, we begin the search for the trackpad, and find it trapped under tape and a metal shield, but it’s nothing we haven’t handled before. We look for a battery connector to dispatch, but it’s nowhere to be seen. Looks like we’re doing this live! The Surface Laptop packs a 45.2Wh battery, roughly the same capacity as the latest Surface Pro (45Wh), and more than the iPad Pro 10.5-inch (31Wh) and latest MacBook Retina 41Wh). Also visible is a secondary heat pipe, helping dissipate heat from both sides of the motherboard. ≠ The modular headphone jack is free to go, contacts and all. ≠ No Surface product is complete without a hinge, but these feel ≠ a little pedestrian. With that, ≠ the display is unhinged. Repairability Score: 0 out of 10 ≠ (10 is the easiest to repair). ≠ You can’t get inside without inflicting a lot of damage. The CPU, RAM and onboard storage are soldered to the motherboard, making upgrades a no-go. ≠ The headphone jack can only be accessed by removing the heat sink, fan, display, and mobo. The battery is difficult and dangerous to replace, giving the device ≠ a limited lifespan.