Microsoft
The company gave the Surface Book a repairability score of 1 out of 10, with "10" being "easiest to repair."
There were several reasons for this low repairability score, according to iFixit:
- Upon teardown of the Surface Book's display, iFixit discovered the Surface Book's motherboard was implemented upside down: its smooth back faces up when you remove the display, with all the chips and connectors facing downward. "We assume this was meant to provide support to the larger-than-usual display. It also means getting most anything out requires getting everything out," iFixit said in its report.
- Since many of the other components are on the backs of their boards, you'll need to remove the motherboard to replace many other individual components.
- To make removal more difficult, the motherboard apparently spreads throughout the entire chassis of the Surface Book, and "trapped" right below it are the computer's front-facing camera and infrared sensor, which Microsoft uses for the "Windows Hello" face recognition feature.
- The entire display assembly is difficult to remove or replace due to its "fused glass panel and LCD."
- The chips and RAM are both soldered to the motherboard. If you want to replace one component, you'll likely have to replace all of it.
- The display, base cover, and batteries are heavily glued in place, making them difficult to remove or replace. A second battery in the display is also glued, but to a lesser extent.
Despite the Surface Book's low repairability score, it's important to note that most other premium laptops are equally difficult to repair. Apple's MacBook Pro, the computer Microsoft most often compares its Surface Book to, earned a repairability score of 1 out of 10 from iFixit as well.