Microsoft Surface Book 2 Teardown!

This is the Microsoft Surface Book 2, and just like every Surface device we’ve done a teardown on this year, it scored horribly on our repairability scale. How bad did it do? We gave it a 1 out of 10, which to be honest, is at least a little better than the Surface laptop which got a zero. So today I’ll be essentially walking you through how to design a device that’s terrible for repair.

During this teardown we used the Essential Electronics Kit

An iOpener

And a FixMat

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[MadelnMachines]

At £3000 and being this horrible to repair we should be getting 5 year+ warranties included

[tobiasbeer]

So, you basically pray that you're never gonna have to open it up. Great job, Microsoft.

[MrRicearonie]

The tear down is always the worst thing about Surface. I love my SP4, but hate that if anything goes wrong out of warranty, I will struggle to fix it, if at all.

[SaadKidwai]

Great video with a sweet background beat, you guys are awesome! I believe companies are doing this on purpose for 3 reasons.

1. It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to make a fully uni-body 'one way build' device, as it lets them make them thinner and more solid to boast about it's premium feel. If they were to build them with repair-ability in mind, it would make them thicker and probably cost more to manufacture.

2. They don't want you to get your device repaired from anyone else but them. By restricting the device with a one-way build design, 3rd party repair shops would likely reject your request for repair as they would know it's impossible not to damage it further.

3. It stops 3rd party replacement parts. With the restricted design being such a barrier for repair, random Chinese knock off parts essentially would not exist as they would know no one is willing to repair said device.

Basically it's all done to force you to return to the OEM for any service and as a side bonus it lets the OEM make the devices thinner and cheaper to produce.

[AdamCchannel]

Speaking from experience - some modern devices which don't have enough adhesive inside tend to have problems with the flat-flex connectors detaching after a few months.

[SweetGrah]

When I was in the Engineering college, they taught us that gluing stuff is the last option when designing. Glue is the cheapset and the easiest way of bonding two materials and in the engineering terms is considered sloppy. I mean what happened to screws, clips, retainers, hundreds of types of fasteners. DON'T TELL ME IT'S BECAUSE OF THE SLIMMNES, CAUSE THERE ARE CLIPS USED IN PHONES THAT ARE PERFECTLY SUITED FOR ANY OF THE LARGER DEVICES.

[Gforce]

This is the business model invented by Apple. Lets make all the products have premium looks, high cost and unrepairable, or upgradable. That way, they can sell more extended warranty. When users cannot upgrade their laptops, tablets. They will have to purchase new ones

[AaronMcHale]

I guess the upside to all the adhesive is that it’s an incredibly well build and durable machine. At one point mine fell from head heigh onto a solid floor, the upper right corner took the impact, and the only damage to the device was the enclosure was a little warped in that corner, but the device worked perfectly.

[khanikun]

It's much easier to open, when the batteries go bad and inflate, causing the screen to separate from the chassis or the base plate to separate from the base chassis. I had both the batteries go bad on mine, after close to 3 years. They say they are T4 screws, which they are, but you have to be dead on to get a T4 in there. Do not try to screw it at all, unless that T4 is actually in. Otherwise you will damage the screw. Me...I used a T3. Slightly loose fit, but easier to get in and it's not like the screws need a crazy amount of force to take out.

I think putting it back together is harder

[bnadem.panormal]

Of course it'll be hard to repair, cramping all of that stuff into such a thin device like that will definitely make hard to repair, they don't have much space inside to organize it for you to repair..

[darrellgiles]

Wow, I was extremely impressed with the details and the person delivering the detailed instructions and information, my only suggestions is to slow the presentation down if possible, but I give it a 5 stars for content and 5 stars for the presenter and her knowledge.

[JBuchmann]

Macbook Pro (with touchbar, at least) is also 1 on the repair-ability scale. I guess MS reasoned that if Apple can get away with gluing everything in then why not them too!

[meowmochimeow]

Really iFixit... you cheaped out and bought the i5 model without the dGPU.. I really wanted to see that GPU cooling

[Hobbles_]

Thanks for the great teardown once again iFixit! I'mglad to hear that the SSD is technically replaceable, even if it is excruciatingly difficult to get to without ruining that screen. It is saddening to see, however, that the SSD in question is the lower end of Samsung's M.2 NVMe drives, rather than the 960 Pro. Can't wait to see more teardowns from you guys!

[DustinMoffitt]

You didn't show anything about how to remove the keyboard. Is there a video specific to this?

[bryonfeliksa]

Seems like it should automatically score a 0/10 because of safety. Disconnecting the power source should be first. If you have to proceed halfway through a tear down before disconnecting it, that could pose a shock threat to the individual.

[ariez]

Is the score relative? I mean...isnt all laptops now a day (especially ultra portables) have the score of 1?

[halfbakedicecream]

why is the base so thick though only housing a battery?

[tatzecom]

Well at least you can upgrade the storage which is nice

Microsoft wants like 3 grand for a model with 1TB storage, i can get a 1TB NVMe SSD on amazon for like what, 120 bucks? 200 tops? If I ever have to take the tablet apart, this is what im for sure gon change with it

[smockydevil]

At least you can buy the cheaper 256GB SSD version and install by yourself the 1TB SSD, making you save $800! That is...if you dare opening the laptop in the first place (and risking the losing its price)...