The Microsoft Surface Book 2 Is a Nightmare to Repair, iFixit Reveals

Teardown experts from iFixit just had a look at what’s inside the Microsoft Surface Book 2 and their findings do not surprise anyone.
 
It’s quite a nightmare to repair the new laptop, they say, and the device can be awarded just one point in terms of repairability score.
 
While this is clearly one of the lowest scores for devices tested by iFixit, it’s not the worst, as the Microsoft Surface Laptop, also launched this year, got a score of 0 points for repairability. This means that while there’s a chance you could actually save the Surface Book 2 if you’re a skilled engineer, there’s no way you could do it on the Surface Laptop.
 
As far as the new-generation Surface Book is concerned, iFixit says only the SSD can be replaced, though they note this can be done after getting through a very painful opening procedure.
 
There’s strong adhesive that keeps everything in place, including the display, the base cover, and both batteries, while the display assembly itself groups the fused glass panel and the LCD. This makes it super-difficult to remove and replace, iFixit says.
 
The processor and the RAM are also soldered to the motherboards, which means that you can’t simply upgrade the laptop should you want to add more memory. Also, the majority of components are placed on the backs of their boards, so you need to remove the motherboard before replacing any part.
 
“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 but still,” iFixit says.
 
You can watch the video below to see how iFixit managed to tear down the Microsoft Surface Book 2, and keep in mind that unless you are a very skilled engineer, you should never try opening the device for repairs or upgrades.

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