The Microsoft Surface Laptop Is Unfixable

Anyone seriously considering the recently announced Microsoft Surface laptop for their office or school fleet might have seconds thoughts. iFixIt’s tear down gives the Surface Laptop a “repairability” score of zero. That’s the first time they’ve given that score to a piece of hardware.

The biggest problem with the Surface Laptop is that it is a completely sealed unit. There are no screws holding it together. The only way to get into the guts of the device to replace the battery or anything else is with a knife and the grim determination to get past what the iFixIt teardown calls a “glue filled monstrosity”.

While many of the internal components are standard parts the teardown team has seen before, once the device is opened there’s no way for all the king’s horsemen and all the kings men to put Humpty together again.

Corporate and school laptops see some action. And while most of the device might comfortably get through a couple of years of use, batteries are often need a midlife replacement. And keyboard failures aren’t unknown. But either of those common repairs will result in the Surface laptop visiting a recycling plant or, worse, being destroyed so no data is accessible and then dumped into landfill.

While the Surface Laptop might be a fine machine to use (I haven’t played with one yet so I can’t comment on that), it’s hard to recommend a computer that is designed with no servicing capability.