We’re here today with a Surface Pro 9 on our teardown table and I’ve gotta say, it’s
been a good long while since we’ve looked at one of these.
For ages, Microsoft’s Surface Pros were about the least repairable tablets on the
market, thanks largely to the tenacious glue used under the screen — a battery or SSD
replacement would sometimes mean breaking the display.
The Surface Pro 7 got one of our lowest marks, 1 out of 10, when we tore it down in 2019.
The Pros before that were a similar story, so despite a decent showing from the Pro X
which was more tablet than laptop, we stopped following along.
But there have been rumblings of big changes on the repairability front at Microsoft, and
some that we might even have had a hand in — more on that in a second.
And if you’re curious about either of those surface Teardowns, you can watch them at the
links below.
Also be sure to like and subscribe to be the first to see our Teardowns and repair videos.
First up is the SSD replacement, and man do I love this.
Easy access to storage not only makes the process of upgrading easier but it also provides
you with the ability to use different drives to run different OS’s instead of partitioning
one large (and expensive) drive.
The next step is the dreaded screen removal.
I’ll throw it on the heating pad for a few minutes until the screen is hot to the touch
and then, starting at the speaker grill, I’ll work my way around with a pick.
To my surprise, the edge of the glass does indeed lift and there’s a little flex there
to prevent breakage.
Next I’ll remove the shield and pry away the display cable hiding underneath.
And with that, the single hardest part of repairing one of these devices is behind us,
the screen comes away undamaged!
Compare this to our Surface Pro 7 screen removal which took several rounds of heating to pry
away, this process was much easier and safer.
Several Torx screws later and I am most of the way to removing the heatsink assembly.
Let’s unplug the Surflink while I’m here so I can get at the screws underneath.
I can’t forget to unplug that tiny little fan cable though.
With that I can go ahead and remove the heatsink and fan assembly–which doubles as a battery
protector cover–in one go.
It’s time to disconnect the battery ribbon cable and proceed to remove the screws on
the battery.
That’s right, screws.
It’s hard to understate how big a change this is for repairability.
No longer will people spend an hour and half on a screen and battery replacement.
By using screws they’ve made the entire process of battery replacement both accessible
to the average consumer and much safer too.
A big thumbs up from us and a huge leap in repairability for the Surface line of devices.
I’ll go ahead and remove the Torx screws holding the motherboard in place and de-shield
some of these components to make sure there aren’t any screws hiding underneath.
I need to peel back some of this tape too and it seems that this button board will also
obstruct the removal of the mainboard, so lI’ll go ahead and remove the couple of
screws holding that down.
The motherboard can finally be removed and all that’s left now is the right speaker
which comes out fairly easily.
With a now easily removable battery I believe Microsoft has achieved a pretty repairable
design on their Surface Tablet line at long last.
For a company that was making some of the least repairable devices on the market just
a few years ago, this is a pretty notable improvement.
We’ve got very little to criticize here except to say the display removal is still
a little nerve wracking, thanks to the process of having to pry at the expensive screen.
But, the improved flex on the edge of the screen and the new adhesive combine to create
a much more pleasant removal procedure.
We’re also ecstatic that the batteries are no longer glued down.
Using screws in place of glue not only makes for a safer battery replacement but also a
more pleasant and approachable experience for the average person.
Repairability is great but consumers also need guides and parts.
Thankfully Microsoft has committed to releasing repair guides by the end of this year and
spare parts should be available within the first half of 2023.
We’re also told that the list of replaceable parts will include: the display, battery,
motherboard, cameras, kickstand, and the case among other components.
With this in mind, we’ve given the Surface Pro 9 a provisional score of 7 out of 10 and
we’ll revisit this score later in 2023 once those parts and manuals are made public.
Quick disclaimer: We do consulting work for Microsoft’s hardware team.
We do the same kind of analysis for them that we do here on the channel: dissect their hardware
and share ideas for making it more repairable.
We also sell Microsoft’s tools to our Pro business customers.
However, our Teardowns are conducted with full editorial independence, with devices
purchased by iFixit, and Microsoft has had no input or involvement in this video.