Gadgetory

when Microsoft built the surface probe they packed the power of an ultrabook in the body of a tablet unfortunately they also made the device nearly impossible for an end-user or even an in-house tech to service and repair I'm Bill Detweiler and this is cracking open from a hardware standpoint Microsoft's surface pro is more like an ultrabook or convertible laptop than a tablet the ten point six inch display has a true 16 by 9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1920 by 1080 it has stereo speakers a micro SD card slot a full size USB 3 port a mini DisplayPort and to 720p cameras on the inside it has a 1.7 gigahertz Intel Core i5 CPU with HD 4000 graphics 4 gigs of 1600 megahertz ddr3 RAM and a 42 watt hour battery the surface pro comes in 64 and 128 gig models and I strongly recommend getting the larger one in a statement to see net Microsoft said that out of the box the 64 gig pro only has 23 gigs of available storage now given its laptop like hardware it's not surprising that the surface way is a hefty 2 pounds which is significantly more than other tablets like the surface RT the pro is well built and feels sturdy in your hands unfortunately it's also much more difficult to disassemble and service as with the RT the first step in cracking open the surface probe is removing the kickstand but unlike the RT the pro has no external screws to get inside this tablet will need to break out the heat gun now as several ribbon cables run along the lower edge will need to start at the panel's upper left corner and work our way around removing the front panel is a slow tedious process but if you rush you risk damaging the tablet after disconnecting all its cables you can set the front panel and LCD assembly aside and begin removing the internal components now like the RT the surface pro is filled with screws and they range in size from Torx t2 to t5 i recommend cataloguing the location of the screws as you remove them now the first component to come out is the bezel that runs along the tablets outer edge and houses the front-facing camera next are a pair of metal plates that run along each side followed by the headphone jack and volume button assembly the motherboard and cooling assembly is next but first we'll need to detach all its cables and remove more screws with the board out we can remove the machines twin fans and cooling assembly as well as the SSD card and the board's metal shields now given the surface Pro's core i5 CPU it's not surprising that the mainboard looks more like that of an ultrabook rather than a traditional tablet at this point our teardown is pretty much complete like the surface RT the LCD and front glass panel are basically fused together and separating them isn't practical the battery is held to the back cover with a lot of adhesive and there's nothing under it so I'm just going to leave it in place likewise I'm leaving the speakers keyboard connector power connector rear camera and microphone attached to the back cover there easy to remove but clearly visible while still in place after cracking open the consumer targeted surface RT I hoped that Microsoft would make the more business targeted and nearly twice as expensive surface pro easier to disassemble in service but they didn't in fact they took one of the worst tablet design elements a glued on front panel and married it with one of the worst laptop elements and overabundance of screws there's no denying that Microsoft is making a bold effort to bridge the gap between tablets and laptops but as Jason Heine wrote in his TechRepublic review the surface pro doesn't quite stand out enough at either function for more information on the surface pro including real-world tests and pricing check out Scott Stein's full CNET review now to see more tear down photos and read my full hardware analysis go to TechRepublic comm forward slash cracking over I'm Bill Detweiler thanks for watching