Microsoft's Surface Go 2-in-1 tablet just went on sale yesterday in the U.S. and Canada from $399 following the device's announcement last month, but the detachable tablet has already earned the lowest possible repairability score on iFixit. The website's teardown of the Surface Go has revealed that manually repairing the device is not an easy task.
To kick things off, a $13 iOpener kit, which includes a heating pad and suction cups, was used to remove the screen from the main body. While a long display cable allows for a smooth removal of the display, the presence of electromagnetic shielding that protects the display ZIF connector posed a great challenge to this process. Additionally, once the screen was detached, it became evident that the Surface Go packs a battery unit that's hard to pull off due to the two massive pads of adhesive fastening it to the motherboard. This can make it difficult for consumers to extend the life of the Surface Go, iFixit noted.
Diving deeper into the device shows further hardships in removing the motherboard due to the "seemingly endless layers of shields, tape, and hidden screws." But even after the motherboard is taken out, additional shielding and fabric stickers must still be lifted in order to get to the silicon components lying underneath.
The teardown also disclosed that the Surface Go has no heat pipes with which to dissipate heat generated by all those silicon parts squeezed into the 0.33-inch thick device. Instead, the tablet uses a thin copper shield and thermal paste to prevent the chips from overheating. Unsurprisingly, the Surface Go scored 1 out of 10 in terms of repairability given the effort and dedication required to successfully tear down the device.
Via: Digital Trends
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