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Microsoft Surface Teardown
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
Featured Guide
This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.
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We got our hands on Microsoft's new Surface, and to its credit, it lasted a good twenty minutes before we decided to tear it open.
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Tools
- Heat gun or hair dryer
- Plastic Opening Tools
- Spudger
- T4 Torx Screwdriver
Tools (continued)
- T5 Torx Screwdriver
- iFixit Guitar Picks set of 8
- View:
- Single page
- Formats:
- XML
- Embed
Edit Step 1 — Microsoft Surface Teardown ¶
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Is that the display assembly from a PC laptop? Nope, it's the new Microsoft Surface with Windows RT.
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Notable tech specs:
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10.6" ClearType HD Display (resolution of 1366x768 pixels)
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Quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor
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2 GB RAM
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32 or 64 GB flash storage
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Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) + Bluetooth 4.0
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720p HD Front and Rear facing LifeCams
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Edit Step 2 ¶
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To give the Surface laptop-like connectivity, nearly every edge includes ports and buttons. They are (from left to right):
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Magnetic charging, USB 2.0, and Micro-HDMI out on the right side
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Magnetic connection for the Touch Cover or Type Cover on the bottom
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Headphone jack and volume rocker on the left side
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Edit Step 3 ¶
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Just like your first big-kid bike, this
laptoptablet comes with a kickstand to prop it up in notebook mode. -
One of the most notable features of the Surface is its Touch Cover keyboard, which protects the screen when closed and provides a full QWERTY typing experience when open.
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For users who find the Touch Cover to be too much a compromise, Microsoft offers the Type Cover, a chiclet keyboard that also folds up to protect the Surface's LCD.
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Edit Step 4 ¶
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We begin our expedition by removing the kickstand.
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Fun fact: the kickstand is held in place by a few Torx screws.
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Sans kickstand, we can easily view the markings on the back of the Surface's rear case. The Surface with Windows RT has a model number of 1516.
Edit Step 5 ¶
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Small bezels tend to hide screws, so the first place we look to open the Surface is its long plastic camera cover.
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Our pictures make it look easy, but removing this plastic cover took about half an hour and a lot of careful prying.
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Chalk it up to inexperience. This step should take less than ten minutes once we create guides for it.
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Not only did we find the screws we were searching for, but there is also what appears to be a tamper-evident seal that simply reads "Surface."