Surface Pro X is the first Surface with ‘enough’ for repairability at iFixit

The Surface Pro X scored a six for repairability in iFixit’s teardown. With this, the Surface line ends a dubious series of failings: the products scored a 1 several times because of their poor repairability.

According to the teardown, the SSD of the Surface Pro X is easy to access, just like with the Surface Laptop 3. With a SIM eject, the magnetically closed door behind the SSD can be opened and a Torx screwdriver does the rest. The screen was also easy to remove: Microsoft does not use glue like most tablet manufacturers, but an adhesive foam layer, which can be pulled off. Other components are also modular.

This makes the Surface Pro X better than previous Surface models. The first Surface Laptop even scored a 0 because the device was almost impossible to open without causing damage, but previous Surface Pro tablets did not do much better with 1s and a single 2. With its recent line of Surface devices, the company seems to be doing a little better: the 15″ Surface Laptop 3 scored a 5. Microsoft already emphasized repairability during the presentation, but also said that this should be done by technicians, not consumers .

The Surface Pro X is a tablet with an arm-soc that Microsoft has developed together with Qualcomm and which is based on a Snapdragon 8cx. The device will be released on November 19 in the Benelux for 1149 euros. Last week the first reviews appeared in the US on Cnet, Engadget and The Verge, among others.

The conclusions were that hardware and design are fine, but that the software leaves something to be desired. Software for x86 runs via emulation on the arm version of Windows but that only applies to 32bit apps, 64bit x86 programs do not work, so a lot of software does not run on the laptop. The reviewers also found bugs and the battery life was not as long as expected. A firmware update has been released for the latter.

Source: iFixit