Surface Pro 3 Teardown

Result: a slim, uber-powered tablet with paper thin display glass, and severely limited upgradeability and repairability. The Surface Pro 3 traded the 2’s 90+ screws for some seriously hideous adhesive, and consolidated even more components into un-modular land. You’ll spend less time with a driver, but repairs won’t be any easier. The Surface Pro 3 inherited a repairability score of 1 out of 10, proving the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Teardown highlights: A cursory look is all it takes to tell us we're gonna need to bring the heat for a display-first invasion. Unfortunately, the Pro 3's weak point is just that—a point of weakness. As the glass cooled around an opening pick, it shattered. The Pro 3's biggest advancement is a display that's harder than ever to remove. In disconnecting the display we find something novel: a springy metal bracket pinning the display connector in place. At the other end of the cable, another dubious connector with a sliver of a contact board in tow. Safety first! We disconnect the battery before charging forth. This battery connector requires a relatively uncommon T3 Torx bit. This Surface is packing a 42.2 Wh, 7.6 V, lithium ion time bomb. We find a cooling system more akin to one found in a laptop than a tablet: a beefy heat sink that draws into a single fan. We're happy to see that Microsoft still provides a microSD card slot. While it is not exactly all we hope and dream for in terms of expandable storage, it is a welcome inclusion.

CHiPs action:

• 1.9 GHz dual core Core i5-4300U with Intel HD Graphics 4400
• Samsung K4E8E304ED-EGCE 8 Gb (1 GB) LPDDR3 RAM (total of 4 * 1 GB = 4 GB)
• Marvell 88W8897 WLAN + BT4.0 + NFC Combo Chip
• Winbond 25X20CL1G 2M-Bit Serial Flash Memory
• Winbond 25Q128FVPQ 128M-Bit Serial Flash Memory
• Infineon SLB 9665 TT2.0 Security Cryptocontroller for Trusted Platform Modules
• NXP CBTL06GP213 Six-Channel Multiplexer
• Atmel UC256L3U 256KB Flash, 32-bit AVR Microcontroller
• Winbond 25X40CL1G 4M-bit Serial Flash
• Realtek ALC3264 Audio Codec
• SK Hynix H27QEGDVEBLR 32 GB NAND Flash (four ICs for 128 GB total)
• SK Hynix H5PS2G63JMR 32 MB DDR2 SDRAM
• Link A Media LM87800AA SSD Controller
• N-trig DS-P4196 Touch Controller

----- As always, loads more can be found at © iFixit.