[HN Gopher] Surface Pro 9 teardown reveals modular parts, Micros...
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Surface Pro 9 teardown reveals modular parts, Microsoft's 2023
repair plans
Author : tooltower
Score : 40 points
Date : 2022-11-12 19:03 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| tunnuz wrote:
| I have been looking for a few days for a small Windows-based
| 2-in-1 tablet with a keyboard cover and a stylus to
| 1. carry around and do some coding on, 2. watching movies /
| studying and browsing, 3. drawing / taking notes.
|
| My search so far landed on the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Go 3.
| The former has significantly better performance, which I like,
| but it's basically the size of a proper laptop. The latter is 10"
| or so, which is the size I'm looking for, but apparently has
| terrible performance. Can anybody recommend some more options?
| blackguardx wrote:
| I have a Surface Go 2 and it works fine for the stuff you
| listed. The only possible issue is that the keyboard isn't
| full-sized and can feel cramped.
| rowanG077 wrote:
| I don't agree that this is that much of an improvement. I
| replaced the battery and screen on my old Surface Pro 5. Sure the
| battery was glued. But that's a drop in the bucket for the glued
| screen. And since the screen is still glued I don't see how the
| score should be so jaw droppingly better.
| cobertos wrote:
| You still have to unglue the screen though. And it gets a 7/10?
|
| I really like the Dell Latitude 2-in-1 (tablet) as my Surface
| clone/replacement. It's held together by screws and it has had
| Thunderbolt for quite a while now!
| rasz wrote:
| >modular components: motherboard, thermal module, the Surface
| Connect Port, speakers, Wi-Fi module, front and rear cameras, and
| side buttons
|
| Reads like onion. Its "modular" because motherboard is not glued
| to display and buttons ...
| lhoff wrote:
| Well my Surface Pro 3 got retired due to a brocken connect
| port.
|
| The only reason why I bought a Pro 7 was the UBs-C port that
| allowed charging so that another Bbocken connector wouldnt mean
| a death sentence.
| seltzered_ wrote:
| With the surface pro 9 its worth noting theres only two usb-c
| ports, and no headphone jack.
|
| Frustrating as i currently use an HP elite x2 tablet and make
| full use of the three usb-c ports (charging, tethering, and
| many times a keyboard) and headphone jack. It's fairly
| repairable too since its considered more of an enterprise-
| class device, sadly been discontinued afaik.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| ifixit made a lot of concessions. maybe they should try
| microsoft's warranty process before giving it so many passes, as
| someone who is struggling to get the fan of my SP8 replaced for
| something that doesnt sound like it has a loose bearing.
| gregoryl wrote:
| Odd, I've found the Australian branch of support to be
| unreasonably excellent, even with personal devices (the corp
| devices have fancy replacement insurance, MS just ships you a
| new laptop next day).
| stefan_ wrote:
| Original non blogspam: https://www.ifixit.com/News/68671/does-
| the-surface-pro-9-mar...
| [deleted]
| Sakos wrote:
| > The RAM is soldered to the motherboard, something that iFixit
| would typically penalize in the past. But iFixit says that given
| the power savings and performance boost from proximity to the
| CPU, it can't punish the decision.
|
| ... seriously? At this point it's beginning to feel like iFixit
| is selling out to these companies. Score of 7/10 and the RAM is
| soldered. That doesn't compute for me.
|
| If the SSD is actually replaceable as the teardown indicates,
| that's a huge plus.
|
| If the wifi/BT module is still integrated, that's a big fat
| minus, because those are the most likely parts that have failed
| on pretty much every iteration of the Surface and I'm sick and
| tired of seeing these insanely expensive and impossible to repair
| devices with parts that quickly fail.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Replaceable parts aren't necessarily better if they come with
| huge design tradeoffs. For maximum replaceability, you should
| get a desktop--but Microsoft is selling laptops.
|
| I'm glad iFixit is considering the tradeoffs involved here.
| Sakos wrote:
| Considering? No, they're ignoring the trade-offs to prefer
| the one that benefits Microsoft. Their purpose used to be to
| judge the repairability of devices. It clearly isn't anymore.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Should iFixit give all laptops terrible scores for not
| being desktops?
| mkl wrote:
| No, some laptops are designed for easy repair and
| upgrades. My 2010 ThinkPad simply has unscrewable panels
| to access the RAM and hard disk, and Framework is even
| better.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Yes, but even the Framework is more difficult to repair
| than many desktops, and certainly less upgradable.
|
| Most devices are going to make _some_ sort of tradeoff,
| the question is which ones are reasonable given the
| upsides.
| [deleted]
| solardev wrote:
| Don't need to overthink this. It's easy to just have scores
| for devices of different categories. A 10/10 laptop doesn't
| have to match the repairability of a 10/10 desktop, but it
| sure better be more repairable than a 3/10 laptop.
| trap_goes_hot wrote:
| Aesthetics and design is not as important as the environment
| and reducing e-waste.
| kevingadd wrote:
| Soldering components direct near the CPU has performance
| (and as a result potentially power draw / mild
| environmental) benefits, it's not just done for aesthetics.
| It's very common for a reason.
| 8note wrote:
| I dislike that iFixit is making such tradeoffs.
|
| If you tradeoff repairability for performance in the
| repairability metric, once you compare the repairability
| metric to the performance metric, you've double counted the
| performance
| cobertos wrote:
| The tone of this comment is abrasive, but I agree. I _thought_
| IFixIt's whole scoring system was about repairability. Not
| performance, not best value but also repairable.
|
| Feels weird to just throw that out.
|
| Also how does this get a 7/10 when you still have to unglue the
| screen to do anything but a storage upgrade?
| dtgriscom wrote:
| My experience is that soldered-on RAM (almost?) never fails.
| What's the benefit of being able to repair something that
| doesn't break?
|
| SSDs and external connectors definitely fail, though, and they
| should be repairable/replaceable.
| cma wrote:
| Aren't RAM latencies due to refresh etc. at least 100X what the
| wire-delay from speed of electric signal would add to having it
| farther from the CPU?
| sahaskatta wrote:
| It's unfortunate that needing a heat pad to melt glue simply to
| replace the battery is considered repairable. I miss the era when
| we could just pop a battery in or out of a phone or laptop.
| Ptchd wrote:
| 6 or 5 out of 10 sounds about right...
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(page generated 2022-11-12 23:01 UTC)