Surface Pro knocked for low repairability by iFixit

The firm gives the Surface Pro a one out of 10 rating, noting that there is a high risk of destroying the tablet just by opening it.

by Roger Cheng

February 13, 2013 5:04 AM PST Follow @RogerWCheng

iFixit beckons you to take a tour of the innards of Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet.

(Credit: iFixit)

Don't try to repair Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet yourself.

That's the advice from the folks at iFixit, which rated the Surface Pro a mere 1 on a 10-point scale of repairability, with 10 being the easiest to repair.

The firm found that there are more than 90 screws in the device, and that there was a high risk of cutting a crucial wire just by opening the tablet, potentially destroying it. Likewise, the display assembly is also extremely difficult to remove and replace. There's also a lot of adhesive used in the tablet.

"Unless you perform the opening procedure 100% correctly, chances are you'll shear one of the four cables surrounding the display perimeter," iFixit said.

If you manage to get the Surface Pro opened, the solid-state drive and the battery are both removable.

Surface Pro is Microsoft's attempt to bridge the PC and tablet worlds, and is a showcase for its Windows 8 operating system. The company is hoping big businesses will consider its tablet, which can run legacy Windows programs, over the Apple's iPad, which recently got a 128GB version to better compete in the enterprise segment.