Surface Go gets a 1/10 on the repair scale
Posted Aug 3, 2018, 10:54 AM UTC
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My interest in repairability relates to battery replacement. I replaced the battery on my Dell Venue Pro 8 after a few years, and it was easy-peasy and it felt like a new machine.
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Not surprising, all the Surface devices are basically impossible to repair due to the lack of screws.
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And?
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Despite having one, I know that the Surface Pro I use can only go so far in the future.
An old HP Pavilion DV6 with i7 Sandy / 6GB RAM and AMD 6770m graphics card from 2011. 7 years, Linux Mint, one battery replacement, and a swap from HDD to SSD (And new cooling fan / thermal paste for good measure) later, it's still a laptop that performs wonderfully and shows no signs of giving out yet. I've decided on a surface pro just for the touch / pen options and I'm excited for the time Surface Linux wrinkles are ironed out.
Getting a new battery for an old device prevents one from deciding to shell out for a new device just for better battery life, a trend that I personally criticize for most new flagship phones.
However, I'd say in this case for this Surface, the battery doesn't seem too much of an adversary to replace.
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Why even have a scale now? Nearly every popular device will get a 0-2. It's not like they do teardowns on 17in laptops, just whatever the new hotness is.
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Go to the real discussion here … https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/94zx0s/microsoft_surface_go_teardown/
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No surprise there considering that it's just a smaller and weaker version of the Surface pro which got the same score.
The Surface tablet devices are never going to get a higher score than that unless they add another way to open up the device (like making the back a separate component that can be screwed on and off, or using weaker adhesive/screws to secure the screen to the device) and that's just not going to happen.
They theoretically could do something like the iphones, so theres a few screws on the bottom, I don’t even think it would be that hard for them and would decrease service costs for msft and the costomer if the batteries were a bit more easily servicable.
Dell's Latitude did this, having screws hidden underneath the kickstand plate. I think HP's Elite X3 also does this. These OEMs are the ones to look for if one wants IT serviceability.
From Microsoft's standpoint, and as others here in r/Surface know all along; the Surface lines are meant to set a baseline example that never was solidly there in what a mobile PC evolved can do with Windows in catering to Personal Comfort of Peripheral Computing.
iPhones, is just but a TV Remote in the end...
Yeah, but I meant servicability like the iphone, when you open one up you see that it’s actually meant to be able to be serviced and designed in a way so battery changes etc are pretty easy for apple store employees ( and others)
Too bad the dells and acers are lacking in the design when compared to the surfaces.
You know, the Nokia Lumia Icon is serviceable without undoing screws. Simply pry the back panel off....