Microsoft

Cracking Open the Microsoft Surface 2

By · November 22, 2013, 12:47 PM PST · billdetwiler

Image 1 of 75

  • Microsoft Surface 2 teardown

    On the outside, the Surface 2 may look like its predecessor, the Surface RT. But Microsoft dramatically changed the tablet's internal design. And in doing so, made it a real pain to crack open and repair.

    In this Cracking Open gallery, I walk you through the process of disassembling the Surface 2 and give you a tour of the redesigned internal hardware layout. For a detailed analysis of the teardown, check out my article and video, Surface 2 design changes make it more difficult to crack open and repair.

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Box Contents

    Along with the Surface 2 itself, the box also includes the charger and documentation.

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Dimensions and weight

    At 10.81 inches wide, 6.79 inches tall, 0.35 inches thick, and weighing 1.49 pounds, the Surface 2 is nearly identical to the Surface RT. It does however, have several hardware upgrades.

    The Surface 2 has two microphones (compared to the Surface RT's one), stereo speakers, a USB 3.0 port, better front-facing (3.5-megapixel) and rear-facing (5.0-megapixel) cameras, a new 1920x1080 display, and a faster 1.7GHz Tegra 4 processor.

    The Surface 2 is available with 32GB ($449) or 64GB ($549) of storage.

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: 10.6 inch HD display (1920 x 1080)

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Back

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand open front

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand position one

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand position two

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Speaker, headphone jack, volume buttons, keyboard cover connector

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Speaker, video port, USB 3.0 port, and charging port

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Front-facing camera and senors

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Rear-facing camera and sensors

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand hinge

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the kickstand hinge screws

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the kickstand

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Prying off the typing cover magnet cover strip

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the typing cover magnet cover strip

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Heating the front panel edges

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Lifting off the front panel

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the display connector PCB screws

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Disconnecting the touchscreen and display assembly

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Front panel and display assembly

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Internal hardware

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the front panel bezel screws

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the front panel bezel

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Internal hardware with front panel bezel remove

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the rear-facing camera and sensor cover trim piece

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Rear trim warped due to heating the front panel

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the lower front panel mounting brackets

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the upper front panel mounting bracket

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the speakers

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Speakers - Front

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Speakers - Back

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the motherboard connector shields

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Detaching the front panel/display cable

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Detaching the charging port/microSD card reader cable

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the rear-facing camera

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the front-facing camera

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the volume button contact screws

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the volume button contacts

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the motherboard screws

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the motherboard

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the charging connector and microSD card reader assembly

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Charging connector and microSD card reader assembly - Top

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Charging connector and microSD card reader assembly - Bottom

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Body with battery

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: 7.6V 31.3WH Li-ion battery

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand hinge attached to body

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Speaker panel still glued to the body

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Vibration motor

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Typing cover magnets

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Typing cover connector

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: 5.0-megapixel rear-facing camera

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: 3.5-megapixel front-facing camera

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Motherboard - Front

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Motherboard - Back

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: 1.7GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 SoC

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: SK Hynix H26M64003DQR 32GB NAND Flash

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Atmel AT32UC3L0256 32-bit AVR UC3 RISC microcontroller

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: 324 D81 EW

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Micron Technology 2GB DDR3 SDRAM (3NE77 D9GLJ QLV5)

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Texas Instruments TPS65913 processor power management unit (PMU)

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Texas Instruments TPS IC

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Marvell Avastar 88W8797 Integrated 2x2 WLAN/Bluetooth/FM Single-Chip SoC

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Multiple RF Micro Devices ICs

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Wolfson Micro WM8962BE Audio Codec

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Main Wi-Fi antenna

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Wi-Fi MIMO antenna

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Motherboard markings

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Second microphone

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Front-facing camera indicator light, sensors, etc.

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Atmel maXTouch mXT1664S capacitive touchscreen controller

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Texas Instruments MSP430 ultra-low-power microcontroller

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: ZUF 37K CDYF

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

  • Cracking Open Surface 2: Completely disassembled

    Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

Microsoft Surface 2 teardown

On the outside, the Surface 2 may look like its predecessor, the Surface RT. But Microsoft dramatically changed the tablet's internal design. And in doing so, made it a real pain to crack open and repair.

In this Cracking Open gallery, I walk you through the process of disassembling the Surface 2 and give you a tour of the redesigned internal hardware layout. For a detailed analysis of the teardown, check out my article and video, Surface 2 design changes make it more difficult to crack open and repair.

Bill Detwiler/TechRepublic

Related Topics:
Microsoft Enterprise Software Software Collaboration Mobility Cloud Hardware

By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop support specialist in the ...

Show Comments