Cracking Open Surface 2: Box Contents

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

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.

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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 1920×1080 display, and a faster 1.7GHz Tegra 4 processor.

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Back

Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand open front

Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand position one

Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand position two

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Front-facing camera and senors

Cracking Open Surface 2: Rear-facing camera and sensors

Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand hinge

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the kickstand hinge screws

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the kickstand

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Heating the front panel edges

Cracking Open Surface 2: Lifting off the front panel

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the display connector PCB screws

Cracking Open Surface 2: Disconnecting the touchscreen and display assembly

Cracking Open Surface 2: Front panel and display assembly

Cracking Open Surface 2: Internal hardware

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the front panel bezel screws

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the front panel bezel

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

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

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

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the speakers

Cracking Open Surface 2: Speakers - Front

Cracking Open Surface 2: Speakers - Back

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the motherboard connector shields

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the rear-facing camera

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the front-facing camera

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the volume button contact screws

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the volume button contacts

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the motherboard screws

Cracking Open Surface 2: Removing the motherboard

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

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Body with battery

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Kickstand hinge attached to body

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Vibration motor

Cracking Open Surface 2: Typing cover magnets

Cracking Open Surface 2: Typing cover connector

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Motherboard - Front

Cracking Open Surface 2: Motherboard - Back

Cracking Open Surface 2: 1.7GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 SoC

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: 324 D81 EW

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

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Texas Instruments TPS IC

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Multiple RF Micro Devices ICs

Cracking Open Surface 2: Wolfson Micro WM8962BE Audio Codec

Cracking Open Surface 2: Main Wi-Fi antenna

Cracking Open Surface 2: Wi-Fi MIMO antenna

Cracking Open Surface 2: Motherboard markings

Cracking Open Surface 2: Second microphone

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: Atmel maXTouch mXT1664S capacitive touchscreen controller

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

Cracking Open Surface 2: ZUF 37K CDYF

Cracking Open Surface 2: Completely disassembled