Surface 2 teardown: No big surprises, but tons of screws and glue

Microsoft’s latest Surface tablet may not look all that different from its last Surface tablet, but it’s a whole lot harder to repair.

The gadget aces at iFixit broke open the Surface 2 and found not much in the way of surprises, but a whole lot in the way of obstacles.

Not only does the Surface 2 have a total of 90 screws holding its internals in place, but it’s also inundated with tons of glue, making the process of removing and replacing components both difficult and dangerous (at least for the Surface 2 itself).

None of that, however, is unique to this device, though it does mean iFixit was forced to give the Surface 2 its lowest possible repairability rating. (The original Surface Pro also earned the same “honor.”)

One other thing that sticks out about the Surface 2 is that, while Microsoft has made a big deal about its battery life, those improvements don’t seem to come from its actual battery, which is the same one found in its predecessor.

Instead, the improvements seem largely due to the inclusion of Intel’s new Haswell chip, which lets devices better manage their energy drain.

We’re not sure just yet whether any of this translates to a better user experience for the Surface 2,  but we’ll let you know once we publish our review of the device next week.