Microsoft Surface Pro "almost impossible to repair"

Tech kit repair site iFixit has warned that the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet is even harder to repair than the notoriously difficult iPad.

The site has given the Surface Pro a "repairability" score of one out of ten, which suggests a broken device could be impossible to fix.

The team at iFixit performed a step-by-step breakdown of the tablet, and in the process pointed out a number of design features that could render the device difficult to repair.

For example, the site warns end users that attempts to remove the Surface Pro's solid state disk (SSD) drive could end up destroying the device, as the opening procedure is so fiddly.

"The display assembly (comprising of a fused glass and LCD) is extremely difficult to remove and replace...and the SSD is removable, but you risk killing your tablet by trying to open it," iFixit claimed.

"Unless you perform the opening procedure 100 per cent correctly, [the] chances are you'll shear one of the four cables surrounding the display perimeter," it added.

The Surface Pro isn't the only tablet to fall foul of iFixit's strict repairability criteria, as the iPad 3 only scored two out of ten when the team there put it through its paces.

Even so, iFixit's findings will be of interest to business users who have reportedly being holding off on new PC purchases until news of the Surface Pro's UK release date drops.

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.