Sales of Microsoft's first Surface smartphone started this week, along with reviews from Western publications and bloggers. Most of them praise the Surface Duo as a piece of hardware, but they are not sure if the device will be popular. Having disassembled the device, experts from iFixit decided to make their own verdict.
Microsoft's Surface Duo is one of a handful of foldable smartphones, featuring two separate 5.5-inch displays. Paired with a special hinge, this solution allows you to fold the gadget in half without any gap between the parts. IFixit has completely disassembled it to study the design and assess maintainability.
Disassembling the Surface Duo begins with detaching the two rear glass panels. At first, the iFixit employees thought it would be as simple as possible: you don't even have to use a hair dryer to warm up the glue. But almost immediately they were disappointed. Microsoft literally filled everything inside with glue, which made the process not only time consuming, but also extremely dangerous: there was always a risk of damage to the internal components or the thin cables connecting them. Then the experts decided to go from the other side, but removing the screens turned out to be no easier.
Inside, almost the entire space of one half is occupied by a large battery, and most of the other is a board with all kinds of electronics. Surface Duo parts are connected by two multicore cables that can be easily damaged during disassembly. Replacing the batteries turned out to be an extremely difficult process, and the point is not only that they are fixed with screws and an abundance of glue: on the one hand, the connector is under the motherboard, which requires its complete removal. But the design of the hinges, in fact, represented by a gear drive, turned out to be quite simple compared to other folding devices.
To the pluses of the Surface Duo design, experts attributed only the ability to replace displays and back panels without the need for complete disassembly, but any other repairs will be much more difficult. For example, the USB Type-C connector is soldered to the main board, which will cause a lot of problems if you need to replace it. As a result, Microsoft's foldable smartphone scored only 2 out of 10 on the maintainability scale.
Source: TheVerge
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