Microsoft Surface products have often been directly compared to Apple devices. They are viewed as Microsoft’s push for Windows devices to be viewed as aesthetically pleasing and well-made as Apple hardware. Microsoft Surface devices also shared something else with Apple products… they are extremely hard to repair.
A new Microsoft Patent shows the company is working to make its Surface products easier to fix. If the patent comes to fruition, it would be good news for customer.
Over the years, users have lamented how unrepairable Surface devices are. If you have a hardware issue, you will almost always have to ship the device back to Microsoft. Often, the company will replace the unit rather than repair it.
This reputation has been highlighted by iFixit. The website rates hardware on how easy or difficult they are to repair. Over the years, iFixit has scored Microsoft Surface products 0 and 1 out of 10 with descriptions such as “nearly impossible to repair” and “nearly unfixable”.
However, there seems to have been a change recently and Microsoft appears to be making more effort to make Surface devices fixable as well as beautiful. In fact, iFixit could “hardly believe” how fixable last years Surface Pro X is.
Microsoft Patent
Microsoft’s new patent suggests the company does not want the Pro X to be an anomaly. Found by Windows Latest, the patent discusses component replacements to “increase repairability and/or customization of the electronic device”.
“The replacement housing component may have different housing material from the original housing material. For example, an electronic device with a dented aluminium backplate of the first housing could be repaired by replacing a portion of the first housing.
It should be understood that references in the present disclosure to replacement, repairs, or modifications to the housing can refer to a portion of the housing, a layer of the housing, the entire housing, or any instance where the housing material in the transmission path changes.”
– Microsoft
As always, there are no guarantees the patent plans will reach market, but this is the kind of advancement that is encouraging.
