Luckily the 7.4 V, 31.5 Wh battery is much easier to remove than the one powering the iPad. It's lightly glued down but with the help of the trusty and a couple minutes of patience, it's out.

If your speakers die out, you'll be happy to know those are modular, too. Just a little more prying and they come right out, leaving the Surface soundless.

Other odds and ends are easy to remove, such as the Surface's headphone jack and volume buttons that share the same ribbon cable. The front- and rear-facing cameras are easy to remove, but only after the motherboard is taken out to reveal the plastic bezel that pins them down.

When a tablet needs repairs, chances are it's the screen. In the Surface's case, iFixit notes that the LCD and the glass plane are fused together, making separate repairs of the parts impossible. That drives up the cost.