Surface Studio teardown reveals few upgradable parts and hidden ARM chip

In most cases when you’ve seen the inside of a computer, you pretty much see it all, but the new teardown from iFixit shows that Microsoft’s Surface Studio has a slightly different approach to all-in-one devices.

Of course, the 28-inch 4.5K display is the start of the show here, but another interesting component is the ARM 32-bit Cortex M7 processor found behind the screen. There is no information about Microsoft decision to include an ARM chip on an Intel-powered device, but it appears that the processor’s purpose is to help drive the display.

iFixit also tore the Surface Studio base, which looks very much like an Apple TV or iMac Mini, and it includes all the computer guts. The bad news here is that it’s not so upgradable, as Microsoft has soldered the CPU and GPU, as well as the memory into the motherboard. However, you can replace the custom hybrid hard drive, which unlike regular hybrid drives, the one from the Studio is made up of a traditional rotating platters hard drive and m.2 Solid State Drive.

At the end of the day, the Surface Studio received a repairability score of 5 out of 10, which no surprising is the same score iFixit gave to the Apple’s iMac.

Want to see more? Check out the gallery revealing more details of the hardware inside Surface Studio.

• Surface Studio | See at Microsoft Store