Microsoft shows what is inside Surface Laptop SE in a teardown video

Last year, Microsoft announced Surface Laptop SE—an inexpensive and straightforward laptop for the education market. Unlike its more expensive siblings, Surface Laptop SE does not offer exciting design, premium materials, or powerful hardware. It is a cheap computer made to withstand abuse in a classroom.

Microsoft claims it designed Surface Laptop SE with repairability in mind. The company wants to make life easier for school IT departments by simplifying Surface Laptop SE repairs. According to the company, Surface Laptop SE does not require special or unique tools, and schools can repair their computers locally with parts ordered directly from Microsoft.

Microsoft now published a new video on the Microsoft Surface YouTube channel, revealing what is inside Surface Laptop SE and how to properly diassemble this tiny computer.

The video shows simple constructions and mechanisms below the Surface Laptop SE's keyboard deck. Getting inside the laptop requires getting rid of a couple of screws (no hidden screws underneath the rubber feet) and unclipping the deck.

Microsoft does not use glue to keep the laptop's internals together, which means removing the keyboard, trackpad, battery, and motherboard is a fast and no-frills process.

Unfortunately, you cannot replace or upgrade the storage in Surface Laptop SE. The computer uses cheaper eMMC modules (64 or 128GB), which means a broken disk will require a full motherboard swap. The only user-replaceable component on the motherboard is a Wi-Fi card.

Microsoft says the published video is for school IT professionals who want to learn more about the repairability features of Surface Laptop SE. Later on, the company plans to publish instructions with more detailed service guides.

Surface Laptop SE will not be the only Surface computer easy to repair. Microsoft committed to supporting the right to repair move and producing computers with components no longer fused with tons of adhesive. The company also promised to provide documentation and parts to third-party services. Surface devices used to be a repairability nightmare, but now Microsoft wants to fix that.

FYI, the device runs Windows 11 SE, a special restricted version of Windows without Microsoft Store. It runs apps in full screen mode by default, although windowed mode is still supported. While it has Snap Assist available, they will only allow two apps to be placed side-by-side. All users' files will be automatically saved to OneDrive by default. However, it also supports local storage, so you can access you files when offline.

Windows 11 SE includes its own unique wallpaper that you can download here.

And here its dark version, which is not included in the OS image but officially available from Microsoft.