Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 recently met an unfortunate fate: the iFixit teardown table. The brand new tablet out of Redmond is thinner and lighter than the slate it replaces but that doesn't mean it's any easier to repair.

As you can see from the photo below, things didn't get off to a great start. If the pros managed to break the screen, the average Joe is likely to suffer the same fate. But after applying tons of heat and lots of gentle prying, the team managed to breach the Pro 3's primary defenses and get inside.

Replacing things like the solid state drive and the battery are indeed possible if you can get inside unscathed although the latter component will be a bit tricky considering it is "stuck like a mastodon in a tar pit." The sticky adhesive means getting the battery out without warping it is virtually impossible.

Digging deeper, we learn that replacing the CPU is a no-go as it's soldered onto the motherboard. Perhaps saving up for the Core i7 would be a wise idea if you plan to keep the Surface Pro 3 for years to come. The same can be said for the RAM as it's also firmly attached to the board.

At the end of the day, the Surface Pro 3 received a repairability score of one out of 10 (10 being the easiest to repair) - or in other words, it secured the worst possible score just like the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 before it.

Microsoft's latest earned negative marks for its fused glass panel and LCD, copious amounts of adhesive and the fact that simply opening the device leaves no room for mistakes: one slip-up and you'll be replacing the screen.