Popular gadget repair company, iFixit has announced a new partnership with Microsoft to sell the latter’s Surface devices repair tools – but to certain service partners.

iFixit is popular for its extensive online tech part store, the company is now expanding its wings into the manufacturing and distribution of Microsoft-designed tools in a partnership that will give businesses and schools more options to fix their Surface devices.

iFixit says Microsoft reached out to the company saying it wanted to improve repairability.

The gadget repair company had also made a partnership with other brands such as Motorola which used iFixit as an official source for its OEM smartphone parts, HTC is another brand that partnered with iFixit for the reparation of its Vive headset.

As for the new partnership with Microsoft Surface, tools will only be available to members of iFixit Pro (the company’s free wholesale program available to businesses) and Microsoft’s partners.

Available tools include a battery cover to protect batteries from getting punctured during repair (preventing fires), a “debonding” cradle to help cut the adhesive holding the screen glass (and prevent accidental over-intrusion), and a weighted frame vise to properly re-adhere a replaced screen.

There have been numerous claims online about how hard it is to repair Surface laptops and tablets in the past.

“We’ve given their machines 1’s on our repair scorecard,” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens in an email to The Verge.

He further added that his company was a vocal critic on Microsoft’s deigns and irreparability over the years but now, both companies have reached an accord to fix this problem.

If you do not forget, Apple recently announced that it will provide official tools and parts for users to fix their own devices.

“We were skeptical,” Weins said, “but Microsoft has consistently stuck with it, and they have systematically worked to improve the repairability of their products.”

He also says Microsoft shared best practices for repairing its Surface products and that the knowledge will be shared in the repair guides.

The tools are currently for the newer Surface devices such as the Surface Laptop 3 that was released in 2019, the Surface Pro X, also released in 2019, and the Surface Pro 7 Plus and Surface Pro 8 both released in 2021.

When asked if iFixit plans to sell the tools to all customers, Wiens responded, “Our hope is to make these available to the general public, but we don’t have timing that we can announce right now. We’re still trying to gauge demand from the professional community.”

The tools are ready to ship worldwide according to Wien.

Source