Just like that, the whole top cover assembly lifts away! This is a magical moment. We sigh in relief and put away the knife we had on hand to cut this thing open.

As a bonus, the cover is tethered by a single flex cable with plenty of slack ... and the connector at the end is secured with a magnet instead of those fussy clip-on brackets that we always ruin. Very slick.

With the top case flipped over, behold ... magnets. Magnets! No wonder Panos was able to yank this thing off so easily on stage.

He did say to not try that at home. Good thing we're at work!

The battery connector doesn't look accessible, which is a recurring theme with Surface devices. However, we find what may be a tiny battery icon on the main board near the top cover connector socket. Perhaps jumping these two pins would safely de-energize the board?