The little divot on the side edge below the power button houses this stealthy, modular fingerprint sensor—easily accessed at this stage of disassembly, and not so easily accessed in any other sense of the phrase.

Most Surface devices rely on Windows Hello for biometric verification (although fingerprint-reading cases exist). Our guess is the Hello tech was too bulky to include in this hyper-svelte form factor.

Next we twist away tons of teeny Torx screws securing the spine and hinges—thankfully not quite so intense as the original Surface Pro's ninety screws, but it's still a workout.

After a final de-boning, the two big wings are free to fly away from the central spine.

These frames provide a lot of the device's structure and torsional rigidity, helping the two halves open evenly. This also provides mounting points for most of the internals, so it's not all stuck to the displays or the back cover.