Panic should really improve warranty handling and spare part buying options.

The yellow handle on the crank has a serious design failure, making it break very easily. For now Panic only allows complete returning the device, which makes us wait for over 3 months now not being able to use it.

Sending out replacement handles through for example Digikey would mean a 2€ part with next day delivery for another 5€, not worth the mess of filling customs forms and waiting crap as a return would demand. Not to mention the returned device will probably become e-waste. If you have such big troubles with processing pre-orders and stock, why mess up your time with full returns for a single piece of plastic, less than 1 gram.

I can't say the USB-C connector is more sturdy than micro-USB, they fair equally in the near hundred devices we have in IT class like microcontroller boards and such. On the cable side reliability is best for micro-USB.

What is a big pain-in-the-ass is that soldering a new USB-C connector needs reflow soldering. Where you can do a USB-micro port swap with a regular soldering station. The pin spacing is way tighter.

I have to say, even though Surface Pro tabs are scoring like a 1 forever on iFixit, I’ve 2 model 1’s and they still run like clockwork. Microsoft might have glued all together, but the machines a extremely reliable. And since the OS is open, you can’t go much wrong. I would not want to use a 2013 iPad 4 today, yet a Surface Pro 1 is a fine machine in 2019. Even the battery is pretty usuable today at 80% (for both similar scores) capacity.

Philips screws should deserve a RED X. They suck. At this scale, torx is the only way to go. Stop promoting philips.

iFixit please stop promoting Philips screws. They are plain horror. Torx is the only way to go as the heads don’t wear out over time.