Amazon Kindle Fire HD teardown suggests highly repairable
updated 01:35 pm EDT, Mon September 17, 2012
Dissection shows cleaner internal layout, unimproved battery
The seven-inch version of the Kindle Fire HD has been found to be a reasonably repairable tablet. The teardown of Amazon's latest tablet iteration by iFixit was shown to be internally different to the non-HD Kindle Fire, and with most components being relatively easy to access and replace, scored 7 out of 10 for repairability.
After using a combination of a plastic opening tool, Phillips screwdriver, T5 Torx screwdriver and a razor blade, the system was taken apart fairly easily by the team. The battery was enclosed in a metal casing, believed to be for structural reinforcement and shielding the battery from electrical damage. The claimed 11-hour battery life may be a stretch, as it provides the same amount of power as the Kindle Fire, which reportedly lasts for under eight hours.
Flash storage was supplied by Samsung, while Texas Instruments provided the power management, and Broadcom manufactured the GPS, BlueTooth 4.0 and FM receiver. The LG display with Atmel maXTouch touchscreen controller was seen to be fused with the front glass of the tablet, which brought the repairability score down due to the potential expense of replacements.
A score of 7 out of 10 is marginally lower than that of its predecessor, the Kindle Fire. The Google Nexus 7 scored the same, and also suffered from the same fused-screen issue.
