Amazon Kindle Fire: iFixit reveals a giant battery

It took only two days from launch to the community of iFixit to get their hands on Amazon Kindle Fire and dissect it in all its glory. No wonder that much, given that the Fire is one of the products with more potential for the end of 2011.

First, the opening was not difficult; the Kindle does not use screws with standard owners. All you need is a “plastic opener”, a pick, a regular screwdriver with a Phillips head and if you really want to go heavy gun hot.

From the meticulous dismemberment of iFixit shows that the processor SoC (system on a chip) used is the same Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 used to much more expensive BlackBerry playbook. The department is entrusted with Hynix memory instead for what concerns the 512MB of DDR2 and 8GB Samsung for flash. The other minor components are Texas Instruments, including Wi-Fi adapter not exactly recent.

The detail that stands out most is the huge flat battery (similar to others already seen on the tablet) of 12 × 11 cm, 4400 mAh and 16 W / h, which covers almost the entire back. But there is a critical note on the choice of the specific supply of 5 V and 1.8 Amps. This means that the recharge of the battery through the USB port (which produces only 0.9 An in USB 3.0) requires more than 4 hours advertised. The Judgement of iFixit is a positive 8 / 10. So all in all a product that was not designed to complicate the maniacally repair do-it-yourself (see Apple products) and that makes it possible intervention and parts replacement. Of course to be provided by experienced users and a steady hand.