Kindle 2 Teardown

Add Note Introduction

Our Kindle 2 shipped on Monday, February 23rd, a day early. Thanks to UPS Next Day Air, we have the reader in our hands Tuesday morning.

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Teardown Warning

Teardown

Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

Paginated Single Page Steps

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Add Note Step 1 — Teardown

  • It's here!

  • Thanks to the magic of E-Ink, the Kindle comes with setup instructions displayed on the screen itself. No plugging in is required.

  • We'll post updates on twitter about interesting things that we discover as we go.

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Add Note Step 2

  • What comes in the box:

    • A quick start guide, complete with embossed letters

    • An AC adapter

    • The Kindle 2

  • Conveniently, the AC adapter can be used with either a wall outlet or a USB port.

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Add Note Step 3

  • Size comparison: Definitely not as big as a 17" MacBook Pro Unibody.

  • The Kindle 2 weighs only 10.2 ounces. Per pound, that makes the Kindle 2 even more expensive than the $2,799 MacBook Pro 17" Unibody we took apart last week.

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Add Note Step 4

  • The back. Nothing special about it.

  • Note the speaker holes on the bottom. We briefly tried the Text-to-Speech feature and were very impressed by the Kindle 2's ability to read the text displayed on-screen. But the honeymoon was quickly over and we started tearing into it.

  • Hopefully the insides will be more exciting... We'll let you know as soon as we can!

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Add Note Step 5

  • Prying the back off...

  • Getting inside is easy once you know how. We used some iPod opening tools and a metal spudger, and finally managed to get in.

  • The matte-gray top cover comes off first.

  • There are two Phillips screws to remove before the Aluminum back can be removed entirely.

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Add Note Step 6

  • We're in!

  • It's still not very pretty; just more white plastic.

  • Twenty Phillips screws hold the white plastic paneling in place.

  • Interestingly, nothing was attached to the large white and brown connector near the top of the board.

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Add Note Step 7

  • Remove two Phillips screws and the battery lifts out easily.

  • The battery is Model No. S11S01A. It's a 3.7 V, 1530 mAh lithium polymer battery. The battery weighs in at 31 grams, just over 10% of the Kindle's total weight.

  • The wireless card is also easily removable by removing two Phillips screws.

  • There are two antenna ports on the wireless card, but there was nothing connected to the AUX port in our Kindle.

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Add Note Step 8

  • After removing sixteen more screws, we've made it to the main PCB.

  • Everything exciting is still beneath silver EMI shields.

  • The Kindle was designed by Lab126, a secretive Amazon subsidiary based in Cupertino that designs consumer devices. Thus far, they have only released the Kindle 1 and 2.

Add NoteNotes: Introduction

Flag Reply by diegogs May 7 @ 8:21 AM

Hello everybody,

Do anybody know how is the "Text To Speech" implemented?. I've read they finally don't include this functionality, but i'm wondering if they've done by hardware (with a TTS SoC like Sensory) or by Software.

Thank you!

DGS

Add NoteNotes: Step 5

Flag Reply by sziker Apr 16 @ 2:21 PM

Please explain exactly what you are prying on with the tools. I can only see what looks like metal tabs extending inward from the cover, like the cover is finally locked down by bending those 4 tabs (2 per hole). Are you releasing a tab or something or just prying the cover off?

Add NoteNotes: Step 6

Flag Reply by tnkgrl Feb 24 @ 5:01 PM

That's a standard mini-PCIe WWAN (EVDO) card - perhaps one could scope the AT commands being sent to the card, then insert the card into PC and send the same AT commands for unlimited (free) data...

Also, there's a missing SIM holder below the WWAN card - this means a GSM/UMTS version of the Kindle is planned!

Flag Reply by missingyes Feb 24 @ 7:27 PM

Quote from tnkgrl:

That's a standard mini-PCIe WWAN (EVDO) card - perhaps one could scope the AT commands being sent to the card, then insert the card into PC and send the same AT commands for unlimited (free) data...

Also, there's a missing SIM holder below the WWAN card - this means a GSM/UMTS version of the Kindle is planned!

It's a Novotel E725 Mini PCIe card. Despite the "E727NV" - the FCC ID of that card is the Novotel E725. In theory you'd just need the proper drivers and the modem's dialing strings/connection info from the unit itself, which may or may not be hard to find.

Flag Reply by missingyes Feb 24 @ 7:32 PM

Also, the 'white and brown' connector you note is most likely the debugging connector, just as was on the Kindle 1.

Flag Reply by cepler Feb 24 @ 8:45 PM

Quote from tnkgrl:

Also, there's a missing SIM holder below the WWAN card - this means a GSM/UMTS version of the Kindle is planned!

that looks more like an SD card outline to me.

Flag Reply by cshepley Feb 25 @ 10:20 AM

The Expedite E725 EVDO PCI-e card also contains a built-in GPS (real + assisted) as far as I can tell from reading the specs.

Flag Reply by Maavin Feb 25 @ 9:24 PM

Quote from cepler:

that looks more like an SD card outline to me.

No, it is a SIM connector, a SD connector wouldn't make sense in that place, and SD connectors have more pins

SIM: http://www.allproducts.com/computer/yiku...-200312915582-l.jpg

SD: http://www.allproducts.com/computer/yiku...-2003129155139-l.jpg

Add NoteNotes: Step 7

Flag Reply by GeorgeMc Jul 22 @ 9:27 PM

Does the Kindle 2 still function as a reader if you remove the wireless card?