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.
What you need
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It's here!
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Thanks to the magic of E-Ink, the Kindle comes with setup instructions displayed on the screen itself. No plugging in is required.
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What comes in the box:
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A quick start guide, complete with embossed letters
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An AC adapter
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The Kindle 2
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Size comparison: Definitely not as big as a 17" MacBook Pro Unibody.
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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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The back. Nothing special about it.
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Hopefully the insides will be more exciting... We'll let you know as soon as we can!
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Tool used on this step:Metal Spudger$2.99
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Prying the back off...
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Getting inside is easy once you know how. We used some plastic opening tools and a metal spudger, and finally managed to get in.
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The matte-gray top cover comes off first.
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There are two Phillips screws to remove before the Aluminum back can be removed entirely.
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We're in!
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It's still not very pretty; just more white plastic.
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Twenty Phillips screws hold the white plastic paneling in place.
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Interestingly, nothing was attached to the large white and brown connector near the top of the board.
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Remove two Phillips screws and the battery lifts out easily.
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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.
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The wireless card is also easily removable by removing two Phillips screws.
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Lifting the logic board and display assembly out of its plastic housing.
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There is no protective covering over the display. The display seen from the outside is the actual E-Ink panel.
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Even with the battery completely removed, the screen displays a crystal clear image.
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The display is held by a "window frame" of adhesive. Gentle prods and twists from all sides with a plastic opening tool separated the display.
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Removing the display reveals a bunch of vias on the PCB. Nothing too terribly exciting.
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The logic board after removing the silver EMI shields.
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The majority of the larger chips are made by Freescale, Samsung and Epson.
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A close-up shot of the center area of the board.
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The large MC13783VK5 is a Freescale battery power management chip.
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The ISP1105 (smaller chip in the left enclosed area) is a USB transceiver.
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The main processor is in the upper left. The Freescale chip is labeled MCIMX31LVKN5C M91E CTAH0850V. It's a 532 MHz, ARM-11 90nm 14mm package.
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To the right of the processor, the Samsung K4X1G323PC is a 32MB mobile DDR SDRAM chip. There another Samsung SDRAM chip in the lower right.
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The large Samsung package in the lower left is the Kindle's main memory. It's a 2 GB moviNAND package, which includes both flash memory and the cotroller.
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The co-branded Epson and E-Ink chip on the right is the display controller. It is a PFBGA package that supports "high speed screen updates (2048x1536 at 50Hz+)."
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The complete disassembly of the Kindle 2.
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It seems to be the type of device that people will not bother modding... Or will they? Only time will tell.
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