After Hours

Cracking Open the Amazon Kindle Fire HD

By // September 20, 2012, 5:42 AM PST // billdetwiler

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  • Amazon Kindle Fire HD teardown

    Like the original Kindle Fire, Amazon's Kindle Fire HD is designed for heavy Amazon users and Amazon Prime subscribers. And I show you in this gallery, the 7-inch model is easy to disassemble and has a completely new internal hardware layout.

    The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD sells for $199 (16GB) and $249 (32GB). You'll pay an additional $15 to remove the advertisements shown on the lock screen.

    For a detailed analysis of the teardown, check out my article and video, Kindle Fire HD teardown reveals repair-ready tablet with minor annoyances.

    Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
    Caption by: Bill Detwiler

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Box contents

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Hardware specifications, dimensions, and weight

    The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD has a 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 system on a chips (SoC), 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM, a 7-inch IPS LCD (1280x800), and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (MIMO) support. The base model has 16GB of storage, but a 32GB version is also available. The Fire HD measures 5.4" (W) x 7.6 (T) x 0.4" (D) and weighs 13.9 ounces.

    Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
    Caption by: Bill Detwiler

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Back

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: HDMI (mini) and USB (micro-B) ports

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Headphone jack, volume button, and power button

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: 7-inch IPS LCD screen (1280x800)

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Lock screen advertisements

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD, and original Kindle Fire

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Thinner than Nexus 7 and original Kindle Fire

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Wider than original Fire and Nexus 7

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Popping off the back cover

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the back cover

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Internal hardware

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Disconnecting the battery

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the copper tape from the battery and motherboard

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Disconnecting the Wi-Fi antenna wire

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the battery screws

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the battery

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: 3.7 V, 4,400 mAh, 16.43 Wh Li-ion battery

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: With battery removed

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Detaching the motherboard connectors

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the motherboard screws

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the motherboard

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Display assembly and internal frame without motherboard

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the headphone jack PCB

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Headphone jack PCB

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the left speaker

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the right speaker

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Speakers

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the internal frame screws

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Detaching the W-Fi antenna from the internal frame

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the internal frame

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Display/front panel assembly

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: LG Electronics LD070WX3-SL01 display

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Atmel mXT768E touchscreen controller

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Power and volume buttons removed

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Magnesium (AZ91D) internal frame

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Removing the camera

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: 720p front-facing camera

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Motherboard - Top

    Unfortunately, many of the Kindle Fire HD's ICs are covered by EMI/RFI shields, which are soldered to the motherboard. I want to reassemble this tablet in working order, so I'm not going to remove the shields.

    Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
    Caption by: Bill Detwiler

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Motherboard - Bottom

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: 1GB Samsung K3PE7E700M-XGC(2) LPDDR2 SDRAM and 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 SoC (includes Power VRSGX 540 GPU)

    The 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 SoC is mounted under the 1GB Samsung K3PE7E700M-XGC(2) LPDDR2 SDRAM chip in what's called a package-on-package configuration.

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: 16GB Samsung KLMAG2Ge4A-A001 moviNAND (eMMC)

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Wolfson WM8962E ultra-low power audio CODEC

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Invensense MPU-6050 Six-Axis (Gyro + Accelerometer) MEMS MotionTracking Device

  • Cracking Open Kindle Fire HD: Motherboard markings show DYnamic Electronics Co.

    According to the motherboard markings, DYnamic Electronics Co. manufactured the Kindle Fire HD's PCBs.

  • Kindle Fire HD completely disassembled

Amazon Kindle Fire HD teardown

Like the original Kindle Fire, Amazon's Kindle Fire HD is designed for heavy Amazon users and Amazon Prime subscribers. And I show you in this gallery, the 7-inch model is easy to disassemble and has a completely new internal hardware layout.

The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD sells for $199 (16GB) and $249 (32GB). You'll pay an additional $15 to remove the advertisements shown on the lock screen.

For a detailed analysis of the teardown, check out my article and video, Kindle Fire HD teardown reveals repair-ready tablet with minor annoyances.

Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
Caption by: Bill Detwiler

Related Topics:

After Hours Innovation Hardware Tech & Work

By Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and Tech Pro Research and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop supp...