Android

Cracking Open the Toshiba Excite 10

By // June 7, 2012, 6:44 AM PST // billdetwiler

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  • Toshiba Excite 10 teardown

    Toshiba's first Android tablet, the Thrive, was a solid device. But, its bulky design made the Thrive, which I cracked open the Thrive last year, larger and heavier than competing tablets.

    The company's new line of Excite tablets are anything but. At 0.35 inches thick, the Excite 10 is almost half the depth of the Thrive. And, it has a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a full-size SD card slot. How did Toshiba pack better hardware and into a tablet that's almost half as thick? Let's find out. Follow along as I crack open the Toshiba Excite 10.

    For a detailed analysis of the teardown, check out my article and video, Toshiba Excite 10 teardown reveals pure tablet hardware and design.

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

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Price

    We purchased our 16GB Excite 10 test unit for $449 (US) plus tax.

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

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Box contents

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Hardware specifications and dimensions

    Our Excite 10 test machine (Model: AT305-T16) had a 1.2GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB of onboard storage (expandable to 128GB), a 10.1" LCD (1280 x 800 resolution), 802.11 b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

    The Excite 10 measures 7.0" (H) x 10.3" (W) x 0.35" (D) and weighs 1.3 pounds.

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

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Back

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Volume buttons, lock switch, power button, rear camera, flash

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Headphone jack, Micro-HDMI port, Micro-USB port, SD card slot

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Speakers and docking connector

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Display

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Popping loose the back cover

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Working around the back cover's edge

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Lifting off the back cover

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Speaker wire

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Disconnecting the speaker wire

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Two halves separated

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Back cover

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Internal hardware

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Left speaker

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Right speaker

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the battery screws

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the battery

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: 3.7V, 6,600 mAh/25 Wh Li-ion battery (Model: PA5053U-1BRS)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the Sidekey circuit board screws

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the Sidekey circuit board

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Sidekey circuit board

    The Sidekey circuit board contains the contacts for the volume keys, lock switch, power button, rear camera, flash, and is connected to the vibration motor.

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: 5MP rear-facing camera

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Vibration motor

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Sidekey circuit board markings

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the touchscreen controller circuit board screws

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the touchscreen controller circuit board

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Goodix GT8110 touchscreen controllers

    The Excite 10's touchscreen controller circuit board, contains two Goodix GT8110 10-point capacitive touchscreen controllers and a Goodix GTM802 chip.

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Touchscreen controller circuit board - Back

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the docking connector circuit board screws

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the docking connector circuit board

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Docking connector circuit board and cable - Front

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Docking connector circuit board and cable - Back

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the SD card slot circuit board screws

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the SD card slot circuit board

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: SD card slot circuit board

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the front-facing camera

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: 2MP front-facing camera

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the motherboard screws

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Removing the motherboard

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Display and front panel assembly

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Display and front panel ID stickers

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Motherboard - Front

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Motherboard - Back

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Empty spot on motherboard

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: 1.2GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor (1152A3 KT NAU315.01P T30SL-P-A3)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: 16 GB Toshiba THGBM2G7D4FBAI9 eMMC storage chip (THGBM2G7D4FBAI9 FR5429 TAIWAN 11249AE)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: 1 GB Hynix DDR3 SDRAM (H5TC2G83CFR)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: National Semiconductor (Texas Instruments) VT22ACE4 90C187LF

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: AzureWave AW-NH660 wireless module

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Parade PS8122 1:2 HDMI/DVI Demultiplexer

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Wolfson WM8903 Ultra low power CODEC for portable audio applications (WM8903L 22AMBUC)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Fortemedia FM34-395 Low Power Voice Processor (FM34NE 395 B34DB)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Texas Instruments TPS61030 Efficient Synchronous Boost Converter With 4A Switch (TPS61030 TI 22W Z90P)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Texas Instruments TPS6592 PMIC (TPS659II04AA2 21AC9XW GI)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Nuvoton M0516 ARM Cortex -M0 32-bit microcontroller (M0516LBN ARM 2205B007-ZN2 209ABFA)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Invensense MPU-3050 Triple Axis Gyroscope with Embedded Digital Motion Processor (MPU-3050 Q4P673-J4 EI 1145 K)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Intersil ISL9519 Narrow VDC Regulator/Charger with SMBus Interface (9519HRTZ F120VS)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Broadcom BCM4751 Integrated Monolithic GPS Receiver (BCM47511IUB6 UD1210 P10 190S40 SN)

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Motherboard markings "Avalon"

    The word "avalon" is printed on the circuit boards inside the Tochis Excite 10. 

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Motherboard markings "HannStar"

  • Cracking Open Toshiba Excite 10: Completely disassembled

Toshiba Excite 10 teardown

Toshiba's first Android tablet, the Thrive, was a solid device. But, its bulky design made the Thrive, which I cracked open the Thrive last year, larger and heavier than competing tablets.

The company's new line of Excite tablets are anything but. At 0.35 inches thick, the Excite 10 is almost half the depth of the Thrive. And, it has a quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a full-size SD card slot. How did Toshiba pack better hardware and into a tablet that's almost half as thick? Let's find out. Follow along as I crack open the Toshiba Excite 10.

For a detailed analysis of the teardown, check out my article and video, Toshiba Excite 10 teardown reveals pure tablet hardware and design.

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

Related Topics:

Android Mobility Google Open Source Software Developer Hardware

About Bill Detwiler

Bill Detwiler is Managing Editor 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...