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iFixit Tears Down the Kindle Fire HDX, Finds a Tablet Inside

The repair specialists at iFixit are back again today with a new teardown. This time around they got their hands on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HDX, and based on the photos posted by iFixit I’d say Amazon made some radical changes in how they manufactured their tablets.

ifixit teardown Kindle Fire HDXiFixit revealed that the HDX differs from the recently relaunched kindle Fire HD. Rather than have a rear shell with everything mounted on the back of the screen, the backside of the Kindle Fire HDX is the case. Everything from the battery to the circuit board, speakers, heatsink, and camera are mounted in the rear shell. Even the screen snaps into place.

They also noted that this tablet would not be easy to repair (unlike the new KFHD). The battery was glued in place, and replacing that would require that you first remove the circuit board. And getting that in and out is no minor operation. And finally the LCD is fused to the front glass, so you’ll need to replace both components in the event of a cracked screen.

I was a little surprised to read about all the differences between this tablet and the new Kindle DX. They have a similar looking shell and come from the same company, so I had assumed they would share a number of basic design details. They don’t, and that might be a sign that Amazon is willing to change everything about their tablets with each new model.

If that is true then there’s a chance that Amazon will surprise us with each new tablet. I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to it.

iFixit

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Comments


fjtorres October 15, 2013 um 11:33 am

Sounds like they might be sourcing the two models from different contract manufacturers.


Michael Anderson October 15, 2013 um 11:58 am

If you think about the dimensions in the video … they are a mess and don’t remotely match ANY of the Kindle Fire models on the Amazon site.

240 x 146 x 8.8? And weighing 567g

The current iPad 9.7 inch is 241mm tall – but 185mm wide. So it isn’t that they cited the wrong Fire. And the Retina iPad weighs 652g, 308 for the mini …

So what does Amazon say?
186 x 128 x 9, and weighing 303g.

Actually the closest I could find was LAST year’s 8.9″ Fire – 240 x 164 x 8.8 and weighing 567g.

So it looks like they took the wrong specs and transposed some numbers. And lost some credibility in the process.

Nate Hoffelder October 15, 2013 um 12:18 pm

Interesting.

I didn’t watch the video. I got as far as the double intro, and stopped once it looked like they were working from photos rather than a time lapse video. I’d rather provide my own narration to the photos.

Michael Anderson October 16, 2013 um 3:41 pm

That was the first of their videos I’ve watched … like you I think I’ll stick to the photos from now on 🙂


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