Ifixit opens up the Kindle Fire HD, says it's easy to fix

ONLINE RETAILER Amazon's latest Android tablet, the Kindle Fire HD has been opened up by the crew at Ifixit, which said that the device will be fairly simple to repair in case it breaks.

Opening up the Kindle Fire HD easily with nothing but a plastic tool, the team quickly removed the back case to reveal its first glimpse of the internals.

The components are made by a not so surprising bunch of manufacturers, and Ifixit said they will be relatively easy to replace, including an LG LCD display, a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4460 processor, 1GB of Elpida RAM and Samsung flash memory.

However, Ifixit found that the Kindle Fire HD's LCD screen and front glass panel are fused together. This means you would have to replace the entire assembly as one unit rather than two separate pieces. Amazon says this is because an air gap between glass and screen is bad for touch performance and light reflection, but it might prove quite expensive to replace if you smash it to bits.

Despite already knowing the Amazon tablet's battery life specifications, we didn't know how big the battery was. It turns out Ifixit's tear down shows the Kindle Fire HD has a 4400mAh Li-ion battery compared to a 4326mAh battery on the Nexus 7 tablet, which doesn't fully explain why the latter is supposed to run two and a half hours less than the Kindle Fire HD.

The Ifixit guys also discovered that the Kindle Fire HD measures 0.1mm thinner than its Google competitor, as well as being much easier to open.

Amazon announced earlier this month that the Kindle Fire HD will be heading to the UK on 25 October priced at £159, and it's available for preorder on Amazon's website.

Amazon said orders will be served on a first-come, first-served basis, so we would advise getting your preorders in now, because once 25 October hits, these Kindle Fire HD tablets are likely to fly off the shelves. µ