The Kindle Voyage is a dream come true for the avid Kindle user. But you know us—we are more interested in the construction and repairability of the Voyage, than the (admittedly cool) new features.
Advancements like pressure-sensing buttons and ambient light sensors didn’t do much to hamper repair, but the new front panel glass and its fused display weren’t a fun find. That said, the Voyage is a solid device that doesn’t try too hard to keep fixers out. It earned a decent 7 out of 10 on the repairability scale.
Teardown Highlights:
• The Kindle Voyage proves to be a hybrid of Paperwhite and Fire parentage with its rear bezel access panel, revealing some screws and antenna components. After removing said panel and screws, we have a slide-off cover! There’s not a lick of adhesive in sight after removing the top portion. Neat!
• It didn’t take long to get to the heart of the Voyage. This reader is powered by a 3.8 V battery rated at 1320 mAh, up from the 890 mAh unit found in the simplistic 7th Generation Kindle.
• Since the page-turning triggers have no moving parts, the piezo vibrator gives haptic confirmation of all your back-and-forth commands.
• Based on Amazon’s description of PagePress, and our own spudgerwork, these triggers appear to use strain gauges—components that change resistivity when deformed, making for excellent buttonless buttons.
• The display isn’t secured by the terrible tar we sometimes encounter. Amazon combined some mild-mannered adhesive with thick, tough display glass and a rubbery bezel. Result: a pretty easy pry job.
- Chips powering the Voyage:
• Freescale Semiconductor MCIMX6L8DVN10AB Applications Processor
• Samsung K4P4G324EQ-RGC2 4 Gb (512 MB) LPDDR2 SDRAM
• Toshiba THGBM5G5A1JBAIR 32 Gb (4 GB) eMMC NAND Flash
• Maxim Integrated MAX77696A Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC)
• Atheros AR6803G-BL3B WLAN Controller
• Freescale Semiconductor M05R5V 1N96F ACBIT
• Texas Instruments DRV2667 Piezo Haptic Driver
• Winbond 25Q40BWIG 4 Mb Serial Flash Memory With Dual and Quad SPI
• Cypress Semiconductor CY8CTMA4 Touchscreen Controller
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