Kindle 2 Broken-Down: On-Purpose And By Accident

Kindle 2 units are arriving all over the US, as Amazon not only keeps to their delivery schedule but, in some cases, beats it to the punch.  Of course a rite of passage for any new must-have device is not only the unboxing but the break-down, and iFixit have done just that, flagging up a spot that looks surprisingly like a GSM SIM reader might sit there.  However it's not all good news; we've also heard of what might be the first broken Kindle 2, which survived its journey but not its user.

The iFixit team found that the Kindle 2's 1,530mAh lithium polymer battery makes up, at 31g, just over 10-percent of the ebook reader's overall weight.  They've also shown that the e-ink display itself has no protective covering, but the most interesting point is the area on the logic board that seems intended for a GSM SIM card reader.  We're assuming this is for the European version of the Kindle 2, which Amazon have confirmed is in the pipeline; the current Kindle 2 lacks anything but a CDMA radio, so it's not going to be as straightforward as soldering in a SIM holder.

As for the broken Kindle 2, the culprit is Rob Bushway, who spent five whole minutes with the Amazon ebook reader before dropping it three feet onto his hardwood floor.  Rob now has a Kindle 2 with a dog-eared corner, that refuses to update from a patch of smeared e-ink and the battery meter, and a short wait until Thursday when his replacement unit arrives.  Thankfully the two-year warranty covers one replacement "due to accident"; please feel free to fill the comments section with "this wouldn't have happened with a paperback" rants.