It seems like every few days someone launches another 10 inch tablet that’s essentially a netbook with its keyboard cut off. Many have similar specs (10 inch touchscreen display, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, Windows 7), and several models actually seem to be based on the same design (ViewSonic ViewPad 100, Novatech nTablet, TegaTech Tega v2). So have you ever wondered what one of those little guys looks like with the cover taken off?
Now you can stop wondering, because Chippy at UMPC Portal got permission to take apart a defective Tega v2 review unit. While a netbook typically places the mainboard, storage, circuitry, and other goodies beneath the keyboard, a tablet has to pack everything behind th edisplay — and that includes the battery.
As you can see, the battery takes up nearly half the space, with some room left over for a solid state disk, wireless communications, and other components. You actually have to lift up the motherboard to find the processor, memory, and some of the other components.
It would be nice if someone could figure out a good way to build one of these tablets with user replaceable battery like the ones we typically find on laptops. I know it might make the tablet a bit uglier and a higher capacity battery would probably add to the weight. But you’re probably not going to find a 10 inch Windows 7 tablet that can get 10 hours of battery life (or even 6 for that matter) until either we see some with better batteries or more efficient processors.
Battery and display technology continue to be the two pieces lagging behind in the development of consumer devices.
User replaceable batteries SHOULD be a big deal to consumers. If your device doesn’t have them, then it’s not just that you don’t get to enjoy the advantages. You also have to suffer the disadvantages. If your device does have them, you don’t just get avoid the disadvantages. You get to enjoy the advantages. There’s no middle ground. There’s no trade off. There’s no reason to compromise. If only today’s consumers weren’t obsessive, compulsive, addicted morons and could vote with their dollars responsibly.
Some companies (Apple) have non-user replaceable batteries as part of their business plan. Some companies (Archos) have non-user replaceable batteries as part of their device design. Some companies (Shanzai) have non-user replaceable batteries as a cost saving tactics. Unfortunately, the result is all the same. You are not buying a product. You are buying a service. There will come a point where your device is worthless without their intervention in a way that could have been avoided but wasn’t. That’s just how much they hate you.
User replaceable batteries are awesome for lots of reasons. You can extend your “away from charger” time by swapping out batteries in the field. You can choose between low-weight short battery life options or high-weight long battery life options depending on context and preference. You can choose between high quality, more expensive cells and lower quality, more affordable cells. You can protect you batteries by separating them from your device (lithium ion should never get too cold or undergo too much pressure). You can leave the battery making to companies who specialize in batteries rather than selling consumer garbage at the mall. My J3500 supports dual hot swappable batteries, which is pretty amazing. One of many reasons why my local iFad crew hates my presence around town.