Samsung Galaxy Tab cracked open: What's inside the Android iPad challenger?

The handy-dandy chaps with an appetite for destruction at gadget DIY website iFixit have gutted the Samsung Galaxy Tab like a fish. Setting about the Android tablet, which went on sale this week, reveals a processor that gives the market-leading Apple iPad a run for its money.

The Tab is at the leading edge of a wave of Android tablets challenging the iPad. Under its plastic back, the 3.7V Li-Ion battery takes up half the space, offering seven hours of juice. Unlike its rival, the battery is user-replacable.

As well as disembowelling kit, iFixit specialises in handy instructions for DIY repairs to your precious, precious gadgets. The site rates the Tab 6 out of 10 for ease of user repair, as all the components are accessible without soldering. The tricky bits involved setting about the tough Gorilla Glass screen with a heat gun, while cracking the thing open in the first place required some serious work with opening tool and guitar picks.

iFixit reckons the 1GHz ARM processor is what makes the Tab a "a true iPad competitor". You can read the full piece here. 

Previously, iFixit has revealed how the antenna fits in the iPhone 4, a projector in the Nikon S1000pj and anything at all in the tiny frame of the iPod shuffle.