How to open your Nexus 7's case

[birdastrompgman]

I own 8gb C60 and 16gb C80 Nexus 7s.  The C60 case can be pried apart with a thumbnail, while I need to use a plastic knife to get my thumbnail between the screen/frame and back cover of the C80.  The process of opening your Nexus 7 is the same for both, however. 

I'll be showing you how to open your Nexus 7 (for educational purposes) in a moment, but first read the obligatory warning.  Opening your Nexus 7 will probably void your warranty.  Open your Nexus 7 at your own risk.  I and the people associated with this website are not responsible for any damage you may cause to your device from your own poor judgment and lack of skill.

First, find the easiest opening point.  It's where my index finger is, midway on the side opposite the power and volume buttons.


Insert your thumbnail or plastic knife between the blackish-brown back cover and metal bezel about 1/16", and pry them apart.  Continue around the entire perimeter, taking care to separate them no more than ~1/4" until you have the screen and back cover separated.


I've heard it's possible to break the back cover's clips, shown in the photo below.  You shouldn't, unless you misuse a metal tool and push it in too hard and too deep.

[fxsarge]

Well that's easy.

[birdastrompgman]

Once you have the case open, you can see how easy it is to replace the battery.  It's the large black rectangular object on the left side (screen/bezel/motherboard) unit.  On the right side (back cover) unit, you can see the wi-fi antenna is in the red oval, while the NFC and GPS antennae are in the yellow and blue ovals, respectively.


The photo below shows the wi-fi antenna's copper contacts above the antenna (right), and the corresponding spring pins on the motherboard (left) that make contact with the copper contacts.


Close-up view of the power button and volume up (labeled key 2) and volume down buttons.  The fourth (reset) button isn't wired to anything.  I checked its function by going to CWM Recovery, Advanced, Key Test.  The other 3 buttons return 114, 115, and 116 values IIRC.  The reset button doesn't return anything.


Here's the label where you can see your N7 model number (C60, C80, etc.), same as the one on the plastic label near your USB port.  If this is a serial number, it's a hardware S/N, different from the S/N stored in ROM.


And here's the ROM S/N.