Nexus Q Teardown Reveals Heavy Base, Foreign Parts

Google's Nexus Q media streamer isn't getting rave reviews, but at least it's a neat-looking piece of hardware both inside and out, as documented by iFixit.

Here are the main takeaways from iFixit's Nexus Q teardown:

Round Parts Galore

After so many phone and tablet teardowns with square parts, the inside of the Nexus Q is a breath of fresh air. Many of the inner dome's components, which help form the Nexus Q's spherical design, were likely manufactured in the United States. Google has said that it decided to build the Nexus Q at home so it could create new design iterations without flying across the world. “It is safe to say that we have never before torn down a device with more circular parts than this,” iFixit says.

(Not Completely) Made in the U.S.A.

Although Google says the Nexus Q is built in the United States, it's still chock full of foreign parts. The ethernet port, for instance, comes from China, and the optical out port was manufactured in Japan. The NFC controller comes from Germany, China, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands or Singapore, and the Crystal Quartz Oscillator was made in either China or Taiwan.

Base Like a Bowling Ball

The Nexus Q had to be heavy, lest it fly off TV stands from the pull of its own cords. According to iFixit, 45.8 percent of that mass comes from the bottom half of the outer shell, which weighs about 0.93 pounds. The entire Nexus Q weighs slightly more than two pounds, and in the hand it kind of feels like a duckpin bowling ball.

Repairable, But Not Easily

The Nexus Q's innards don't have a lot of adhesive or proprietary screws, so if you wanted to take one apart yourself, you could do it with minimal effort. But iFixit warns that the device is filled with tiny parts, so putting everything back together could be a problem.