The teardown experts at iFixit believe they have zeroed in on the steps needed to upgrade a Motorola Xoom tablet to get on Verizon's "4G" (LTE) network, though home upgraders will still need a SIM card from Verizon before they can start using the over-the-air connection. The simple process is just one of the discoveries iFixit made in its recent teardown of the Xoom, which got a score of 8 (out of 10) on iFixit's repairability scale.

Motorola and Verizon require Xoom owners to send in their tablets for six business days if they want an LTE upgrade, but iFixit expressed surprise at the need for such an involved process. Every Xoom is apparently ready for a 4G upgrade—after taking apart their un-upgraded device, the team found a dummy SIM card labeled "Replace with SIM only after 4G upgrade."

The whole process is only three steps long, it turns out: two Torx screws have to come out of the bottom of the case to expose a circuit board, which can then be removed after disconnecting the device's antenna and removing two more Torx screws. The circuit board can then be replaced with a 4G-compatible board, and that's apparently the end of the upgrade.

"A seasoned technician can perform this swap in less than 10 minutes. Heck, a donkey could probably pull it off in less than two hours," iFixit said in an e-mail. "We have no idea why a customer couldn't just go to a Verizon store and have on-site representatives enable 4G on the spot, just like they're able to transfer mobile contacts and perform other activation procedures."

Donkeys or not, the Xoom won't work on Verizon's LTE network until a compatible SIM card is in place, so don't go thinking you'll be able to take advantage of speedy downloads without forking over some cash first.

Other discoveries helped the Xoom earn its high repairability score from iFixit, despite the 57 screws involved in taking the device apart. Aside from the "beastly" sized 3250 mAh, 24.1 watt-hour lithium ion polymer battery, iFixit found that the Xoom's front- and rear-facing cameras are connected to the motherboard via two separate cables. "You won't have to replace a ton of other stuff if just your camera fails," iFixit pointed out. In fact, most components were found to be connected via their own cables, and the LCD reportedly separates from its protective glass without a problem, helping to reduce replacement costs.

Look for Ars Technica's exhaustive review of the Xoom next week.