Samsung (Google) Nexus S Mobile Handset Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Samsung manufactured Google Nexus S is the second of Google's privately branded Android handset designed to showcase the best of the Android mobile OS platform. As the model name suggests, the Google Nexus S strikes a very close design resemblance to the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone introduced earlier.

Borrowing heavily from the Galaxy S design, the Nexus S features Samsung's Hummingbird apps processor with 16GB of managed NAND memory along with a slim modem design from Infineon (Intel) which was also in the Apple iPhone 4.

Additionally, Google added a NXP PN544 NFC controller and inductive NFC antenna array into the device as a future yet-to-be announced service to be included within Android as well as a MEMS based gyro presumeably for gaming applications.

Overall, the handset under analysis is a tri-band UMTS and quad band GSM handset with a dual camera configuration in 5MP autofocus and VGA resolution.

Target Market

High-end Smartphone Users / Android Developer Community

Released

December 2010

Pricing and Availability

Pricing - The Nexus S can be purchased unlocked directly from Google for $529. Also, the AWS-band version of the Nexus S is offered for $199 with 2-year contract on T-Mobile (US).

Availability - Global (assumed)

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have applied a lifetime production volume of approximately 2M units.

As a reminder, teardown volume production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

Cost Notes

Main Cost Drivers (~80% of Total Materials Cost)

• $52 - Samsung Mobile Display - AMS397GE02 - Display Module Value Line Item - 4.0" Diagonal, 16M Color Super AMOLED, 800 x 480 Pixels, w/ Capacitive Touchscreen Overlay
• $23 - SanDisk - SDIN4C2-16G - Flash - eMMC NAND, 16GB, MLC
• $19 - Samsung Semiconductor - KB100D00WM-A453 - MCP - 8Gb MLC Flex-OneNAND + 4Gb Mobile DDR + 1Gb OneDRAM, PoP (Estimated)
• $9.60 - Camera Assembly Value Line Item - Contains 5MP AF Primary Camera, VGA Secondary Camera
• $9.12 - Samsung Semiconductor - S5PC110A01 - Multimedia Application Processor - 1GHz, ARM Cortex A8 Core, 45nm, PoP
• $8.87 - Infineon - PMB9801 - Baseband / Power Management IC - HSUPA/HSDPA/WCDMA/EDGE, ARM1176 Core, 65nm
• $5.95 - Samsung Electro-Mechanics - SWB-B23 - Bluetooth/FM/WLAN Module Value Line Item - WLAN IEEE802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver & Transmitter
• $4.08 - Daeduck Electronics - 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+6+2, Lead-Free, Halogen-Free
• $3.35 - AB653850CA - Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1500mAh
• $1.99 - Infineon - PMB5703 - RF Transceiver - Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Quad-Band WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA, 130nm RF CMOS
• $1.95 - NXP Semiconductors - PN5441A2ET/C20501 - Near Field Communication Controller - 80C51 Core, Up to 10cm Operating Distance
• $1.86 - 6-Layer - Rigid/Flex Hybrid, FR4/Kapton, Lead-Free, Halogen-Free
• $1.83 - Samsung Electro-Mechanics - 6-Layer - Rigid/Flex Hybrid, FR4/Kapton, Lead-Free, Halogen-Free
• $1.75 - ST Microelectronics - L3G4200D - Gyroscope - 3-Axis, Digital
• $1.50 - Broadcom - BCM4751IUB2G - GPS Receiver - Single Chip, 65nm CMOS
• $1.43 - National Semiconductor - LP3974 - Power Management IC

Direct Materials $179.17
Direct Materials + Manufacturing$186.34

What Is Not Included in our Cost Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on device markings, we've based our analysis with the final assembly in Korea. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in Korea.

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of "finished" sub-assemblies (such as display module), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Remember also that labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. "Auto" inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Samsung Nexus S (GT-I9020T) handset unit analyzed had an overall component count of 822 (excluding box contents) of which, 590 resides on the PCB. In comparison, the Nexus One made by HTC had an overall count of 1160.

Component counts have a direct bearing on the overall manufacturing cycle times and costs, and also can increase or decrease overall yields and re-work. Our calculations of manufacturing costs factor counts and more qualitative complexities in the design. The cost of manufacturing is also, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for Korea.

Note that manual labor has a much smaller effect on auto-insertion assembly lines (for the Main PCB, for example), where manufacturing costs are much more capital equipment intensive and driven by these investment costs.

Design Notes

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Samsung Nexus S (GT-I9020T) handset design:

Display / Touchscreen

• Display Module - Samsung Mobile Display - AMS397GE02, 4.0" Diagonal, 16M Color Super AMOLED, 800 x 480 Pixels, w/ Capacitive Touchscreen Overlay

Main PCB

Apps Processing

• Multimedia Application Processor - Samsung Semiconductor -S5PC110A01, 1GHz, ARM Cortex A8 Core, 45nm, PoP

Memory

• MCP - Samsung Semiconductor - KB100D00WM-A453, 8Gb MLC Flex-OneNAND + 4Gb Mobile DDR + 1Gb OneDRAM, PoP (Estimated)
• Flash - SanDisk - SDIN4C2-16G, eMMC NAND, 16GB, MLC

Baseband

• Baseband / Power Management IC- Infineon - PMB9801

BT / FM / GPS / WLAN

• Bluetooth/FM/WLAN - Broadcom - BCM4329GKUBG
• GPS Receiver - Broadcom - BCM4751IUB2G, Single Chip, 65nm CMOS

RF / PA

• RF Transceiver - Infineon -PMB5703
• Transmit Module - Skyworks - SKY77529-24, PAM, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, w/ Integrated SP8T Antenna Switch

Power Management

• Power Management IC - National Semiconductor - LP3974

User Interface

• Audio Codec - Wolfson Microelectronics - WM8994ECS/R
• Gyroscope - ST Microelectronics - L3G4200D
• Accelerometer - ST Microelectronics - LIS331DLH, MEMS 3-Axis, 2g/4g/8g, Digital Output