SonyEricsson Xperia X10 Mini Mobile Handset Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini is [by its name alone] deceivingly small. As opposed to its Xperia X10 namesake, the Mini handset has only a 2.6 inch display - in fact, the smallest display on an Android smartphone we have seen to date. So small, in fact, Sony Ericsson had a custom UI built just for the handset (that sits ontop the Android OS) that cleverly uses the limited screen real estate to facilitate the touch based user interface.

Under the plastic enclosure, the Xperia X10 Mini carries a Qualcomm MSM7227 common in the "affordable Android handset segment. The smartphone also manages to squeeze in a 5MP camera into the miniscule package. Overall, the handset is a dual band UMTS / quad band GSM 3G handset.

SonyEricsson Xperia X10 Mini Mobile Handset Main Image

Affordable Smartphone Segment

Released

Feb. 2010

SonyEricsson Xperia X10 Mini Mobile Handset - Main PCB Top

Pricing - At the time of writing (Dec. 2010), the Xperia X10 Mini sells for an unsubsidized price of $205 (on Amazon in the US).

Availability - Europe & Asia

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 1.5M 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.

SonyEricsson Xperia X10 Mini Mobile Handset - Main PCB Bottom

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~75% of total materials cost

Qualcomm - MSM7227 - Baseband Processor - Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 600MHz ARM Core CPU w/ 320MHz Application DSP, 400MHz Modem Processor & Hardware-Accelerated 3D Graphics, 65nm

Numonyx - NANDCBR4N9BZBC5 - MCP - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile DDR

Camera Module Value Line Item - 5.0MP, CMOS, 1/4' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Display Module Value Line Item - 2.6' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 240x320 Pixels

Synaptics - Touchscreen Overlay / Side Button PCB Assembly - 2.7' Diagonal, Capacitive, ITO Film Over Plastic Film, Contains Synaptics T1021A Touchscreen Controller, w/ Integral Flex PCB, & Board to Board Connector

Texas Instruments - WL1271A - Bluetooth/FM/WLAN - Single Chip, IEEE802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth V3.0, 65nm, FM Radio Transceiver

Sony Fukushima - US583640 - Battery Cell - Li-Ion Polymer, 3.7V, 950mAh, 3.6Wh, w/ Integral 3 Discrete Insulated Wires and 3-Position Connector

Multek - 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 3+4+3, Lead-Free

Qualcomm - PM7540 - Power Management IC - w/ Integrated USB Transceiver

Qualcomm - RTR6285 - RF Transceiver - ZIF, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band UMTS Transceiver, HSDPA, w/ Integrated GPS Receiver & Receive Diversity

Skyworks - SKY77336-13 - PAM - Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, w/ Integrated Power Control

Direct Materials + Manufacturing $89.52

SonyEricsson Xperia X10 Mini Mobile Handset Cost Analysis

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 markings, the unit was assembled in China. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in China.

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 Xperia X10 Mini has an overall component count of 642 (excluding box contents), of which 513 components reside on the Main PCB assembly. Compared to other low-cost smartphones we've analyzed in the past, the X10 Mini has a complexity level on par with other handsets in this category.

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 China.

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 SonyEricsson Xperia X10 design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Baseband Processor - Qualcomm - MSM7227, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 600MHz ARM Core CPU w/ 320MHz Application DSP, 400MHz Modem Processor & Hardware-Accelerated 3D Graphics, 65nm

Power Management

• Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM7540

Memory

• MCP - Numonyx - NANDCBR4N9BZBC5, 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile DDR

RF / PA

• RF Transceiver - Qualcomm - RTR6285, ZIF, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band UMTS Transceiver, HSDPA, w/ Integrated GPS Receiver & Receive Diversity

BT / FM / GPS / WLAN

• Bluetooth/FM/WLAN - Texas Instruments - WL1271A, Single Chip, IEEE802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth V3.0, 65nm, FM Radio Transceiver

User Interface

• Electronic Compass - AKM Semiconductor - AK8973S, 3-Axis, w/ Built-In ADC, DAC, Amplifier, Temperature Sensor, & 8-Bit Digital Output
• Accelerometer - Bosch Sensortec - BMA150, MEMS 3-Axis, +-2g/4g/8g, Digital Output

Display

• Display Module Value Line Item - 2.6' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 240x320 Pixels

SonyEricsson Xperia X10 Mini Mobile Handset - Disassembly View