Nokia C7-00 Mobile Handset Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Nokia C7 is touchscreen smartphone designed similarly as the flagship Nokia N8 but targeted at the mainstream "C class Nokia device - albeit, the highest variant of their C class segment. The C7 was announced along with the N8 and the yet-to-be-released E7 as the trio of Symbian^3 devices from the Finnish handset maker in early Q4 of 2010. Unsurprisingly, the design of the C7 resembles that of the N8 that we have previously analyzed. First and foremost, the Nokia C7 features the near identical 3.5 inch AMOLED display as the N8 but the focus of the C7 design does not revolve around the multimedia capabilities as it did with the N8 although the C7 does come with a very respectable 8MP camera. What sets the C7 apart is the inclusion of Near Field Communications (NFC) capabilities. In fact, the Nokia C7 is an early pioneer of this new technology with only a handful of other handsets on the market today having this capability built in.

Overall, the C7 is a penta-band UMTS / quad-band GSM world phone (just as the N8) however, currently only offered in Europe. As a Symbian^3 device, the C7 inherited much of the same core electronic components as that of the flagship N* - TI digital baseband processor and discrete Broadcom GPU. Positioned as the mainstream ""C" class device, the C7 does have to trim its BOM budget relative to the N8 and includes an 8GB eMMC for storage (as opposed to the 16GB in the N8). All in all, the C7 does offer high end design and quality components in a relatively lower cost budgetary BOM placing the handset a close second in the pecking order of handset offerings by Nokia

Nokia C7-00 Mobile Handset Main Image

Smartphone Category

Released

Q4 2010

Nokia C7-00 Mobile Handset - Main PCB Top

Pricing - The Nokia C7 is available unsubsidized from Nokia (UK) for approximately $600. This price point is consistent with past high end handsets from Nokia. Typically, the handset would likely be offered for free along with a fixed service contract by major carriers.

Availability - Europe

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have applied a lifetime production volume of approximately 3.5M 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.

Nokia C7-00 Mobile Handset - Main PCB Bottom

Main Cost Drivers ~81% of Total Materials Cost

Samsung Mobile Display - AMS347FF02-0 - Display Module Value Line Item - 3.5' Diagonal, 16.7M Color AMOLED, 360x640 Pixels

Primary Camera Module Value Line Item - 8.0MP, CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Fixed Lens

Samsung Semiconductor - KLM8G4DEHE-B101 - Flash - eMMC NAND, 8GB, MLC

Display Window / Touchscreen Assembly - 3.5' Diagonal, Capacitive, ITO Film Over Glass Faceplate, Painted, Printed, Contains Atmel Touchscreen Controller, w/ Integral Flex PCB, & Board to Board Connector

Broadcom - BCM2727IFBG - Mobile Multimedia Processor - HD 720p, H.264 Encoder & Decoder, HDMI 1.3a w/ HDCP

Samsung Semiconductor - KAV003013M-AEEA - MCP - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile DDR, PoP (Estimated)

Texas Instruments - NMP #4377520 - DBB - Digital Baseband Processor, PoP

Murata - Bluetooth / FM Radio / WLAN Module - IEEE802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, contains WL1271A

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

BL-5K - Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1200mAh

Renesas - PAM - Dual Mode, EDGE / WCDMA, 850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100

Epcos - D1053 - FEM - Quad-Band GSM & Tri-Band WCDMA Antenna Switch, 4 GSM & WCDMA SAW Filters, 3 WCDMA Duplexers

ST-Ericsson - NMP #4376051 - ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management

Enclosure, Main, Center - Stamped / Formed Metal, 20 Pieces, Spot-Welded, w/ 3 Injection Molded Glass-Filled Polycarbonate Mounts, 1 Threaded Metal Insert, 1 Metal Stud, & PSA

ST-Ericsson - NMP #4380044 - RF Transceiver - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA

Salcomp - AC-15E - Charger - 5V, 800mA, w/ 6ft Cord and Velcro Cord Wrap

NXP Semiconductors - PN544 - NFC Controller - 80C51 Core

Direct Materials + Manufacturing $165.12

Nokia C7-00 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

OEM/ODM/EMS Relationships / Manufacturing

Nokia maintains worldwide manufacturing operations in North America (Mexico), South America (Brazil), Asia Pacific region (Korea), Greater China, India and 4 other locations in both Eastern and Western Europe. Furthermore, iSuppli estimates that Nokia used 6 ODMs & EMS providers in 2008 with Foxconn, Elcoteq and Jabil making up roughly 15% of Nokia's overall manufacturing capacity.

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on markings found on the device, the unit under analysis was likely 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), 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.

Nokia C7-00 Mobile Handset - Disassembly View 1

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Nokia C7 under analysis here has an overall component count of 737 (excluding box contents), of which, 586 reside on the main PCB. Nokia tends to have a lower component count that most other manufacturers in any category and the C7 is no exception. Competitive devices in this space can easily reach a complexity level of 1000 parts or more, especially if there are more complex flip / slide / swivel industrial designs involved.

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

The primary design of the C7 appears to be a carbon copy of that on their flagship N8 handset we have just analyzed. We see the similar TI digital baseband processor (NMP #4377520) / Samsung 4Gb NAND plus 2Gb mobile DDR package on package. Also, the C7 prominently features the discrete Broadcom BCM2727 GPU to help off load graphically intensive computations from the rather anemic 680MHz baseband processor. Again, just as in previous designs, see encountered very familiar components such as the ST-Ericsson analog baseband and power management IC, a Murata Bluetooh / FM / WLAN module containing a TI WL1271A and Renesas dual-band/penta frequency GSM/WCDMA PAM.

There is, however, a novelty design on the C7 - namely that of the NXP PN544 NFC (or near field communications) IC and accompanying antenna assembly. This new component - first time we've come across it on a handset - give the C7 the capability to perform tasks such as mobile payment and other near proximity transactions.

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Nokia C7 Handset design:

Display

• Display Module Value Line Item - 3.5' Diagonal, 16.7M Color AMOLED, 360x640 Pixels

Main PCB

Baseband / Power Management

• DBB - Texas Instruments - NMP #4377520, Digital Baseband Processor, PoP
• ABB - ST-Ericsson - NMP #4376051, Analog Baseband / Power Management
• Power Management IC - ST-Ericsson - NMP #80050, for RF

RF / PA

• RF Transceiver - ST-Ericsson - NMP #4380044, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA
• PAM - Renesas - Dual Mode, EDGE / WCDMA, 850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100

BT / FM / GPS / WLAN

• Bluetooth/FM/WLAN - Texas Instruments - WL1271A, Single Chip, IEEE802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth V3.0, 65nm, FM Radio Transceiver
• GPS - Texas Instruments - GPS5350, Single-Chip, A-GPS, NaviLink 4.0

User Interface

• Mobile Multimedia Processor - Broadcom - BCM2727IFBG, HD 720p, H.264 Encoder & Decoder, HDMI 1.3a w/ HDCP
• NFC Controller - NXP Semiconductors - PN544, 80C51 Core
• USB On-the-Go Transceiver - ST-Ericsson - ISP1707AET, USB2.0, ULPI, w/ Battery-Charger Detection

Camera

• Primary Camera Module Value Line Item - 8.0MP, CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Fixed Lens

Nokia C7-00 Mobile Handset - Box Contents