LG GW620 Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The LG GW620 is LG's first foray into Android OS devices. The dual band UMTS / quad band GSM is HSDPA data capable device that runs the older version of Android 1.5. Oddly, the full QWERTY slider form GW620 uses a resistive touchscreen instead of the typical capacitive touch thus limiting user into to a single touch input.

Internally, the LG GW620 features a very common Qualcomm design featuring the MSM7200A baseband processor (we have seen in many first generation Android handsets). Display module on the GW620 is 3 inch TFT with 320 x 480 resolution and 262K color. The integrated 5MP camera gets a processing boost from an integrated Mtekvision image processor.

LG GW620 Mobile Phone Main Image

Smartphone Users

Released

First released on September of 2009.

LG GW620 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - Typically, mobile phones are heavily subsidized by carrier partners and the price [offered] with service does not represent the value of the device. With that said, an unlocked / unsubsidized version of the LG GW620 can be purchased for as low as $270 (at the time of writing - Aug. 2010)

Availability - assumed global

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.

LG GW620 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~80% of total materials cost

Qualcomm - MSM7200A - Baseband Processor - Single Chip, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps, GPS, Integrated 528MHz ARM11 Applications Processor & 256MHz ARM9 Microprocessor

SanDisk - MicroSD Memory Card - 8GB

LG Innotek - IM300WBN1A - Display Module Value Line Item - 3.0' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 480 Pixels

Camera Module Value Line Item - 5MP CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Hynix - H8BCS0UN0MCR-46M - MCP - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

Murata - Bluetooth/FM/WLAN Module Value Line Item - IEEE802.11b/g, Bluetooth V2.0+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver, Contains Broadcom BCM4325

Mtekvision - MV9319DOB-G - Image Processor - 5MegaPixel, w/ Real-Time Image Compression & High Speed Serial Interface

Battery - Li-Ion Polymer, 3.7V, 1500mAh

5-Layer - Rigid/Flex Hybrid, FR4/RCF/Kapton, 1+1+2+1

LG Innotek - 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI - 2+6+2

Touchscreen Assembly / Display Window - 3.0', 4-Wire Resistive, ITO Over Glass, Black Painted, Printed, w/ Flex PCB and Board to Board Plug Connector, w/ PSA

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

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

Total BOM Cost $138.48

LG GW620 Mobile Phone 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 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.

LG GW620 Mobile Phone - Disassembly View 1

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The LG GW620 has an overall component count of 889 (excluding box contents), of which 677 components reside on the Main PCB assembly. Compared to other smartphones we've analyzed in the past, the GW620 occupies the lower end of the complexity curve (sub-1000 parts).

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 LG GW620 design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Baseband Processor - Qualcomm - MSM7200A

Memory

• Hynix - H8BCS0UN0MCR-46M - 4Gb NAND Flash + 2Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

Bluetooth / FM / WLAN

• Bluetooth/FM/WLAN Module - Murata

User Interface

• Image Processor - Mtekvision - MV9319DOB-G

Battery / Power Management

• Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM7540

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver IC - Qualcomm - RTR6285

Display

• Display Module - LG Innotek - IM300WBN1A (3.0' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 480 Pixels)

"

LG GW620 Mobile Phone - Box Contents