Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset Teardown

IHS Insight Perspective

Huawei announced this model (Ascend D1 Quad XL - U9510E) at Mobile World Congress (with much fanfare and hype) in February 2012, but it took Huawei until October 2012 to deliver the product - and even then it did not live up to their own announcements (the original company announcements had said this would be a quad-core device with LTE wireless - and instead this device is a quad-core with HSPA+. Still this device showcases Huawei's ambitions: to compete with Samsung not only as a competent handset manufacturer, but can master the in-house design and production of it's own core silicon solutions from HiSilicon. Huawei got scooped by delaying the release after their announcement, and by the time the Ascend D1 Quad hit shelves - most other manufacturers had already launched quad-core smartphones with LTE wireless making this device look 'a day late and a dollar short'.

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset Main Image

Huawei has 4 'classes' of smartphone - each with it's own 'class designator'. The 'D' in 'D1' here denotes that this model is part of Huawei's highest tier of smartphone - or 'Diamond' class. The Huawei Ascend D1 - U9510E is a large screen (4.5' diagonal) 720x1280 touchscreen smartphone with a quad-core HiSilicon processor (Quad-Core ARM Cortex A9, 1.4GHz, 16-Core GPU), and HSPA+ wireless connectivity (provided by Intel). This Ascend D1 Quad XL also has 8GB on board NAND Flash, 1GB of LPDDR2 DRAM, 8MP primary camera and 1.3MP secondary camera.

Design Significance

The Huawei Ascend D1 - U9510E features an IPS+ TFT 4.5' diagonal panel from Japan Display Inc which is 720x1280 resolution - it has a traditional capacitive touch overlay. The core of the design is the quad-core HiSilicon processor (Hi3620GFC - codenamed K3V2 - which is a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 based processor running at 1.4GHz, with a 16-Core GPU). The chip is built in an advanced 40nm geometry. HiSilicon also provides a supporting power management IC. The HSPA+ wireless connectivity is provided by Intel's PMB9811/PMB5712 chipset which we have seen numerous times before. The 'main design feature' here is still that Huawei are showcasing their ability to design and source their own core processor in-house to compete with Samsung and Apple. Most of the other 'choices' made by Huawei are not particularly different or innovative - but middle-of-the-pack choices. The battery pack is hefty (almost 10Wh - or about 75% more than Apple's battery capacity). Motorola recently has begun to offer 'large' battery packs like this to demonstrate long usage life.

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset - Main PCB Top

World Market

Huawei caters primarily to the domestic Chinese market - but certainly aspires to be a global brand. And this phone is meant for the world market to compete with Samsung, Apple, HTC and others.

Released

October 2012

According to Huawei press releases - the phone was supposed to launch in China in July 2012 - but appears to have rolled out much later in other markets if at all. Russia was intended as the next market to receive the phone in August.

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset - Main PCB Bottom

Varies

Pricing found online at the time of writing (in the US) starts at $440USD and up - varies depending on bundle (memory) etc.

Worldwide

Most Huawei models are primarily focused at the domestic Chinese market - but this market appears to have been a worldwide launch - though finding sources from which to buy it in the US is not easy - it appears no carriers are currently offering this in the US at the time of writing (Nov 2012).

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset - Disassembly View 1

1,000,000 Total Units
1.5 Total Years

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed an Annual Production Volume of 1000000 units and a Product Lifetime Volume of 1.5 year(s).

Teardown volume and 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.

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset Cost Analysis

This section varies from device to device. At the very minimum it should consist of the 'main cost drivers' table, but should also be the place where we talk about pricing assumptions made in the analysis. This section should always include the boilerplate text "What's Not Included in This Analysis.

Total BOM: $166.44
Top Cost Drivers below: $117.50
% of Total BOM 71%

Main Cost Drivers below

Japan Display Inc Display Module - 4.5' Diagonal, 16.7M Color IPS TFT LCD, 1280 x 720 Pixels, 76.8um x 76.8um Pixel Size, 98.3mm x 55.3mm Viewable Area, w/ Integral Flex PCB- (Qty: 1)
Hisilicon Hi3620GFC Applications Processor - Quad-Core ARM Cortex A9, 1.4GHz, 16-Core GPU, 40nm, PoP- (Qty: 1)
Primary Camera Module - 8MP, BSI CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens- (Qty: 1)
Display Window / Touchscreen Module - 4.5' Diagonal, Capacitive, Corning Gorilla Glass Overlay, Painted, w/ Integral Flex PCB & Touchscreen Controller- (Qty: 1)
Samsung Semiconductor K3PE7F700M-XGC2 SDRAM - Mobile DDR2, 1GB, PoP- (Qty: 1)
Toshiba Semiconductor TY90GH131451RC MCP - 8GB eMMC NAND Flash + 512Mb Mobile DDR- (Qty: 1)
Intel PMB9811 Baseband / Power Management - ARM11 Core, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Multi-Band WCDMA/HSPA+, 40nm- (Qty: 1)
Intel PMB9811 Baseband / Power Management - ARM11 Core, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Multi-Band WCDMA/HSPA+, 40nm- (Qty: 1)
UniMicron Technology 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, Any Layer Stacked Via, Lead-Free- (Qty: 1)
Intel PMB5712 RF Transceiver - Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Multi-Band WCDMA/HSPA+- (Qty: 1)

Not Included in 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.

We do provide an Excel tab 'Overall Costs' where a user can enter their known pre and post production costs to build a per unit cost reflective of theirs actual expenditures.

Manufacturing Notes

EMS Partners

It is our understanding that Huawei still maintains sizeable internal production while using Hon Hai and Flextronics as its EMS providers (with some models contracted on the ODM basis).

Country of Origin

For the purposes of this analysis, we are assuming the following country(ies) of origin for each level of assembly, based on a combination of 'Made In' markings, and/or assumptions based on our knowledge of such equipment.

Box Contents - China
Camera Assembly - China
Display / Touchscreen - China
Main PCB - China
Misc PCB Assemblies - China
Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly - 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 WiFi/BT combo modules), 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.

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 Complexity

Component counts by assembly and the number of assembly are indicators of design complexity and efficiency.

Component Qty: 899 - Main PCB
Component Qty: 15 - Display / Touchscreen
Component Qty: 54 - Camera Assembly
Component Qty: 79 - Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly
Component Qty: 14 - Box Contents
Component Qty: 71 - Misc PCB Assemblies
Component Qty: 1132 - Grand Total

This Huawei design clocks in at 1119 components (excluding box contents) which is a bit above average for HSPA+ smartphone designs these days. 4G phones do increase the average component count for smartphones typically. So, for example, the iPhone 5 has about 1408 components - but supports 4G. The Huawei 1119 component count does not make the device particularly complex - and it is more or less 'in line' with other designs with similar feature-sets.

Design Notes

Display - The Huawei Ascend D1 - U9510E features an IPS+ TFT 4.5'' diagonal panel from Japan Display Inc which is 720x1280 resolution - it has a traditional capacitive touch overlay.

HiSilicon Inside - The core of the design is the quad-core HiSilicon processor (Hi3620GFC - which is a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 based processor running at 1.4GHz, with a 16-Core GPU). The chip is built in an advanced 40nm geometry. HiSilicon also provides a supporting power management IC.

Intel Inside - The HSPA+ wireless connectivity is provided by Intel's PMB9811/PMB5712 chipset which we have seen numerous times before. The 'main design feature' here is still that Huawei are showcasing their ability to design and source their own core processor in-house to compete with Samsung and Apple.

Other component choices include: Broadcom BC<4330 combo IC, Samsung mxT224 touch controller, a Silicon Image SiI9244 HDMI transmitter, a Broadcom BCM47511 GNSS Receiver (GPS), and an Audience Semi voice processor (es305B). See below for details.

Most of the other 'choices' made by Huawei are not particularly different or innovative - but middle-of-the-pack choices. The battery pack is hefty (almost 10Wh - or about 75% more than Apple's battery capacity). Motorola recently has begun to offer 'large' battery packs like this to demonstrate long usage life.

Huawei Ascend D1 Quad XL U9510E Mobile Handset - Box Contents