Samsung Flight SGH-A797 Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Samsung Flight SGH-A797 is dual-band UMTS / quad band GSM vertical slider phone with a full QWERTY keypad. Addressing the growing trend in messaging oriented devices, the Samsung Flight features a 2.8 inch color display with resistive touch overlay to take advantage of social networking applications and a full HTML browser. The handset also features a 2 MP camera, Bluetooth, GPS and expandable memory via microSD slot.

From a design perspective, the SGH-A797 features a ST-Ericsson DB3200 digital baseband processor and Dialog Semi analog baseband / power management. Memory is provide via a Numonyx multi chip package featuring 2Gb of NAND and 1Gb of mobile SDRAM. ST-Ericsson also provides both discrete Bluetooth and GPS ICs for the Samsung phone.

Samsung Flight SGH-A797 Mobile Phone Main Image

Low-cost Messaging Phone

Released

Per press release, first release on the AT&T network on November 2009 .

Samsung Flight SGH-A797 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Top

Pricing - At the time of writing (May 2010), the Samsung is offered on AT&T's website for $249 "no commitment or $9.99 with a 2 year contract.

Availability - North America

Volume Estimations

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

Samsung Flight SGH-A797 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~65% of total materials cost

Display Module Value Line Item - 2.8' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 240 Pixels

ST-Ericsson - DB3200 - DBB - Digital Baseband Processor, PoP

Numonyx - NANDBAR3N6AZPC5 - MCP - 2Gb NAND Flash + 1Gb Mobile SDRAM, PoP

Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1000mAh, 3.7WAh

Camera Module Value Line Item - 2.0MP CMOS, 1/4' Format, Fixed Lens

Touchscreen Assembly - 4-Wire Resistive, 2.8' Diagonal, ITO Film Over ITO Film, w/ Clear Plastic Faceplate, Glass Backplate, & Integral Flex PCB

Dialog Semiconductor - D1705BD - ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management

ST-Ericsson - RF3300 - RF Transceiver - Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE & Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA

Charger - 5.0V, 700mA, w/ 1.5m Cord

DaeDuck Electronics - 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 1+8+1, Lead Free

Broadcom - BCM4750IUB2C - GPS Receiver - Single-Chip, A-GPS, 90nm

QWERTY Keypad Insulator - Polycarbonate Sheet, Die-Cut, w/ Black Mylar on Edge & PSA

ST-Ericsson - STLC2584 - Bluetooth / FM Radio - Single Chip, V2.1+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver

Skyworks - SKY77521-21 - Transmit Module - PAM, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, w/ Integrated SP9T Antenna Switch

Total BOM Cost $77.54

Samsung Flight SGH-A797 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.

Samsung Flight SGH-A797 Mobile Phone - Main Bottom Enclosure Removed

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Samsung SGH-A797 has an overall component count of 610 (excluding box contents), of which 403 components reside on the Main PCB assembly.

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 Impact SGH-A797 design:

Main PCB

DBB / Memory

• Digital Baseband Processor - ST-Ericsson - DB3200
• Numonyx - NANDBAR3N6AZPC5 - 2Gb NAND Flash + 1Gb Mobile SDRAM, PoP

ABB / Power Management

• Analog Baseband - Dialog Semiconductor - D1705BD

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver - ST-Ericsson - RF3300

GPS

• GPS Receiver - Broadcom - BCM4750IUB2C

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth / FM Radio - ST-Ericsson - STLC2584

Display

• Display Module - 2.8' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 320 x 240 Pixels

Samsung Flight SGH-A797 Mobile Phone - Box Contents