Nokia 6151 Mobile Phone Teardown

Main Features

Mid-range, WCDMA/EDGE single-camera 1.3MP candybar phone, with Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, FM radio, 262K 1.8 Inch TFT display, MicroSD/Transflash memory slot. Video/audio playback and media streaming is also a common feature of newer, and especially 3G+ phones such as this.

Nokia 6151 Mobile Phone Main Image

This Nokia 3G phone is considered by Nokia to be, within the 3G segment, an entry-level phone. They have pared down the features seen in other recently analyzed 3G+ phones such as dual cameras (this phone has merely one). In dual cam phones second camera is used for streaming video (conference / video calls). The Nokia 6280 also isn't attempting to push any physical design envelopes ('slim' form factor), and by not using a clamshell or slider form factor has saved some design dollars on both mechanical and display components keeping the overall cost low - yet for the most part, with the exception of dual cameras, it is in line functionally with other 3G phones analyzed.

Target Market

This phone is intended by Nokia to represent an entry-level 3G phone as part of their "3G for everyone release states. Per their press release: ""Its sleek design and affordable pricing makes the Nokia 6151 a very attractive 3G handset. Models like the Nokia 6151 are certain to make 3G services even more accessible to a broader range of consumers."

Regionally it should be more focused on those regions where WCDMA/UMTS (3G) networks are well deployed - such as Europe. See below for more specific regional availability.

Nokia 6151 Mobile Phone (iSi) - Main PCB - Top

The press release for this phone is dated June 19, 2006.

Pricing and Availability

According to Nokia - the 6151 ""is expected to retail for approximately EUR240 before applicable taxes or subsidies". 240EUR sounds pricey and may not be for ""everyone" as their slogan suggests! Furthermore, the 6151 will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Nokia 6151 Mobile Phone (iSi) - Main PCB - Bottom

We are assuming a lifetime production volume of 4 million units for this model because of the combination of Nokia's overall market share, assumed share within this phone segment, phone features, etc.

As a reminder, volume production assumptions are not meant to be necessarily 'market accurate', and our meant primarily to be 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).

ISuppli's Design Forecast Tool (DFT) and Market Shares

As part of iSuppli's Design Forecast Tool (DFT), we forecast handset shipments by major design feature and manufacture, as well as the number of design starts a manufacturer will have by feature set. From our most recent revision of this tool iSuppli estimates

Function / Performance

Performance testing was not performed on the Nokia 6151.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / EMS provider

The Nokia 6151 we received was labeled as Made in Germany. Considering the very high cost structures of both Germany and Japan were are still surprised to see this, and therefore generally assume that this applies only to the country of origin of final assembly, and that sub-assemblies and other manufacturing processes take place in less costly, but localized countries within a given region (E. Europe is assumed in the case of European final assembly).

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 chargers), 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.

The issue of labor rates was revisited in Q2 2006 as we began to apply some research by one the major worldwide EMS suppliers and are now applying some of their research on total loaded costs by country and region to arrive at these new rates which are pronouncedly higher on the low end in China. Remember 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.

Design for Manufacturing / Complexity

When comparing this WCDMA phone to all of the other WCDMA phones analyzed in the last year this phone, along with the 4 other units analyzed in parallel are basically 5 of the phones with the lowest component counts seen to date. Part of this is due to the fact that this phone and the others against which it was simultaneously analyzed are candybar form factor (vs sliders or clamshell) designs. This factor primarily affects the mechanical component count and final assembly complexity.

Nonetheless, with a component count of 490 components, of which 93 components are discrete mechanical components, puts this phone below average of those WCDMA phones seen in the last year or so. The Nokia 6151 wins, by far, to date in terms of fewest components when compared against similarly featured WCDMA phones from competitors.

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 Nokia 6151 shares a great deal of commonality with the recently analyzed Nokia 6280 (also a cam WCDMA/UMTS phone) and to a lesser extent Nokia 6125 models.

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Nokia 6151 design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Texas Instruments - NMP #4377151 - DBB - Digital Baseband Processor
• ST Microelectronics - NMP #4396177 - ABB - Analog Baseband / Power Management

Memory

• NOR Flash - Samsung Semiconductor - K871315ETA - 512Mb, 1.8V, Top Boot
• SDRAM - Samsung Semiconductor - K4M28163PH - 128Mb

RF/PA

• RF Transceiver - MCM - ST Microelectronics - NMP #4396302
• Duplexer - WCDMA - Epcos
• PAM - WCDMA - Avago - QCPM-8883
• PAM - Quad-Band, GSM/GPRS/EDGE - RF Micro Devices - NMP #4355845

User Interface

• Module - FM Radio / Bluetooth
• Murata
• FA6532028C
• Similar to that used in Nokia 6280
• Module consists of:
• Philips - TEA5761UK - FM Radio
• CSR - BlueCore4 - Bluetooth - Single Chip Solution

Display

• 1.8 Inch diagonal TFT, 128x160, 262K Color

Camera Module

• CMOS, 1.3 MP, Fixed Lens Snap-In Module (common to many Nokia designs)

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Nokia 6151 Mobile Phone (iSi) - Box Contents