Samsung Mythic SGH-A897 Mobile Phone Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Samsung Mythic SGH-A897 is tri-band UMTS / quad band GSM touchscreen based feature phone that features a 3 .3 inch color resistive touch display and mobile DTV via Qualcomm's MediaFLO. The handset also features a 3.2 MP camera, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer based inputs and expandable memory via microSD slot.

From a design perspective, the SGH-A887 is primarily a Qualcomm design featuring a MSM6290 baseband processor and RTR6285 RF Transceiver. Memory is not surprisingly provided by Samsung featuring 3Gb of OneNAND flash and 1Gb of SDRAM.

Samsung Mythic SGH-A897 Mobile Phone Main Image

Touch based Feature Phone

Released

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

Samsung Mythic SGH-A897 Mobile Phone - Main PCB Bottom

Pricing - At the time of writing (May 2010), the Samsung is offered on AT&T's website for $299 "no commitment or $129 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 1M 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 Mythic SGH-A897 Mobile Phone Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~70% of total materials cost

Display Module Value Line Item - 3.3' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 640 x 360 Pixels

Qualcomm - MSM6290 - Baseband Processor - Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, WCDMA, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76Mbps HSUPA, Support 5MP Camera & High-Speed USB, Integrated A-GPS

Camera Module Value Line Item - 3.2MP CMOS, 1/4' Format, Auto Focus Lens

Samsung Semiconductor - KBN00300RM-B437 - MCP - 3Gb OneNAND Flash + 1Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

Qualcomm - MBP2600 - Mobile DTV - MediaFLO

Battery - Li-Ion, 3.7V, 1150mAh

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

Samsung Electro-Mechanics - 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 2+6+2, Lead Free

Charger - 5V, 0.7A, w/ 1.5m Cord & Plastic Bag

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

Anapass - ANA5603BG - LCD/Camera Interface Serializer / Deserializer

Maxim - MAX8697SEWQ - Power Management IC

Murata - FEM - Quad-Band GSM & Tri-Band WCDMA Antenna Switch, w/ SAW Filters

Enclosure, Main, Battery Cover - Injection Molded Polycarbonate, Painted, Clear Coat, Printed, w/ Insert-Molded Metal Antenna

Broadcom - BCM2070B0KUBXG - Bluetooth - Single-Chip, V3.0 Compliant, HCI Solution, 65nm

Total BOM Cost $99.18

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 Mythic SGH-A897 Mobile Phone - Main Bottom Enclosure Removed

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Samsung SGH-A897 has an overall component count of 731 (excluding box contents), of which 556 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 Mythic SGH-A897 design:

Main PCB

Baseband

• Baseband Processor - Qualcomm - MSM6290

Memory

• Samsung Semiconductor - KBN00300RM-B437 - 3Gb OneNAND Flash + 1Gb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

User Interface

• Mobile DTV - Qualcomm - MBP2600 (MediaFLO)
• Accelerometer & Inclinometer - Kionix - KXSD9 Series
• LCD/Camera Interface Serializer / Deserializer - Anapass - ANA5603BG

RF Transceiver

• RF Transceiver - Qualcomm - RTR6285
• FEM - Murata

Power Management

• Power Management IC - Maxim - MAX8697SEWQ

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth IC - Broadcom - BCM2070B0KUBXG

Power Amplifier

• PAM - Skyworks - SKY77336-13

Display

• Display Module - 3.3' Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 640 x 360 Pixels

Samsung Mythic SGH-A897 Mobile Phone - Box Contents