HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The HTC Titan X310e is a Windows 7.5 (Mango) based smartphone with a very large 4.7 diagonal display, 8MP auto-focus camera with HDMI out. It is a 4G phone (HSPA+) based on Qualcomm's MSM8255AB (1.5GHz SnapDragon) apps processor. Other than the large screen - this phone, by today's standards, does not feature a lot of exceptional or 'stand-out' features. This phone is not dual-mode, though it does feature a dual-mode RF transceiver.

The design internally features a modest handful of major ICs 3 of which are from Qualcomm, which includes the usual contingent of two supporting chips - a PM8058 power management chip and a QTR8615 RF transceiver. The phone also features 16GB of internal eMMC NAND flash from Samsung, and a healthy 4Gbits of DDR2 mobile DRAM in support of the core processor.

The market (or, shall we say 'the rest of the market') is migrating to larger and larger screens on smartphones as way of one-upping Apple who is still, with the iPhone 4S at a 3.5" diagonal screen that was and is still expected to grow in the next generation iPhone offering.

HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset Main Image

Mass market smartphone.

Released

Per press releases, first release in North America on November 20, 2011

HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset - Main PCB Top

Pricing - Per AT&T website: $199.99 with 2-year contract at the time of writing (12/2011).

Availability - North America

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 1 million 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.

HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset Cost Analysis

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~ 75% of total materials cost

Qualcomm - MSM8255AB - Apps / Baseband Processor - Multi-Band, GSM/EDGE/HSPA+, 1.5GHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, gpsOne Gen 8 w/ GNSS, 45nm, PoP - (Qty:1)

Display Module - 4.7' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 800 x 480 Pixels - (Qty:1)

Display Window / Touchscreen Assembly - 4.7' Diagonal, Capacitive, Glass/Film, Painted, Printed, w/ Integral Flex PCB - (Qty:1)

Samsung Semiconductor - KLMAG4FEJA-A002 - Flash - eMMC NAND, 16GB, MLC - (Qty:1)

Primary Camera Module - 8MP, BSI CMOS, 1/3.2' Format, Auto Focus Lens - (Qty:1)

Hynix - H9TKNNN4KDMP - SDRAM - Mobile DDR2, 4Gb, PoP - (Qty:1)

Enclosure, Main, Bottom - Machined Magnesium Alloy, Plated - (Qty:1)

Qualcomm - QTR8615 - RF Transceiver - Dual Mode, Multi-Band, GSM/EDGE/EVDOrB/HSPA+, Integrated Bluetooth & FM, Receive Diversity, 65nm RF CMOS - (Qty:1)

Unitech - Main PCB - 10-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, Stacked Via, Lead-Free, Halogen-Free - (Qty:1)

Broadcom - BCM4330FKUBG - Bluetooth / FM / WLAN - IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, FM Radio Receiver & Transmitter - (Qty:1)

Total BOM & Manufacturing Costs (Direct Materials + Conversion Costs) $191.51

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

EMS Partners

HTC build their own phones in their own facilities and do not use outside EMS providers.HTC builds product in house. Products typically start their lifespan being built in Taiwan, then ultimately transition to facilities in China for cost optimization.

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on markings, the unit was assembled in Taiwan. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc. were sourced in Taiwan.

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 a wall adaptor charger), 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.

HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset - Main PCB Bottom

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The HTC Titan x310e has a total component count of 895. Most smartphones we analyze these days now weigh in at the 900 - 1000 component count mark. So this is 'in line' with most smartphones - though at the low end of the spectrum - this is thanks in part to the integration provided by the Qualcomm solution, but also has a lot to do with features - more features equals higher component counts - and despite having a good feature set - this HTC Titan does not have a lot of extras beyond the core features that are expected in the market place right now. The key feature of this is the size of the screen - and while size scales pricing of things like the display and touchscreen is does not inherently add much in the way of complexity or component count.

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.

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 biggest cost drivers by far in this design are the display and touchscreen because this is a larger than average 4.7" diagonal screen. Screen prices, as one would imagine, do scale with size (all other criteria being equal), and this is the standout feature of this phone. The display is a 16.7M color TFT (800 x 480 pixel) (source unknown) with a capacitive touchscreen that is driven by the former undisputed champion of touchscreen driver ICs the Atmel mxT224e. Actually the 'e' version is a new rev of the mxT224 series and may represent a new process geometry for that IC. We have begun to see a host of new players in this space that are relative unknown for us. Atmel has been dominant, until recently, in this space in most of our 2010 to 2011 teardowns.

The core of the phone is the SnapDragon MSM8255AB apps processor 1.5GHz with Adreno 205 GPU, and gpsOne functionality. As is often the case with Qualcomm chips - 'you can't have just one' - and such is the case here. The Titan also features supporting chips from Qualcomm: PM8058 for power management, and the dual mode RF transceiver - QTR8615.

This phone also features the now common BCM4330 combo chip (WLAN/Bluetooth/FM Radio) from Broadcom which is quickly replacing its precedent BCM4329 chip that was one of the most commonly seen chips in our teardown history. This chip appears to have shrunk in process geometry - and the main upgraded feature is Bluetooth 4.0 functionality.

HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset - Disassembly View 1

Here is a summary of the major components used in the HTC Titan x310e design:

Display / Touchscreen

Display Module - 4.7' Diagonal, 16.7M Color TFT, 800 x 480 Pixels

Display Window / Touchscreen Assembly - 4.7' Diagonal, Capacitive, Glass Overlay, Painted, Printed, w/ Integral Flex PCB

Main PCB

Apps Processing / Baseband

Qualcomm - MSM8255AB - Multi-Band, GSM/EDGE/HSPA+, 1.5GHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, gpsOne Gen 8 w/ GNSS, 45nm, PoP

RF / PA

RF Transceiver - Qualcomm - QTR8615 - Dual Mode, Multi-Band, GSM/EDGE/EVDOrB/HSPA+, Integrated Bluetooth & FM, Receive Diversity, 65nm RF CMOS

Memory

NAND Flash - Samsung Semiconductor - LMAG4FEJA-A002 - eMMC NAND, 16GB, MLC

SDRAM - Hynix - H9TKNNN4KDMP - Mobile DDR2, 4Gb, PoP

Power Management

Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM8058

BT / FM / GPS / WLAN

Bluetooth / FM / WLAN - Broadcom - BCM4330FKUBG - IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, FM Radio Receiver & Transmitter

User Interface and Sensors

Audio Codec - Texas Instruments - TLV320AIC3254IRHB - Stereo, w/ Embedded 2 miniDSP Cores

Audio Power Amplifier - Texas Instruments - TPA2051D3YFF - Mono, Class D, 2.9W, w/ DirectPath Headphone Amplifier & Speakerguard

Gyroscope - Invensense - MPU-3050 - 3-Axis, 16-Bit, Digital Output, w/ Integrated Temperature Sensor

Electronic Compass - AKM Semiconductor - AK8975B - 3-Axis, 13-Bit Digital Output

Accelerometer - Bosch Sensortec - BMA250 - 3-Axis, +-2g/4g/8g/16g, 10-Bit Digital Output

HTC Titan X310E Mobile Handset - Box Contents