According to the latest data released by the research institute, China accounted for 46% of the global 5G mobile phone market in 2019 and was the largest contributor to the global 5G mobile phone market. Global 5G smartphone shipments grew to 24.1 million units in the first quarter of 2020, surpassing the 18.7 million 5G smartphone shipments for the whole of 2019, with Chinese-brand smartphones accounting for most of the country.
eWisetech selected three dismantled mid-range 5G mobile phones, and compared the internal differences of the three mobile phones from the perspective of components. In this analysis, we will start with the BOM table.
The three mobile phones we have selected are: Huawei nova 6, vivo X30, and OPPO Reno 3. These three mobile phones were released at the end of 2019, and the prices are in the range of 3,000-4,000 yuan. From the price point of 5G mobile phones this year, they all belong to Mid-range smartphone. In view of the dominant position of Qualcomm SoC in the Android mobile phone market, the SoCs of the three mobile phones selected this time are from Huawei HiSilicon, Samsung and MediaTek, as a comparison between 5G chip manufacturers other than Qualcomm.
Overview of configuration information
Except for the nova 6, which is an external baseband, the rest of these three mobile phones are integrated 5G baseband chips. The external baseband and integrated solutions actually have their own advantages and disadvantages. The external baseband is superior in that the process complexity is relatively low, which can better improve the CPU performance, but it is not as good as the integrated solution in terms of power consumption and signal stability. Under the big improvement, it is necessary to consider the overall heat dissipation, power consumption, performance and other indicators, and sometimes some trade-offs are required.
It is worth noting that the three mobile phones support 5G frequency bands differently.
From the information listed in the table above, Huawei nova 6 covers 6 frequency bands, OPPO Reno 3 covers 3 frequency bands, and vivo X30 only supports two frequency bands.
From the perspective of the three major domestic operators, China Mobile uses two frequency bands, N41 and N79. China Unicom and China Telecom use the N78 frequency band, which is one of the most commonly used 5G frequency bands in the world. What the vivo X30 lacks is the N79 frequency band. .
At present, the N79 frequency band has not been opened yet. From the perspective of China Mobile’s 5G deployment and construction, N41 will be used as the mainstream frequency band for a period of time in the future. Considering the cost factor, X30 castrated N79 frequency band has no impact on 5G network support during its product cycle. Of course, the more frequency bands the mobile phone supports, the better the compatibility with the network. From this point of view, the advantages of Huawei nova 6 are reflected.
In the above figure, we have classified some basic parameters of the three SoCs. There is still a slight gap between the Exynos 980 and the Dimensity 1000L, which are both mid-range chips. From the CPU, GPU to the process technology, the Dimensity 1000L leads the Exynos 980 in all aspects. The mid-range chip market is also leading the way.
It is worth mentioning that the Exynos 980 is an in-depth joint customization of vivo and Samsung. During the joint research and development process, vivo contributed more than 100 camera-related features and technologies to the Samsung platform, involving algorithms, dual-camera, and triple-camera system channel design, etc. aspect. Due to vivo’s participation in the research and development of Exynos 980, the overall development progress has been advanced by 2-3 months, effectively shortening the 5G industry cycle.
Compared with Huawei’s strong self-research strength and capital, vivo’s move has also broken the traditional model and changed the previous situation of the separation of upstream product definition and downstream market demand. For chip manufacturers, they can obtain direct market and consumers from terminal manufacturers. Demand feedback; for terminal manufacturers, chip products with better performance and more targeted market consumers can be obtained. Compared with self-research, the advantage of this is that it can maximize the use of limited resources and achieve targeted cooperation with chip manufacturers.
BOM analysis
The characteristics of the main components inside the three mobile phones are also obvious:
Huawei nova 6 uses a large number of HiSilicon components, similar to radio frequency, WiFi/Bluetooth, low noise amplifier and other “connection” components are also mainly supplied by HiSilicon.
Huawei went further to beautify, the three major RF giants in the United States disappeared, and even Qualcomm only occupied a single seat on the BOM. Based on a diversified supply chain strategy, we also found the power provided by Murata Manufacturing from Japan on the BOM. Amplifier chip. Under the siege of the United States, the process of localization and substitution within Huawei products has gradually accelerated.
The main components of the vivo X30 are provided by Samsung, in addition to the chips, memory, screen, camera sensor, etc. listed in the table, as well as NFC chips and power modulators are also provided by Samsung. Compared with the full set of solutions using Qualcomm, the total cost of the main control of Samsung’s solution is greatly reduced, and it is also more suitable for Samsung’s main chip.
In OPPO Reno 3, MediaTek chip solutions account for the largest proportion, including SoC, power management, WiFi Bluetooth, RF transceiver, QORVO and Skyworks almost cover all RF modules.
In addition to the main control IC, Huawei nova 6 uses an LCD screen from domestic Panel maker Tianma, which costs only $18, which is almost half the cost compared to the Samsung AMOLED screen used in the other two models.
The three mobile phones are also very different in the rear main camera. The Huawei nova 6 uses the Sony IMX600 sensor, the vivo X30 uses the Samsung S5KGW1, and the OPPO Reno 3 uses the Sony IMX686.
Huawei’s exclusive IMX600 sensor has a size of 1/1.7 inches, 40 million pixels, a single pixel size of 1μm, supports four-in-one 2μm large pixels, RYYB array (higher light input), and can provide 102400 ultra-high in professional mode. sensitivity. The sensor size of the IMX686 is 1/1.7 inches, 64 million pixels, a single pixel size of 0.8 μm, a four-in-one 1.6 μm large pixel, and a hardware-level straight-out 9248 x 6944 ultra-high resolution.
In terms of pixels, the 6400w resolution of the IMX686 is definitely stronger than the 4000w of the IMX600, but the size of a single pixel of the IMX600 is larger at 1μm, and the RYYB arrangement has higher sensitivity. The size of the Samsung S5KGW1 sensor is 1/1.7 inches, 64 million pixels, and the single pixel size is 0.8 μm, which supports four-in-one 1.6 μm large pixels. Hardware parameters are only one aspect. The final imaging effect depends on the comprehensive ability of hardware + algorithm + debugging, which depends on the polishing and optimization capabilities of major manufacturers for sensors.
Summarize
We estimate that the material cost of Huawei nova 6 5G is US$322.29, or about RMB 2284.17, of which the cost of the main control IC is US$198.2, accounting for about 61.5%. The estimated cost of the vivo X30 is US$227.02, or about 1608.96 yuan, the total cost of the main control is US$104.38, and the main control components account for about 46% of the cost of the whole machine. The overall cost of OPPO Reno 3 (including assembly fee) is about US$260.47 (1846.03 yuan), of which the cost of the main control chip is US$114.81, accounting for 44%.
We get the price-to-cost ratio of three mobile phones: 1.66 for the nova 6 5G, 2.05 for the X30, and 1.84 for the Reno 3. The higher the selling price, the higher the profit. From this point of view, Huawei nova 6 is the most cost-effective one among the three mobile phones. From the perspective of components, the overall strength of the vivo X30 is relatively weak, whether it is the strength of the main chip, the materials used for internal parts greatly reduce the cost, and the support for the 5G frequency band.
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