Teardowns

Nokia N8 Teardown

Nokia N8 teardownFollowing on the tepid success of the N97, the N8 is Nokia’s direct competitor to the iPhone 4 and high-end Android smartphones. Betting the farm on the success of the N8, Nokia packed this phone full of features—but we wanted to see how much awesomeness was really inside.

The big hardware news with this phone—aside from being the first modern phone Nokia has released in nearly two years—is the 12MP camera and its massive flash. This is one of the few phones that has a Xenon flashtube (and associated giant capacitor), and we were blinded by its brightness.

This phone is built tough! The N8’s frame uses more metal than most phones, giving it a rugged feel. In fact, this is the beefiest phone we’ve taken apart all year. We awarded it a coveted 8 out of 10 repairability score for three primary reasons: the glass is not fused to the AMOLED screen, the battery is easily-replaceable, and the phone is overall quite easy to disassemble. Once you know how to take it apart properly, even a Finnish caveman could do it (provided they were evolved enough to handle a Torx screwdriver).

Teardown highlights:

  • The 12 MP camera is a honker. In other smartphones, the thickness of the camera drives the thickness of the phone. With this phone, Nokia chose to protrude the camera outside of the back cover. This will either make it easier to grasp the phone to take it out of your pocket or make it a hassle when returning the phone to your pocket.
  • As opposed to many other smartphones that use either a single or double LED flash, the N8 uses a Xenon flash tube—the same kind of flash found in full-size cameras. A large capacitor on the flash module supplies the high voltage necessary to produce such a brilliant flash.
  • Although it requires the removal of two screws, the battery is quite easy to replace. Thumbs up for no soldering required!
  • Thankfully the glass is not fused to the face of the 640 × 360 3.5″ AMOLED display, so you don’t have to replace both if the glass breaks.
  • There’s nothing cutting-edge in the display—it was manufactured all the way back on February 2, 2010. Its touch screen controller is a Synaptics T1201A, the same chip found in the Microsoft Kin Two and RIM Blackberry Torch—not exactly ground-breaking tech.
  • Nokia got pretty creative with their antenna placement, as this device is primarily encased in aluminum. The main antennas are located near the flat plastic plates on the top and bottom of the phone.
  • The design of the steel mid-plane is genius. Rather than using a discrete EMI shield like every other phone we’ve seen, Nokia integrated the large EMI shield into the mid-plane. (Electromagnetic interference shields protect sophisticated chips from outside interference.)
  • The daughterboard at the top of the motherboard has an interesting design, connecting to the main motherboard via a ribbon cable that is sandwiched between the many layers of the motherboard. On most devices, ribbon cables are attached with ZIF connectors or are soldered to the surface of the board, not sandwiched between layers.
Nokia N8 teardown
The final layout
flash on the Nokia N8
The N8’s massive flash