The patent and technology experts at TechInsights’ teardown labs have now performed a deep teardown and analysis of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. There’s not a whole lot to be surprised by since a less detailed teardown was already performed the same day it was announced. Moreover, Samsung has done a very good job of highlighting and explaining many of the internals it uses and other components such as the cameras found in its Galaxy Note 9. So it’s already known that the Korean smartphone manufacturer included an enormous heatsink and that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC platform drives Android 8.1 Oreo in the U.S. However, the teardown does provide a few key insights into the components chosen, along with some new images. The brand new Bluetooth-enabled S Pen is included in those as well. Among the more interesting points to note is that Samsung did not opt to use its second-generation 10nm LPDDR4X RAM module for the Galaxy Note 9. Instead, it opted for a Package-on-Package installation of its first-generation LPDDR4X SDRAM at 6GB.
The newer RAM would likely have been substantially more efficient and it’s not really possible to know why the company didn’t use the component. Speculatively, it may be that there are still issues that need to be sorted out or that using it would have increased the overall cost to consumers, above its already hefty price tag. Setting that aside, the use of a Snapdragon SoC also means Qualcomm solutions for power management and radio frequency transceiving are in use. That includes the supplier’s solutions for display power management and audio codec. However, the Audio Amplifier and other related components are provided by Maxim while the Power Amplifier is made by Avago-owned Broadcom. NXP is responsible for the device’s NFC connectivity and Murata provided the Galaxy Note 9’s combination Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module. Presumably, that includes the Bluetooth module found in the new S Pen.
Conversely, Samsung also provided its own storage unit in the Galaxy Note 9. The NAND Flash component is a UFS 2.1 affair – Samsung’s KLUDG4U1EA-B0C1 – allowing for high bandwidth throughput and optimized energy efficiency. Although the teardown is highly technical, it does mean that more tech-savvy user means that users will now have a very good idea of what exactly they can expect from the device when it arrives. That’s not at all a bad thing since pre-orders for Samsung’s latest flagship phablet have already reportedly begun shipping starting today.
