Just what does it take to make a smartphone? More to the point: what does it take to make your smartphone, particularly the Galaxy S7 edge? We’ve seen the Galaxy S7 edge get the teardown treatment from iFixit, Chipworks, and others, but just in case you need yet another transparent look, a new Galaxy S7 edge x-ray has you covered. The examination, determined by an electronics technician, shows areas where the Galaxy S7 edge construction is densely packed, moderately packed, and least dense in the final analysis.
Along the way, we get a look at the rear camera, OIS magnets surrounding the camera (yes, the Galaxy S7 edge and Galaxy S7 both have Smart OIS), the copper wire harness in the flat cooling pipe (that turns liquid into vapor and vapor back into liquid, pretty cool stuff) loud speaker (with a total output of 1.5W), front camera, CPU, and final x-ray map of the device (with orange, yellow, and blue-colored areas). In making the device water-resistant, Samsung took great care to protect the loudspeaker from water seepage, along with the headphone jack, SIM card tray, and power button.
The intricate design of the Galaxy S7 edge, both inside and out, is due to the company’s larger attention to the smaller details this year, though there are some compromises (the lack of adoptable storage for microSD cards, the lack of a hardware LED flash for the front camera, no QuickCharge 3.0, and, for the first time, automatic carrier-locking) that some find downright stingy. Perhaps the low repairability score from iFixit and the dense construction of the S7 edge’s “innards” explains the functionality dilemma of the hybrid SIM slot for customers in some markets, though no handset is perfect.
The Galaxy S7 is said to have a bill of materials (BOM) cost of $255 (which doesn’t add software engineering or R&D), though we imagine the total cost increases for the Galaxy S7 edge when you factor in its design and R&D costs. Samsung managed to keep manufacturing costs down while adding beneficial features to its latest flagships like the CPU cooling, even in the midst of an economical recession for the company. The transformations in the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge shouldn’t be underestimated.
You can take a look at the Galaxy S7 edge’s “skeletal” structure at the link below.
