Nokia Lumia 520 Teardown

Specifications:

Before diving into the teardown, lets look at the specifications of the phone first.

Network Technology: GSM: HSPA

Body:

Dimensions: 119.9 x 64 x 9.9 mm , weight: 124 g, Build: Plastic body

Display: IPS LCD Capacitive touchscreen

Chipset: Qualcom: MSM8277 , GPU: Dual Core: 1.0 Ghz, GPU Adreno 305

Memory: Cardslot + 8GB Internal + 512MB RAM

COMMS: WLAN- 802.11/b/g/n, Bluetooth- 4.0 A2DP , GPS- Yes with GLONASS , Radio: FM Radio

Sensors: Accelerometer , proxomity

Battery: 1430 mAh BL-5J

Teardown

Nokia Lumia 520
The back of Lumia 520

Step 1: We star off by simply removing the back cover – no tools needed. The back cover is made from Injection Moulding.

Tools used – none

Step 2: Removing the battery is also easy as it lifts out using the notch at the bottom.

Tools used – None

Step 3: Removing the back frame held by 8 Philips#00 screws. With the screws removed, we unsnap the back cover from the main body uncovering the back of the circuitry on this phone.

Tools used: Philips#00 screw driver
After snapping all the circuitry exposed.
The only chip that I am able to identify from here is the Synaptics S2202B IC , which is the touchscreen controller.

Step 4: In order to access the front of the ICs, we need to remove the two orange strips strapped on to the board by simply pulling them up, and then gently lift the IC board upwards from its seat.

Tools needed: none
Tools needed: none, unfortunately the front and back are both covered in metal sheets without markings over each IC. So unable to figure out which IC is what.

Step 5: Separating the Touch screen from the main body. We need to pull the crickets behind the main frame in order to separate the touch screen panel from the LCD.

Touch screen panel (Right) , LCD and main body (Left) , the little green box on the right is the Proximity sensor.
Proximity sensor
The speakers, Loudspeaker (left) , ear speaker (right)
Final components lists

Final Words

What I really like about the Lumia 520 is that it sports a very modular and repairable design. Changing either of the screen or the touch panel or the battery or speaker will not entail us to change the other components, and provided a good documentation, the user should be able to repair it himself, since it does not require custom tools or special techniques.

4 thoughts on “Nokia Lumia 520 Teardown”

  1. This teardown was great! I thought it was interesting to see how similar the layout was to the iphone internal parts.

    1. Totally agree on that. I think its because nowadays the battery dictates a lot of layout, since it consumes the most amount of space.

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