Huawei Mate 20 X 5G Teardown

ID: 124808

Description: While the US-China trade dispute drags on and...

Here's the lowdown on this Mate 20 X 5G:
7.2" OLED multitouch display with 1080 × 2244 resolution
Octa-core Huawei Kirin 980 chipset, paired with 8 GB RAM
256 GB onboard storage
Balong 5000 multi-mode 5G modem
4,200 mAh battery with 40 W SuperCharge 2.0 support
Triple rear cameras: 40 MP ƒ/1.8, 20 MP ƒ/2.2, and 8 MP ƒ/2.4 lens with 5x optical zoom
The front-facing camera resides in a "waterdrop" notch, and the rear protective cover comes with a neat reminder which we will dutifully ignore.

On the bottom we recognize the usual suspects: a USB-C port, two microphone holes and a speaker grille.
Along the top edge, we find another microphone hole, the infrared blaster, and the barest sliver of a grille for the earpiece speaker.
Compared to the already-large Mate 20 Pro, the X 5G looks colossal. On its backside, we note the 5G branding, and the fingerprint sensor underneath its array of cameras.

Though this Mate is only rated IP53, the SIM card tray is equipped with a rubber gasket—something we usually see on "waterproof" smartphones these days.
Slot 1 of this SIM tray is reserved for 5G cards, whereas slot 2 only accepts up to 4G cards.
To our surprise, we get the glued-down back cover off lickety-split—no heat required! A suction handle and a halberd spudger separates everything nicely.
Adhesives can harden with age, so maybe next time won't be so easy—but our fresh-from-the-factory unit was very cooperative.
A generously proportioned fingerprint flex cable keeps the back cover tethered for now, but it's such a long leash that we don't mind. On to the next layer.

A flock of screws hold the NFC coil, antenna, and graphite heat conductor pad in place. One hides behind a tamper-proof sticker, and another one lurks under the camera flash module—a strange place for a screw.
With those bits out of the way, we can finally disconnect the fingerprint sensor and get our first good look inside this phone.

The 24 MP, ƒ/2.0 front-facing peeper comes out with a simple pry. We'll never grow tired of these repair-friendly press-fit connectors.
The motherboard also comes out easily, allowing us to unplug the three-eyed rear camera block from the back.
This triclops carries the same tech as the Mate 20 Pro from October 2018—a 40 MP ƒ/1.8 wide angle, a 20 MP ƒ/2.2 ultra wide angle, and an 8 MP ƒ/2.4 telephoto lens.

Finally, we get to the nitty-gritty of this Mate's iteration—the motherboard:
Micron D9WGR (MT53D1G64D8NZ-046 WT:E) 8 GB LPDDR4 with Kirin 980 SoC layered underneath
Toshiba THGAF8T1T83BAIR 256 GB NAND flash
Samsung K4UHE3D4AA-CGCJ 3 GB LPDDR4X—more on that later
Skyworks 78191-11 low-band front-end module for WCDMA/LTE
HiSilicon Hi6526 PMU
NXP 80T37 (likely NFC controller)
For comparison, the smaller board on the lower left belongs to the Mate 20 Pro.

Notably absent from our initial chip findings is the Balong 5000, HiSilicon's multi-mode networking chipset that is supposed to be the powerhouse of this 5G cell.
On a hunch, we coarsely chisel off the extra Samsung LPDDR4X chip to find …
HiSilicon Hi9500 GFCV101! This is most likely the Balong 5000 we're looking for.
Just to be sure, we pry up the Micron memory chip as well. Sure enough, underneath slumbers the HiSilicon Hi3680 GFCV150, also known as Kirin 980.
Our hot air station had the day off. Deal with it.
It looks like the 5G modem comes bundled with its own block of dedicated LPDDR4X memory—a whopping 3 GB of it, if we've decoded those Samsung package markings correctly. Is that a giant data buffer? This is the first 5G modem we've seen in the wild, so sound off in the comments if you know more than we do.

To get unobstructed access to the battery, we remove the board interconnect cable.
While we're at it, we also pry up the glued-in loudspeaker ...
… and the tiny daughterboard with the USB-C port soldered onto it.

We're always happy to see built-in battery removal instructions, and follow them step-by-step. It's as easy as 1-2-3!
Though we didn't need heat this time around, we are still rewarded with a clean battery extraction.
This is the exact same battery used in the Mate 20 Pro, weighing in at 16.04 Wh (4,200 mAh @ 3.82 V).
That's well short of the whopping 19.1 Wh (5,000 mAh) battery in the standard Mate 20 X—but it's still a monster compared to the iPhone XS Max's dual-cell, 12.08 Wh (3,179 mAh) powerplant.

The display adhesive holds on a bit tighter than the back cover adhesive, but gives way after some heat and skilled halberd slicing.
This Mate doesn't have any fancy under-display fingerprint sensor. There's just a blank OLED screen and the aluminum frame.
This 7.2 inch OLED panel is manufactured by Samsung.
Much like in the standard Mate 20 X, there's a big vapor chamber hiding on the aluminum frame behind the graphite foil.

With all the parts more or less gently removed, we have an overview of Huawei’s foray into the mobile 5G sector.
Except for three "US"-manufactured chips (Micron, Skyworks and Qorvo) and a dutch NXP module, the motherboard's major sockets are dominated by Huawei's in-house brand HiSilicon and other Asian manufacturers (Toshiba, Samsung).
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The Huawei Mate 20 X 5G earns a 4 out of 10 on our repairability scale (10 is the easiest to repair):
Many components are modular and can be replaced independently.
The battery is accessible after removing the rear cover and midframe, and is equipped with pull tabs.
Standard Phillips screws are used along with an average amount of adhesive.
The midframe covers the battery and fingerprint sensor connectors, and is itself obstructed by the camera sensors and flash.
Glued-down front and back glass means greater risk of breakage, while making all repairs difficult to start.
Screen repairs will require near-complete disassembly.

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