Huawei Qingyun L540-011 Deep Dive Teardown
Discover the key hardware cost differences in the Huawei Qingyun L540 laptops, highlighting the impact of varying SSDs and the growing presence of Chinese IC brands in the overall bill of materials.
The Huawei Qingyun L540-011 laptop is the same design as the previously analyzed Huawei Qingyun L540 ItemID431729 laptop. A major difference between the two laptops is the size of the SSD drive, which is an add-on subsystem. The 512 GB 4D NAND memory IC used is from SK Hynix, whereas in the previous laptop, the 256 GB NAND was a Western Digital memory IC.
The use of the different SSDs was the most significant factor when comparing the hardware costs. Like the previous laptop, we identified many Chinese IC package brands. For this specific analysis, TechInsights identified five more Chinese IC brands than in the previous analysis. The increase in the number points to either second sources used for the ICs, or, the amount of time between each analysis has garnered more experience in identifying the ICs in this laptop. Second sourcing could also explain the other differences found in the other categories listed below. Chinese IC manufacturers accounted for $108.68 of the $182.18 of the IC bill of materials costs.