Nio unveiled its second smartphone during the Innovation Day 2024what also a new car operating system and the industry’s first 5nm smart driving chip. How does a carmaker build smartphones? The same way smartphone makers do, more or less. WekiHome has a detailed teardown video that gives a look inside the phone.
The Nio Phone 2 upgrades the original design with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (up from Gen 2). The teardown process starts as usual, by removing the SIM card tray. There’s a rubber ring to keep water out (the phone has an IP68 rating, claiming to be able to submerge up to 2 meters underwater for 30 minutes). The back panel is made of glass, but there are metal inserts for the rings around the cameras. These are also sealed against water.
Underneath that is a flap that houses the NFC antenna and the wireless charging coil. The Phone 2 also adds UWB – both UWB and NFC can be used for regular smartphone stuff, but they also let the phone double as keys for compatible cars. Nio cars are of course compatible, as the company was one of the first to implement UWB late last year.
Anyway, other interesting finds include SK hynix RAM (LPDDR5X) and Samsung storage (UFS 4.0), plus a new vapor chamber to keep the Snapdragon running fast. However, WekiHome also found some less-than-premium details – for example, the Nio Phone 2 only has two microphones, while most flagships typically have three (or even four). Also, the fingerprint reader is an optical unit that sees through the OLED screen. The proximity and front-facing ambient light sensors are also under the display, both on a small daughterboard.