Sony h.ear on 3 (WH-H910N) Teardown photos from FCC

The FCC internal photos for the upcoming h.ear on 3 have become available for viewing. As with most FCC internal photos, the quality is poor and not always great, but some information and details can be found in the filing.

As with all teardowns, the first thing I look for is the internal code and we are in luck it is printed on this board, HDX-2940. Back in August I wrote about a new upcoming model, the HDX-2941. Checking the Bluetooth certification site brings up the certification for the new WH-H910N, but the code on that page is the unknown HDX-2941 and not HDX-2940. We can automatically exclude the WI-1000XM2 since that has the code HDX-2928, so the only device left is the WH-H810 or h. ear on 3 mini.

Next up in this photo, Sony has highlighted something interesting, a chip with the markings CXD90050. This chip has no description as anything specific, so why Sony highlighted is intriguing. For anyone who read my WI-1000XM2 post where I compare it to the previous model will notice a similar chip there as well. In that post I identified the chip as the QN1 when comparing to the press photos from Sony.

In that post, I originally labelled the QN1 in the WI-1000XM2 as the CXD98050, or CXD96050, but the photo is not the best quality so my interpretation is likely wrong and I do believe the text is CXD90050 just like in the WH-H910N. So does this mean the new WH-H910N also uses the QN1 for noise cancellation? Good question, nothing was mentioned in the press release and the product pages only mentions dual noise sensor technology.

So we are left with a couple of possibilities:

1. The chip is the QN1, same as the WI-1000XM2 with the correct label being CXD90050, meaning the WH-H910N also is equipped with the QN1.

2. The CXD90050 is not the QN1, and the chip in the WI-1000XM2 is not the CXD90050.

My bet is on the first one option. I suspect Sony is using the QN1 in the WH-H910N but has decided to not mention its use as not to eat into the sales of the more expensive WH-1000XM3. It would make sense for Sony to use the QN1 in other models since it would decrease costs for development and production.

So the question is, what is this CXD90050? Google does not provide anything specific but the FCC does. Looking at the WH-XB900N teardown on the FCC, we find the following image:

Click on the photo for larger size

Clearly labelled in the FCC document is the CXD90050GF-L. So this confirms the actual code, and adds another device, WH-XB900N to the list with the chip. While I do not have a clear photo of the WH-1000XM3 showing the chip label for the QN1 I suspect this will be the same. Luckily we have a photo from Sony themselves describing the QN1 as the CXD90050 from an event in South Korea for the WH-1000XM3. The blog post is in Korean, but in the blog post there is a series of photos with the QN1 press photo and the small CXD90050 chip below.

Source: http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=choiking18&logNo=221366290042

So there we have it, confirmation of the QN1 as the CXD90050. This means that so far 4 devices use the QN1, the WH-1000XM3, WH-XB900N, WH-H910N and WI-1000XM2.

Looking at the rest of the chips, it appears we have a similar chip beside the QN1 that was seen in the WI-1000XM2, the shiny silver-blue one that is seen below. (edit, had the wrong image before0

Likewise, on the other board of the WH-H910N, we have what appears to be the Bluetooth chip, MT2811 and a chip that could be the Q128FWF like in the WF-1000XM3 and WI-1000XM2. I am not expecting to find any further teardowns any time soon of the upcoming h.ear on 3 but perhaps once they are released someone will take it apart.

Finally the last interesting bit is the battery. It seems that there will be 2 suppliers for the battery, with Highpower the main supplier and Murata as the backup. Both are 1000mAh but the Murata one is 4.1Wh at 3.7V and the Highpower 3.7Wh at 3.7V. The battery is used in the WH-XB900N.

Source: FCC | QN1 source