Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown shows that Galaxy S5 costs Samsung around $256 a piece. The Galaxy S5 teardown conducted by Chipworks shows the parts of this mega flagship while a leading market research firm, IHS, has analyzed the cost of all the components fitted in Samsung Galaxy S5. IHS had conduced a similar analysis for Galaxy's main rival, iPhone 5s last year which, it estimated, costs around $199 to produce.
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Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown:
Samsung is selling its current flagship smartphone for $650 carrier-free. The flagship comes at around $200 with a contract of two years. The leading research firm IHS estimates that the hardware components of Samsung Galaxy S5 cost about $256 to the company.
The analysis breaks down the cost tag for most of the components of Galaxy S5. According to IHS break down, Galaxy S5's Super AMOLED display module is the most expensive component of the smartphone, coming at around $63. Manufactured at Samsung, DRAM and flash memory modules cost the company $33 per device; while the fingerprint sensor and biosensor cost only $15 and $1.45 respectively.
"Inside we see mostly a lot of recycled components that we’ve seen before. There’s really nothing special inside where Samsung is pushing the envelope. There’s no breakthroughs, there’s nothing earth-shattering. It’s really just a continuation of what has come before.” - Andrew Rassweiler, IHS research.
Although it was expected that Galaxy S5 would cost the Korean mobile company more than Galaxy S4 (which was estimated to cost around $236 a piece), Samsung has evidently kept itself inside the budget bracket. Seems like the cost saving has been managed much by reusing the older components. However, unlike iPhones, the Galaxy S line is increasing in the manufacturing costs: Samsung Galaxy S3 was estimated at $205, the Galaxy S4 at $236, and the latest flagship Samsung Galaxy S5 at $256.
"Our main takeaway is that Samsung has been moved up to the higher end of the cost spectrum. It used to be that its typical flagship phone sold for $600 without a contract and had a bill of materials of about $200. Now they’re inching up above $250 regularly." - Rassweiler
While $394 may seem like a good profit margin for Samsung, software development, shipping, marketing, and other such costs are also to be counted before the exact profit could be estimated. Comparing to iPhones, which sell in the similar price bracket, Samsung is certainly investing more money on its handsets.
Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown images:
- Source: Re/code
