At $236, Galaxy S4 costlier to produce than S3, says report

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

The Samsung Galaxy S4's production costs are 15 percent higher than those of its predecessor, thanks to an upgraded display, sensors, processor, and memory, according to an IHS iSuppli teardown.

The latest model of Samsung's flagship phone costs $236 to produce, according to information analyzed by IHS. The firm said its estimates could change with a physical teardown, but for now the improvements equal a heftier cost. The HSPA+ version of the S4 has 16 gigabytes of NAND flash memory and costs $244 in materials plus $8.50 to manufacture. The LTE version is a bit cheaper at $233.

"Among the upgrades are a larger, full high-definition (HD) display; a beefed-up Samsung processor; and a wealth of new sensors that set a record high for the number of such devices in a smartphone design," Vincent Leung, senior analyst for cost benchmarking at IHS, said in a press release.

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The S4's new AMOLED 1,920x1,080-pixel display is where a bulk of the increased costs came from for both the HSPA+ and LTE versions. It costs $75 versus the S3's $65 display. IHS' analysts said it's the first phone to have an AMOLED display with th... [Read more]