Samsung Galaxy S4 Costs $236 to Make, Up 15% from SIII - IHS

Research from IHS suggests that Samsung new Galaxy S4 smartphone has a bill of materials (BOM) of $236, based on their tear down of the device. This is up 15 percent from the Galaxy S3, given major upgrades in the display, sensors and application processor and supporting memory.

"Although its hardware is not radically different from the Galaxy S III introduced in April of 2012, the Samsung Galaxy S4 includes some critical component updates that enhance its functionality as well as its BOM cost," said Vincent Leung, senior analyst for cost benchmarking at IHS. "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. And despite the larger display and other changes, the Galaxy S4 has roughly the same width and the same ease of handling as the Galaxy S III."

On the full-HD active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display from Samsung Display, the firm notes the pixel format went to 1,920 by 1,080 versus the 1,280 by 720 WXGA resolution display in the S III. The S4’s HD display and touch-screen subsystem is estimated to carry a cost of $75.00, up from $65.00 for the S III. While not noted by IDC, Universal Display (NASDAQ: PANL) provided technology for the AMOLED display.

For the apps processor in the HSPA+ version of the Galaxy S4, Samsung is believed to be employing an Exynos 5 Octa solution, an eight-core chip using its own design, and manufactured with Samsung's own 28-nanometer process. This compares to the quad-core Exynos apps processor in the Galaxy S III. The cost of the Galaxy S4's processor is estimated at $30.00, compared to $17.50 for the chip in the Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S4's eight-core Exynos processor uses ARM's (NASDAQ: ARMH) big.LITTLE microprocessor architecture.

The 4G LTE version of the Galaxy S4 employs a different apps processor and baseband, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, a quad-core apps processor and LTE radio solution

The humidity and temperature sensor as well as the IR gesture sensor are new in the Galaxy S4 compared to the Galaxy S III. Because of these new capabilities, the user interface and sensor subsystem of the Galaxy S4 carries an estimated cost of $16.00, up from $12.70 in the Galaxy S III.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) is believed to be the supplier of the baseband processor and RF transceiver in the HSPA+ version of the Galaxy S4, just as it did for the Galaxy S III. Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) is the likely source for the Wireless LAN/Bluetooth/FM/GPS subsystem and the GPS/GLONASS section in the non-Qualcomm variant of the Galaxy S4.

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