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Samsung has another surefire hit on its hands with its new Galaxy S4 smartphone. The device has only recently launched and IHS has laid their hands on one and ripped it apart to give us an idea of how much it costs to build. This time, this is an actual Galaxy S4 that’s been torn apart unlike the virtual teardown performed by the company in March.
Interestingly, when the company performed the virtual teardown it estimated the bill of materials for the S4 was about $244(USD). Now the company got an actual phone to rip apart, and it says that the 32 GB version costs a little bit more than $237 per unit to build. That means the virtual tear down was impressively close. Not bad.
The teardown also reveals that Samsung and its subsidiaries provide the vast majority of components used to build the phone. One component in the U.S. version that isn’t sourced from Samsung is the processor, which is a QUALCOMM Snapdragon. However, the Korean version of the S4 does use a Samsung processor. The U.S. version of the phone also has a Fujitsu image processor that the Korean version doesn’t offer. Other component suppliers include Corning, Broadcom, Maxim and Triquint Semiconductor.
[via AllthingsD]
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
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We may still not have exact launch dates for the Galaxy S4 on all carriers, but the launch is approaching -- and with it, Samsung's latest big ad campaign. From the looks of the first few TV spots, the company is staying away from any shots at its rivals or celebrity appearances (at least for now), focusing instead on some of the new features of the smartphone; Sound Shot, Group Play and S Translator all get their own 30 second ads, while another minute-long commercial (appearing in at least in the UK) offers a more general and suitably dramatic overview of the phone. There's no word yet on exactly how big a push Samsung will be making with the new ad campaign, but it's pretty safe to bet you'll be seeing lots of these in the months ahead.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Via: Android Beat
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for photos and video of gadgets being torn apart to see what they look like on the inside. Typically, when we’re looking at a teardown its the geeks over at iFixit. In fact, not too long ago they tore apart a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet. Today we are talking about a different sort of “teardown” of the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.
I use the term “teardown” loosely, because the guys over at IHS iSuppli didn’t actually have an S4 to rip apart yet – they did it virtually. The company relied on its Mobile Handset Cost Model Service to figure out a bill of materials for constructing the smartphone. According to the company, they estimate the phone costs Samsung $244(USD), including an $8.50 manufacturing charge to build the S4. That cost is significantly more than the S3 from last year.
The increase in cost is blamed on the high-end parts that are expected to be used in the S4. The bill of goods estimates that the 5-inch 108p HD screen and its touch hardware costs $75 alone. The processor is estimated to cost $30 while the user interface and sensor subsystem adds $16. The LTE Version of the S4 is estimated to be cheaper to build than the HSPA+ version, but that’s mostly because it sports a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon instead of the eight-core Exynos Octa processor. The total bill of materials for the LTE version is $233.
If there’s anything Apple made clear with their lawsuit against Samsung for patent infringement, it’s that the latter has become a threat too big to ignore. People used to begin talking about the next iPhone even though a new one had just been released the other week, but it looks like Samsung’s up-and-coming Galaxy S4 is taking center stage and pushing all those iPhone 5S rumors to the side. Do we finally have an iPhone killer in the form of the S4?
Images from purported leaks of Samsung’s latest smartphone, along with features and specifications that the phone might come equipped with, are already flooding a number of media outlets. In case you’re late to party, we’ve got the details right here for you.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 will be officially unveiled on March 14th. The invites to the event have already been mailed out, Samsung has already released part two of their teaser for the phone’s release, and we’re all ready to have our speculations either confirmed or chucked out in two days’ time. But until then, here’s what we suspect to unpack out of the box:
Excited yet? I know I am.
VIA [ Cnet ]