The Galaxy S23 Ultra costs less than $500 to build

Smartphones are expensive to buy, but they’re not all that cheap to build either. The Galaxy s23 Ultra is one of the most expensive slab phones that general users can buy. According to a new report, it seems that it cost Samsung less than $500 to build a Galaxy s23 Ultra.

Obviously, companies have to give their phones a significant markup to recuperate the cost of manufacturing, marketing, R&D, and other expenses. Building a flagship device is not cheap. Still, it’s very interesting to see just how much money goes into making your favorite device.

According to analysis, it costs Samsung less than $500 to build a Galaxy s23 Ultra

This news comes to us from Counterpoint Research (via 9To5Google). The Firm published the Bill-of-Materials (BoM) analysis for this phone, and it weighs in at $469. That’s a pretty significant chunk of change, as there are some premium mid-range phones that retail for not much more than that. Also, according to the analysis, most of the cost comes from only three components of the phone.

Firstly, about 35% of the cost is just the SoC (approximately $164). Samsung worked with Qualcomm to deliver the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy. We’re not sure if the partnership to make a custom Snapdragon chip cranked up the price.

Next up, about 18% of the cost comes from the device’s display (approximately $84). There’s no shocker there, as Samsung has some of the most gorgeous displays out there. This monster of an AMOLED panel has a resolution of 1,440 x 3,088, and it has a 120Hz refresh rate.

Lastly, about 14% of the cost comes from the camera (approximately $65). Again, Samsung puts a lot of time and effort into its camera technology, and that makes it one of the best cameras on the market. It’s no shocker that this is an expensive component.

Two other major components of the phone are the RAM (11%) and the casing (8%). The remaining 15% occupy the dreaded “Others” category. This category includes other components like the motherboard, S Pen, ports, sensors, Etc. So, if you are wondering why the Galaxy s23 Ultra is so expensive, just know that almost 40% of the cost of the phone is just from building it.