3 min read
The new Galaxy S10 lineup has impressed a lot of tech-enthusiasts and tech-analysts. With its futuristic design and the best display in the industry, the S10 lineup is currently the most updated lineup in the android industry.
However, such design and upgraded hardware has dramatically increased the price, with the S10 Plus starting at a whopping $1000 compared to $750 for S9 Plus last year, but how much of it is justified? Well, according to TechInsights (an analytics company) Samsung is charging its consumers more than double the actual price of S10 Plus for its Exynos 9820 variant. The actual price of the Galaxy S10 Plus is $420 which is 42% of its retail price, shocking, to say the least. Here is the break down of the cost.
Processor
The biggest cost saving point for Samsung in their S10 lineup which featured the Exynos 9820 variant. Samsung’s next-generation processor provides better performance but is significantly cheaper. However, the benefit of the price reduction of the processor was only limited to Samsung’s part as consumers did not witness any price reduction in the new Galaxy phones.
The South Korean giant was able to cut costs by using their in-house built Exynos 9820 at 8 nm over their Exynos 9810 at 10 nm. Both die sizes are roughly the same (122 mm2 on the S9+ and 124 mm2 in the S10+), but the S10+’s processor costs about $10 less than the S9+’s unit due to wafer pricing drops in the past 10+ months. The following graphic shows the exact price of equipment used in the Galaxy S10 Plus.
Display and Memory
The display cost has increased to $9 due to the larger size, the punch hole, and the edge-to-edge design. Memory Pricing continues to fall at a dramatic pace, allowing Samsung to double the storage from 64GB to 128GB in the base unit and add an additional 2GB of LPDDR4X without an additional cost increase. Samsung also included a free 128GB microSD card in the box of the S10+ which adds just under $12 to their Supporting Material costs.
Is Samsung ripping you off?
A short answer would be, Yes! A lot of blame goes to Apple for introducing the $1000 trend in the smartphone industry and rightly so. However, Samsung is keen to continue that trend in the Android realm. Back in 2018 we also wrote about the actual price of iPhone XS Max and the profit gains that Apple was gaining from the iPhone XS Max was pretty similar to what Samsung is intending to gain from the S10 Plus. In an age where budget phones are getting better and better, Samsung is adamant on following Apple’s path for introducing ultra-expensive smartphones. Perhaps one of the main reason why Samsun is rapidly losing its market share in Asia, the South Korean giant should take a leaf out of OnePlus and Xiaomi‘s book for releasing premim phones at budget price, instead of drastically increasing them every year.
