Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are now officially on sale, and in addition to the LG G6, the flagship pair may be two of this year's best-reviewed smartphones.
No surprise there: the Galaxy S8 is a beast of a device, sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip underneath its glorious Infinity Display, complemented by a gorgeous back panel that makes space for no logos other than its own. It's a totem of accomplishment in both design and software, and the pair is also Samsung's much-needed comeback after the whole Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. But just how much does it cost to build one?
Galaxy S8 Manufacturing Cost
According to estimates from IHS Markit, an analytics company, the cost of the materials and manufacturing needed to create a Galaxy S8 unit is quite higher than the cost of building any flagship smartphone out in the market at present.
It costs Samsung $307.50 to build a Galaxy S8 — its chipset, internal storage, Super AMOLED Infinity Display, and glass panels included. It's $36.29 more expensive than the Galaxy S7 edge of yesteryear, and $83 more than the iPhone 7, as per IHS Markit's previous estimates.
Of course, Samsung has not offered any word whether the company's estimates are anything close to being accurate, nor is it likely to ever do so. As usual, take everything with a grain of salt, which you might actually want to do, given that Apple CEO Tim Cook himself blasted these form of estimates, previously saying that he's never stumbled upon one that's close to being accurate.
For some perspective, the second most expensive smartphone to produce is the Google Pixel XL, which costs $285.80. This makes the Galaxy S8 the most expensive phone to produce indeed. That said, it makes sense for Samsung to shell out a little more, if to ensure that the Galaxy S8 is a premium device through and through. After all, it needs only good press coverage for the phone moving forward, amid its steady resurfacing from the Note 7's ashes.
Galaxy S8 And S8 Plus
Both the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were announced late March, and both were released a little under a month later. The Plus version is pretty much the same as the standard variant, only with a larger screen, and a slightly higher-capacity battery.
The Galaxy S8 packs in a Snapdragon 835 chip, 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, and up to 256 GB of expandable memory. It's the first phone to ever come with Bluetooth 5.0 support, one feature that lets users pair two Bluetooth headsets simultaneously.
On the back is a 12-megapixel camera, and on the front is a 8-megapixel selfie camera. The phone supports wireless charging, and is water resistant.
To look at both phones' full specifications, check out our previous article covering the unveiling.
Thoughts about the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, particularly with the standard variant's purported manufacturing cost? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
