Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Base Variant Costs $469 to Manufacture: Counterpoint

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the high-end Android handset powered by a customised version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC was launched in February this year. The flagship smartphone’s price starts at $1199 (roughly Rs. 98,300) for the base 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant. Now, a bill of materials (BoM) analysis of Galaxy S23 Ultra by research firm Counterpoint shows how much of that price tag accounts for the internals. The BoM for Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s base variant is reportedly less than 40 percent of the retail value of the handset.

A latest bill of materials (BoM) analysis by Counterpoint’s component research service suggests that Samsung is generating a fair profit from its premium phone. Producing the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage version of Galaxy S23 Ultra costs the South Korean smartphone company $469. As per the report, the processor and cellular components accounted for 34 percent of the model’s BoM cost. The premium handset is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy.

Besides the customised SoC, Qualcomm has designed the fingerprint sensor IC, key power management ICs, audio codec, RF power amplifiers, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth, GPS and Sub-6GHz transceiver in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. With this Qualcomm’s share in the handset has increased to an ‘all-time high’, noted Counterpoint.

Display (18 percent) and the “others” category (15 percent) also accounted for the biggest chunk of BoM. The camera contributed 14 percent of the total BoM cost of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, followed by Memory (11 percent) and Casing (8 percent).

The second-largest beneficiary of Galaxy S23 Ultra is Samsung. Samsung’s other business units supply the 256GB NAND flash and the 6.8-inch AMOLED display for the device. In the camera subsystem, Samsung (SEMCO) and Sony make the major share of the BoM. Samsung provides the 200-megapixel wide-angle camera (S5KHP2) and 12-megapixel selfie camera (S5K3LU), while Sony supplies the 12-megapixel ultrawide (IMX564) senior, 10-megapixel telephoto and periscope telephoto (IMX754) sensors.

Further, Silicon Mitus and Maxim are the providers of power management ICs. STM designs the laser autofocus module, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and touch panel controller. The battery is packaged by Samsung and the cell is provided by ATL. The quick charging IC is sourced from NXP while the 15W wireless charging IC is from Convenient Power.