In the Android camp, there is this general idea that the iPhone is “overpriced”. This is because iPhones are usually much more expensive than Android phones even if their specs are similar. However, most iPhone users do not see things this way. They believe that the iPhone offers good value for money. According to a new report, a Japanese teardown specialist, Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, recently took down the Apple iPhone 12 to assess the material cost. According to its result, the iPhone 12 material cost is about $373.
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Apple iPhone 12 material cost
In terms of main components, here are the prices of the iPhone 12 parts according to Fomalhaut’s estimation
- iPhone 12 OLED panel – $70 per unit
- iPhone 12 Bionic A14 chip – $40 per unit
- SK Hynix DRAM – $12.8 per unit
- Samsung Electronics flash memory – $19.2 per unit
- Sony CMOS – $7.4 – $7.9.
The above-listed items are the most expensive parts of the iPhone 12. There are numerous other parts that are part of “others” in the list above. For comparison, the new iPhone 12 starts at $799 for the 64GB version. The 128GB version sells for about $849 while the 256GB variant is available for $949. These prices vary in different regions. In China, the iPhone 12 series is much more expensive. They cost 6299 yuan ($957) for the 64GB version, 6799 yuan ($1033) for the 128GB version, and 7599 yuan ($1155) for the 256GB version.
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However, we should note that Fomalhaut mainly analyzes material costs. However, material costs are affected by the yield rate, and the actual cost should be higher than this data. At the same time, Apple’s costs in R&D, operations, and promotion, as well as its investment in the industrial chain, are far from being reflected by these figures.
In addition, component suppliers for different mobile phones may be slightly different. iFixit’s previous disassembly of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro shows that in addition to the A14 processor designed by Apple and manufactured by TSMC, Micron supplies LPDDR4 SDRAM; Samsung supplies NAND flash memory chips; Qualcomm provides 5G and LTE Communication transceiver. Thus, there are a lot of parameters that this disassembly doesn’t take into consideration.
Apple iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 specifications
- 6.1-inch (2532×1170 pixels) OLED 460ppi Super Retina XDR display, up to 1200 nits brightness, HDR, Dolby Vision, Ceramic Shield protection
- Six-Core A14 Bionic 5nm chip with 64-bit architecture, quad-core graphics
- 64GB, 128GB,256GB storage options
- iOS 14
- Water and dust resistant (IP68)
- Dual SIM (nano + eSIM)
- 12MP wide-angle (f/1.6) camera, 7P lens, optical image stabilization, True Tone flash, 4K video recording at 60 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 240fps, 12MP 120° Ultra Wide (f/2.4) secondary camera, 5P lens
- 12MP TrueDepth front camera with f/2.2 aperture, Retina Flash, 4K video recording at 60 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 120fps
- TrueDepth camera for FaceID facial recognition, Stereo speakers
- Dimensions: 146.7×71.5×7.4mm; Weight: 162grams
- 5G (sub‑6 GHz), Gigabit-class LTE, 802.11ax Wi‑Fi 6 with 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC with reader mode, GPS with GLONASS
- Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery with MagSafe wireless charging, fast charging, up to 17 hours of video playback
