If you live in the United States you might think it nice to find out your Samsung Galaxy S4 cost less to make than a consumer in Korea’s Galaxy S4—that is until you find out your Korean counterpart’s phone is better than yours.
Samsung uses better, more expensive, parts to manufacture the Galaxy S4 in Korea compared to the Galaxy S4 shipped to the U.S., according to ZDNET.com.
Researching firm IHS says that while the two versions of the handset look the same on the outside, the inside is a totally different story—namely the processor, wireless subsystem and user interface. This means that the smartphones possess discrepancies in their bill of materials or BOMs.
The U.S. version of the phone, which comes with 16 NAND flash storage, has an initial $229 BOM. It rises to $237 when the cost of manufacturing is included. The Korean version has the same type of memory configuration but has a $244 BOM which rises to $252 for manufacturing.
"With at least four different known incarnations of the Galaxy S4, Samsung is demonstrating its strategy of offering a mobile product that has appealing features and pricing — and then adapting the device to suit the tastes of varying markets or regions," said Senior Analyst Vincent Leung, teardown services, for IHS. "This approach is in stark contrast to the one-size-fits-all philosophy used by Apple Inc., Samsung's primary competitor in the wireless space."
Leung said the two versions are, “as different as kimchee and coleslaw.”
Out of all the differences between the two versions, the most glaring come in the form of the phones’ processors.
The U.S. Galaxy S4 sports the Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor—which costs $20—from Qualcomm. Samsung puts its own Octacore Exynos 5 eight-core processor into the Korean version of the phone which costs $28. The latter is more powerful and allows the Korean version of the smartphone to do things the Snapdragon-equipped U.S. phone cannot.
For example, the Korean version includes an eye-movement tracking and recognition system and the ability to pause a video by simply looking away from the screen.
For the full report, and more discrepancies, visit press.ihs.org.
