When Samsung published the prices of its new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, many people, including myself, thought it was too high a sum of money, especially the version with the glass curved around the edges, the one known as Galaxy Edge S6, which arrives with a price of € 849 in its 32gb version.
With these two models, Samsung launched what many consider to be the first Galaxy with a premium finish, which have aluminum and glass finishes. The finish is so premium that, in fact, the S6 Edge costs more to make than the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Research firm IHS reports that the Galaxy S6 Edge, the one most liked by most users due to its curved front panel, has a $ 290 build price in its 64gb version. The price includes components and assembly, being in total 34 $ per unit more expensive than last year's Galaxy S5 manufacturing cost. It is also significantly more expensive to manufacture than the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which IHS estimates to be cost $ 247 and $ 263 respectively.
Despite the price increase, the Galaxy S6 will sell, on average, at the same price if we buy it with a contract that the price with which we could buy a Galaxy S5 when it went on sale now a year ago. This means that the 64GB Edge version costs us end customers less than the iPhone 6 and a regular Galaxy S6 costs even less. It is something for which buyers of a Galaxy S6 with a contract should be very grateful since, paying the same, they will have a terminal with a much higher quality finish than what they had last year.
This increase shows that Samsung wanted to increase the quality of its devices and he did it by building them with best materials, thus obtaining the best Galaxy to date. Two terminals that, finally, are at the height of those manufactured by Apple. Such was his desire to achieve this that he will make less profit due to the millions of terminals purchased by contract for the same price, being the most expensive device to manufacture. It remains to be seen if the price increase when buying it free compensates these losses or if the improvements in the materials will increase the future sales of the Galaxy S family.
IPhones have more value (by components) in the design, while most of the high-end Android have it in the electronics by having more raw power, it is normal that the manufacturing costs are higher in those cases.