A recent teardown of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has estimated that it costs around $240 to build, which is about $20 more than the 3G version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. The extra costs are due to the better display, the faster processor and the increased amount of RAM.
The successor to the Note 2 has a bigger display (full HD 5.7 inch SuperAMOLED), a faster processor (a quad-core 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800) and an extra gigabyte of RAM. Samsung and Qualcomm are the major chip suppliers for the Note 3 with the processor, baseband chips, and power management integrated circuits coming from Qualcomm and the memory (both RAM and flash) being made by Samsung. Other notable silicon providers are Wacom, which provides the digitizer controller module, and Broadcom which supplies the NFC chip.
Samsung chose to use a 5.7 inch display in the Note 3 which is 0.2 inches bigger across the diagonal than the Note 2, but unlike the Note 2, which had an RBG display, the new device uses a PenTile display like the Samsung Galaxy S4. There were some concerns about how a full HD PenTile display would perform as early PenTile displays suffered from a slight jaggedness around fine graphic elements such as text and icons. However it seems the these concerns where without foundation.
It is thought that the Samsung Galaxy S4 costs around $214 to build while the Note 2 cost $219. So clearly the Note 3 is Samsung’s most expensive device but it also sells for more. The off contract price of the Galaxy S4 is around $640, the Note 2 was a little more expensive at around $650, but the Note 3 goes for $699 meaning that Samsung will make a nice profit from this device if the sales go according to projections.
Recently Samsung revealed that it had sold over 38 million Galaxy Note devices (both Note and Note 2 sales combined) and it is thought that the bulk of those sales came from the Note 2. If the Note 3 manages to sell just as well it will be a very profitable smartphone for Samsung.
Now Watch: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review