iPhone 15 Pro Max costs $502 to build; $37.7 higher than predecessor

The most powerful iPhone ever – iPhone 15 Pro Max, delivers a powerful lineup of hardware including the A17 Pro Bionic SoC and new telephoto lenses delivering the best iPhone experience. Even after major differences between the latest and its predecessor, the former comes in at $502 in terms of total BOM compared to its $1,199 price tag in the US. Let’s dig into the details.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max costs $37.7 more to build than the 14 Pro Max

According to global research firm Counterpoint Research (CR), the total bill of materials (BoM) of the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in at $502, just $37.7 (or 8%) more than the 256GB variant of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. debuted last year at the same price of $1,199.

CR compared the nomenclature of the 8GB + 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max and the 6GB + 256GB iPhone 14 Pro Max to conclude. After further analysis, we could see that the Apple A17 Pro Bionic chipset built on TSMC’s 3nm node takes a significant chunk of a $30 upside in terms of BoM. The chipset brings 18% more transistors than the A16 and 20% better performance as well as 3D rat tracing and improved gaming performance, among others.

Another notable upgrade that contributed to the increase in BOM is Apple’s first-ever 5X telephoto periscope camera. With different components from vendors like Lante Optics, Cirrus Logic, and LG Innotek, the camera assembly is 34% more expensive than the $25.1 iPhone 14 Pro Max, which includes the rear camera assembly , Face ID, the front camera and ToF 3D. modules.

The titanium alloy frame onboard the iPhone 15 Pro Max added an additional $7 (or 18%) to the final BOM compared to the stainless steel of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Overall, this has made the iPhone 15 Pro Max more resistant to drops and scratches while also making it 20g lighter, which is a major win-win. The sum of the upgrades adds a total of $63.1 to the BoM. However, thanks to declining memory markets, that translates to $16.8 worth of cheaper but higher quality 8GB DRAM on board the 15 Pro Max, as you can see in the chart above.

Key to remember

As we can see, Apple has more control over various aspects, including phone design. It has diversified its flagship lineup, giving interested users better options to choose from, like the entire iPhone 15 series. A better chipset and improved performance thanks to improved neural engines for AI give Apple an advantage over its competitors , without forgetting the ecosystem of the operating system and applications.

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