Looks like Amazon’s much-ambitious 3D-type display smartphone alias, the Fire is the latest hot favorite of firms specializing in complete teardowns. A new teardown analysis by research firm IHS reportedly claims that the Fire’s build cost is lower than that of the Samsung Galaxy S5 while higher than that of the iPhone 5s. The news was reported by Recode citing IHS’s as-yet-unreleased report.
According to the report, Amazon’s first ever smartphone is actually built of gears that when assembled together entail a cost of nearly $205. The firm has however not listed the cost of each component used in the device. Earlier, repair and teardown specialist iFixit had posted a detailed teardown analysis of the Fire phone. iFixit found the device contains chips from as many as five manufacturers, beating under the hood, NXP Semiconductors NV, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, namely, Qualcomm Inc ,Synaptics Inc and Skyworks Solutions Inc respectively. iFixit has also gone on to reveal a detailed list of what and where components from the above mentioned companies have been used in the device. Mobile hardware manufacturers are known to employ more than one memory chips supplier in their devices these days. Therefore, the revelation is not surprising at all. However, iFixit’s detailed teardown helps average buyers and enthusiast to know what they are paying for at the end of the day.
The Amazon Fire consists of Qualcomm chips for radio frequency, power amplifier, audio and WiFi respectively. It contains 32GBs of NAND memory chips meant for storing pictures, music and other media and 2GBs of DRAM memory from Samsung. Further, features a near field communication chip from NXP for enabling features such as mobile payments and a touchscreen director from Synaptic. The device also houses a communications chip from Skyworks.
The Fire is exclusively available on AT&T in the US for now. The 32GB variant is priced at around $199 (Rs 12,000) with a two-year contract while the 64GB can be booked for $299 (Rs 18,000) with a two-year contract. There is however no word on the device’s global availability yet.
