These three hardware components triple the production costs of the Xiaomi Mi 10

Probably nobody doubts anymore that Xiaomi, with its flagship series Mi 10, made a big qualitative leap. However, the most high-end mobile hardware on the market still took its toll—and that toll is a higher price.

Every extra euro in the case of Mi 10 is justified

The manufacturer presented Mi 10 not only in a top-notch design, but also equipped the smartphones with the best mobile hardware available today. Of course, this pushed the smartphone’s price above the value of 500 € / 12 600 kč, and with Xiaomi phones we haven’t been used to prices like this so far.

But if we look at the smartphone’s production costs, we’ll see that every euro of increase is justified and that perfect specs require higher costs. A well-known leaker with the nickname “Ice Universe” on Twitter mentioned only three core elements of the Mi 10 lineup, which significantly exceed the costs compared to regular mobile hardware.

The most expensive is the processor, followed closely by the display

Mi 10 smartphones come with a 6.67-inch curved AMOLED display with a punch-hole cutout, which costs approximately 90 $ (83 € / 2 094 kč). The cost of a standard flat display is usually no more than 30 $ (28 € / 706 kč).

The same goes for the Snapdragon 865 with support for 5G mobile networks. The cost of acquiring this component is double that of the previous SD855 model. The expected price of the Snapdragon 855 was around 50 dollars (46 € / 1160 kč), so the new 865 could cost up to 100 dollars (92 € / 2325 kč).

Last but not least, the price was also significantly increased by the 108 MPx photo sensor from Samsung. Its procurement costs are at least 50 $ (46 € / 1 160 kč). Compared to the 48 MPx sensor at about 13 $ (12 € / 303 kč), that’s almost four times more.

As you can see, the specs of the new Mi 10 are pretty pricey, which is why the higher price of the new flagships is justified. Plus, thanks to the company’s low margins and their Mi 10 pricing policy, it costs significantly less than similarly spec’d competitor smartphones.

Let’s mention just the basic Galaxy S20 model as an example—the price starts at 899 € and some parts of the specs are weaker than on Mi 10, such as the 108 MPx sensor.

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