Articles related to the young man continue to be written incessantly
application editor Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (AP) which will power next year’s upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra, among others. We already know that it is about an expensive accessory priced from $190 to $240 each depending on which user posted the correct information. Considering that the predecessor chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 AP was priced at $200, we believe that the $240 price tag for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset is true.
In the $240 price range, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 would be 20% more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. One possible reason for the price increase is the increase in the price of the silicon wafers it uses TSMC to produce chips using the second-generation 3nm (N3E) process node. This will be the first Snapdragon 8 family flagship chip produced at the 3nm node and with wafer prices doubling from $15,000 to $30,000; so a higher price would be very reasonable.
However, MediaTek’s just-announced Dimensity 9400 AP, also built by TSMC using its second-generation 3nm node, costs $155. As a rival to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC, and with the Exynos 2500 out of contention due to Samsung Foundry’s performance issues at 3nm, one rumor has it that Samsung is using the Dimensity 9400 to power the entry-level Galaxy S25 model in most parts of the world.
TSMC is also using the second-generation 3nm process node for its number one customer, Apple, to manufacture the A18 and A18 Pro chipsets. Value firm TD Cowan revealed in a bill of materials (BOM) that it estimated for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the A18 Pro AP that powers Apple’s flagship smartphone, cost only $45 each. That’s a 13% increase from the $40 Apple paid for the A17 Pro that powered the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. But it’s still much cheaper than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, as Qualcomm’s chip is four to five times more expensive than the A18 Pro AP.
Perhaps the one and only reason for the big difference in pricing between Apple and Qualcomm is that the latter has to turn around and sell the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to a buyer while pricing the chip high enough to make a decent profit. Apple, on the other hand, uses TSMC-made chip’s for its own device, which means a lower pricing tier is required.
Additional, Qualcomm debuts its own CPU cores for Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 instead of licensing Cortex CPU cores from Arm. Trying to recoup some of the cost to develop those cores could also lead to a higher price for Qualcomm’s flagship AP this year.
Source: myphone.gr
