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Comment by an4rchy | Hacker News Reader

It's amazing how good it looks and yet is so cheap. Apart from the display and Face ID, I wonder how much it would cost to source used iPhone parts, perhaps even older version (iPhone 6 etc) and build out the internals for this phone.

Also, I'm curious, but if anyone has any insight, is this even profitable at $100 for them or is there a some sort of loss leading play for data behind such counterfeits.

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You may enjoy this video where a guy goes to Shenzen and tries to build an iPhone 6s from parts. He claims it cost $300. Technically he spent a little over $600 because he broke a lot of parts and bought the wrong parts in the process, but if everything went perfectly it would be about $300. I think this was created back when the 6s was the current model.

$300 claim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KucQDXnKws

build video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leFuF-zoVzA

I find it funny that this is a bit like the clockmaker hobbyist of 2010

I love stuff like this, but I think he left out a fairly important number: the amount of time he spent making it, and the $ value he'd put on that time.

When making a single phone, this effort counts (assume $20K). Once he is ready for mass production, then this effort is negligible (divide the $20K among 100K phones) .

Ye-es... but I'd argue that's not the proposition of the video. The claim is "I made an iPhone for $300", but the reality id more like "I made an iPhone for $300 of useful spend, $700 of wasted spend and $20,000 worth of my time".

The watcher might be tempted to take away "I can make an iPhone for $300," but actually it's more like "I can make an iPhone for $300 and ~$5,000 of my time".

Obviously the "$5,000 worth of my time" is actually the fun part fro some viewers. If you're the right kind of maker it might even be worth $5,000 to you.

I assume that most people asking this question of how much it costs to make an iPhone are asking in the context of a hobby project. In the context of a hobby project, at least for me, the time spent doing something I enjoy is a benefit, not a cost.

This was fascinating, makes me want to actually try and build a frankenstein phone. Thank you for posting!

It’s profitable when you don’t use Western electronic components und take parts designed for earlier generation phones. They are there, nobody wants them so you can get them cheaply. Just googled for cheap android phones and there are plenty models you can get <100$. Like Xiaomi Redmi 5A. There are many many noname devices for <70$.

As if Apple uses any components made in the West...

The only special thing is the design (also of the CPU) and the software.

They do use brand name components which are quite a bit more expensive than Chinese no-name ones.

I used to have an Android phone from WalMart that cost $40. It was a piece of junk, but apparently proof that you can manufacture a crappy smartphone for next to nothing.

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