Teardown: 5s build costs at least $199, 5c $173

A teardown of Apple’s iPhone 5s and 5c by research firm IHS reveals just a few internal differences between the new phones. IHS estimates the 5s costs Apple between $199 to $218 for components and assembly — the lower cost for a 16GB model, and the higher cost for the 64GB model. The iPhone 5c is estimated to cost Apple $173 for the 16GB model, and $183 for the 32GB model. IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler pointed out that Apple is “spending a lot of time and money combining RF chips,” which allows the phones to support more frequency bands. But internally, there aren’t too many differences between the 5c and 5s. “I would say that they’re almost the same phone, except that the 5s has the fingerprint sensor, the A7 processor and some newer memory chips that consume less power. Beyond that, they’re basically the same,” Rassweiler said. Though the report claims the phones have “the same cameras,” iLounge has found differences in areas like aperture, angle width and pixel size — the phones have a different flash, as well. [via AllThingsD]