How cheap can you make a phone?
Andrew “bunnie” Huang recently paid $12 at Mingtong Digital Mall for a complete phone, featuring quad-band GSM, Bluetooth, MP3 playback, and an OLED display plus keypad for the UI. Simple, but functional; nothing compared to a smartphone, but useful if you’re going out and worried about getting your primary phone wet or stolen.
So basically, at the cost of a large Dominos pizza, you can take home a cellphone which includes a silicon sleeve and a cable. To understand more, Andrew got into some details. Here are a few things that keeps the cost low:
1. There are no screws. The whole case just snaps together.
2. No connectors inside, everything is soldered directly to the board.
3. The electronics consists of just two major ICs: the Mediatek MT6250DA, and a Vanchip VC5276.
On the whole, the device costs less than $10 to manufacture.
Source: Bunnie Studios
As the growth prospects of economies around the world battle against skyrocketing costs, geopolitical instability,…
India has been upping the game in investments as Indian startups forge ahead with new…
The Tech Panda takes a look at recently launched gadgets & apps in the market.…
High school students at Delhi Public School (DPS) earned MIT-certified AI credentials and improved their…
The recent India–AI Impact Summit 2026 demonstrated a defining global inflection point — the transition…
The Tech Panda looks at Indian Fintech expanding to Sri Lankan Bank while a Swiss…