We were all disappointed when the iPhone 15 Pro Max was announced last month at a higher price than the previous Pro Max. However, a new teardown reveals that Apple's flagship model is indeed more expensive to manufacture.

In partnership with Fomalhaut Techno Solutions and Japanese news site Nikkei (via AppleInsider), the new iPhone was disassembled and its components were cost analyzed to reveal how much Apple actually spends to manufacture the iPhone It is now clear. And it turns out that Apple is paying considerably more to manufacture these phones than it did last year.

According to this analysis, the final component cost of the iPhone 15 Pro Max is $558, which is 12% higher than the production cost of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro is 8% more expensive than the iPhone 14 Pro, the iPhone 15 Plus is 10% more expensive than the iPhone 14 Plus, and the iPhone 15 is 16% more expensive than the iPhone 14.

Converting these figures to actual dollars, the table below shows.

Returning to focus on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the most expensive new component is the tetra prism telephoto camera, according to Nikkei and Fomalhaut's findings. This new lens gives the latest Pro Max a 5x telephoto zoom, but costs 3.8 times more than the 3x telephoto camera used by the previous Pro iPhone and the smaller iPhone 15 Pro.

The new titanium-clad frame and A17 Pro chipset are considerably more expensive than the iPhone 14 Pro Max's previous stainless steel body and A16 Bionic chip, costing 43% and 27% more, respectively.

Given that the manufacturing costs of all new iPhones are considerably higher than the previous generation, the good news is that Apple has stabilized iPhone prices for all but one model.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a starting price of $100/£100 more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max at launch, but with increased basic storage. the price increase from $1,099 to $1,199 is about 8%, and Apple itself added cost a little more.

Still, Apple is not suffering in the profit department; even with the increased material costs of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple is still making 53% profit per unit sold. But this does not take into account R&D costs, marketing, shipping, packaging, etc.

Despite the price increase, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is our pick as the best phone you can buy today.