Its plastic chassis may feel cheaper than the iPhone 5’s glass-and-aluminum materials, but Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 smartphone actually costs significantly more to make. In fact, almost 20% more.

The reverse-engineering vivisectionists over at IHS iSuppli have broken down the Galaxy S4 into its base components, and have concluded that the total cost of making an S4 with 16GB of memory is around $244, 17% more than the iPhone 5 and 15% more than the Galaxy SIII.

That upgraded cost? It’s all in the specs.

“Among the upgrades are a larger, full high-definition display; a beefed-up Samsung processor; and a wealth of new sensors that set a record high for the number of such devices in a smartphone design,” said IHS senior analyst Vincent Leung in a statement.

Of course, one advantage that Samsung has over Apple is that even though Samsung is paying more to make the Galaxy S4, they are their own biggest component supplier, meaning that the majority of that money spent building each phone goes right back in their own pocket. Not a bad deal, huh?

The question is, how much will the Galaxy S4 cost? Samsung still hasn’t announced pricing, so how much of this increased build cost will end up being passed on to the consumer? We’re guessing not much, if any, but there’s a lot of questions about the S4 remaining before it launches in April.

• SourceWall Street Journal