The Cost of Hardware Prototyping
First things first: prototyping costs. They’re almost always underestimated. When you start a new product development you have to put aside a healthy budget for prototyping.
Depending on the complexity, costs can quickly climb into the six-figure range and in some cases, even beyond a million.
Prototyping cost cannot be estimated by the size of your product. It’s the complexity, components, and processes, not the size that determine prototype cost.
You also need to factor in the man-hours spent on assembling, debugging, and refining each prototype. Functional prototypes with custom PCBAs and other parts that are custom made carry a higher cost
Each prototype answers different questions. In hardware you need multiple iterations:
- looks-like models to check design
- functional prototypes
- engineering builds (EVT/DVT) to validate reliability
Looks-like Model
A
looks-like model is basically a prototype that shows off how the final product will look, without worrying about whether it works yet.
Industrial designers use these to play with shape, color, materials, and how the product feels in your hand — making sure it looks great and fits the brand.
They’re also super useful for getting feedback or showing investors what’s coming. The more ergonomic features a product has, the more prototypes you’ll usually need to get the comfort and usability just right.
Proof of Concept (POC)
The first and roughest stage of any prototype is called a proof-of-concept. When creating them, engineers use developer boards or breadboards and you might see many wires!
POCs are important because they enable you to rapidly and affordably test hypotheses prior to spending money on thorough design work or custom PCBAs.
If you catch issues early, you can save a lot of effort and money if the basic function fails here.
This stage is to demonstrate the viability of the main concept or purpose than it is to make it appear nice.
Functional Prototype
A functional prototype is all about making the product actually work. These builds use real PCBAs running firmware, often paired with CNC-machined housing parts, so they’re as close as possible to the final product in both looks and function.
The goal is to prove that the electronics, software, and mechanics all play nicely together. At this stage, you can test performance, reliability, and how the product feels in real life.
You will encounter setbacks at this stage. The firmware might not behave as intended or a mechanical feature might have an issue. Sometimes parts have to be re-worked.
The closer you want it to match the final design, the more detail and refinement go into each prototype.
