You guessed it: increasing memory costs are the primary factor that will lead to higher smartphone prices in 2026.
What you need to know
– Carl Pei indicates that smartphone prices are expected to climb in 2026 due to soaring memory expenses and brands’ difficulties in managing the repercussions.
– Prices for DRAM and NAND have surged dramatically, fueled by competition from both smartphones and AI data centers.
– Memory has emerged as one of the priciest components in smartphones, escalating the overall production costs for brands.
Carl Pei, the founder and CEO of Nothing, has elucidated the reasons behind the anticipated rise in smartphone prices in 2026, cautioning that brands targeting budget and mid-range markets might face challenges as a consequence.
If you have been keeping up with industry updates, you will have noticed that both DRAM, such as LPDDR5, and NAND flash memory prices have skyrocketed in the past month. These parts are essential for smartphones, with DRAM serving as RAM and NAND functioning as storage.
CyberPowerPC reports that global memory prices have increased by up to 500%, while SSD prices have risen by nearly 100%, showing no immediate signs of stabilization. If these hikes were short-lived, brands could have absorbed the expenses and waited for market prices to normalize.
However, that does not appear to be the situation, indicating that the elevated costs will likely be transferred to consumers.
Pei took to X to announce that smartphone prices, including those of Nothing’s devices, will rise in 2026. He observed that the industry had long assumed that smartphone components would eventually decrease in price, but that assumption is no longer valid.
Why smartphone prices will rise in 2026
A significant portion of this increase is due to competition for the same memory resources utilized in AI data centers. As smartphones and AI infrastructure now vie directly for DRAM and NAND supply, prices have escalated sharply in response.
Pei explained that memory costs have already surged by up to threefold and are rapidly becoming one of the priciest elements in a smartphone. This has considerably inflated the manufacturing costs, with some projections suggesting memory modules that were priced under $20 a year ago could surpass $100 by year’s end for high-end devices.
Consequently, your next smartphone is likely to be more expensive than it would have been otherwise. Pei also confirmed that the prices within Nothing’s smartphone lineup will “inevitably” rise, partly due to some devices set to launch in Q1 2026 upgrading to faster UFS 3.1 storage.
While this may not be entirely unexpected from Pei, Nothing is among the first significant Android manufacturers to publicly affirm that smartphone prices will increase in 2026.
In other developments, Samsung is reportedly examining price hikes for the forthcoming Galaxy S26 series, although there is no official confirmation at this time. The Galaxy S26 series is anticipated to debut on February 25, 2026.