When it comes to buying hardware, there is one long-held, iron-clad rule: it always gets cheaper with age (until it becomes a collectible two decades later). But Samsung Galaxy, Motorola, Xiaomi, Sony, and others are bucking that trend with surprise price increases for months-old tech, leaving discount shoppers in a pickle.
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Thanks to the price of memory chips surging by 90% in Q1 of 2026, which is driven by AI companies buying up all the available supply for data centers, smartphone manufactures are passing that cost on to you, the buyer.
Samsung has raised the price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 1TB to $2,499.99 from $2,419.99 in the U.S., an $80 jump. The 512GB model has also gone up by $80 to $2,199.99, while the entry-level 256GB remains at $1,999.99.
Prices for the foldable have gone up in Korea too, with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge expected to get the same treatment.
The future of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra discounts may be in question as the memory chip crisis rages on. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
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The Korean company is also planning to raise the retail cost for several Samsung Galaxy A-series phones by between INR 500 ($6) and INR 3,500 ($38). It may not seem like much, but this is the fifth price hike for select Samsung Galaxy phones in India since January.
That is on top of a higher base price for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series in select countries, while the recently released Samsung Galaxy A57 launched at $549.99 compared to the $499.99 release price of last year's Galaxy A56.
It’s not just Samsung Galaxy phones. Motorola raised the price of three Moto G-series phones by up to $100—a huge price hike for budget handsets that all launched at under $300. Blaming the rising cost of memory, Xiaomi announced earlier this month that prices for select phones would go up by roughly $30, while and Oppo and OnePlus handsets have suffered a similar fate.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 price jump is the headline news, but the Moto G series is the most dramatic price hike. So far the increases aren’t exclusionary for buyers. The real issue is what this means for discounts and deals, an area where Android usually excels.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 saw a price hike 8 months after its release. (Photo by Future Publishing via Getty Images)
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Last May, Samsung slashed the price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (its then-flagship foldable) by $350, bringing the price down to $1,699.99. A year later, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 actually costs more than when it was released eight months ago. Don’t expect to see that kind of discount again as the memory chip crisis deepens and profits for smartphone manufacturers continue to be squeezed.
Android’s biggest selling point is its affordability. A friend of mine just switched from an iPhone to the Google Pixel 10 Pro and only paid £100 ($135) with a trade-in and upfront Google Store discount.
After years of buying iPhones that don’t budge in price, he was shocked a premium smartphone could cost so little. That level of discount will become rarer as the memory chip crisis continues and the lack of deals causes a price creep.
We’ve already seen the popular double storage deal axed in the U.S. for Samsung Galaxy S26 buyers. When paired with a higher upfront price, the lure of an Android phone starts to dwindle.
I’m not entirely sure how this will all shake out for smartphone buyers in 2026. But there are some tactics you can employ to stem the bleed.
On the refurbished phones point, it is perhaps no coincidence that Google just expanded its refurbished phones program, which are now sold on Amazon for the first time (unlike Samsung Galaxy phones which are only sold direct at the Samsung store). It seems Google saw the writing on the wall and is betting on refurbished phones becoming the new normal. Maybe we should all pay attention.
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