Samsung\u2019s Won-Joon Choi, the COO of its mobile business, tells The Verge that the memory shortage alone made a \u201csignificant contribution\u201d to the price. All the increasing material costs factored into the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus costing $100 more than their predecessors this year, as did tariffs, but the memory was \u201csignificant,\u201d he tells me.<\/p>\n
The S26 does come with double the storage this year at its higher price, with 256GB rather than 128GB, though its $899 price tag is still $40 higher than an S25 with 256GB cost at launch. And though tariffs may have been a factor as well, Samsung has hiked the price in other regions too, not just the United States. The pricier S26 Ultra does come with intriguing upgrades<\/a>, however, including a built-in privacy screen and the largest vapor chamber cooling system in a phone.<\/p>\n Samsung chip partner Qualcomm warned in its February quarterly results that it was seeing a big dip in its handset business \u201c100 percent\u201d due to the memory shortage, telling investors that the AI industry\u2019s appetite for components would likely define the entire scale of the phone industry<\/a> all year long.<\/p>\n