{"id":392034,"date":"2026-04-10T18:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T18:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392034\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T18:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T18:44:10","slug":"the-ram-crisis-could-be-the-end-for-chinese-ultra-flagships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392034\/","title":{"rendered":"The RAM crisis could be the end for Chinese Ultra flagships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Google<\/p>\n

Robert Triggs \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/p>\n

Surging RAM and memory prices are reportedly forcing Chinese manufacturers to reconsider the viability of their next-generation Ultra flagships.
\nBrands fear that raising prices above a certain point to cover costs will make them uncompetitive with Apple and Samsung\u2019s brand value.
\nLeakers suggest that Chinese Android brands may pause development until component prices stabilize to avoid financial losses.<\/p>\n

Leaker Digital Chat Station shared on Weibo<\/a> that the next generation of Android Ultra flagships might have been discontinued.<\/p>\n

\"DCS<\/p>\n

The leak is vague, but leaker Ice Universe has a longer post on X<\/a> with some more details.<\/p>\n

\"Ice<\/p>\n

Ice Universe mentions that \u201cmore than one Chinese brand\u201d is reportedly considering pausing the next generation of its Ultra flagship. However, the leaker doesn\u2019t mention which Chinese brand, so it could be any of OPPO, vivo, or Xiaomi, as these three have the most prominent Ultra flagships.<\/p>\n

In China, these Ultra flagships aren\u2019t sold in large enough volumes. Instead of sales volume and profits, their primary purpose of existence is to flex the manufacturer\u2019s camera hardware and software capabilities. As such, the entire budget for an Ultra flagship goes into the camera system, with other components contributing less to the bill of materials.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a><\/p>\n

With the rising RAM and memory prices, Android brands are forced to make tough decisions. Cutting corners on an Ultra flagship doesn\u2019t make sense, since it won\u2019t remain an Ultra flagship anymore.<\/p>\n

The other logical solution is to raise prices, but that comes with its own problems. If phones cross the CNY 10,000 (~$1,465) price mark, they enter the Samsung Ultra and iPhone territory, where they cannot compete, as it is often less about specs and more about brand value at that point. Higher prices would thus bring substantially lower sales at the same (or even lower) profit margins, which may not be enough to tip the breakeven point, potentially leading to a loss.<\/p>\n

Thus, pausing development of Android Ultra flagships is seen as the rational move for now, as it reserves the fighting chance for later when prices would eventually stabilize. Alternatively, the leaker suggests that Ultra flagships could adopt a balanced approach rather than a purely camera-focused one \u2014 though I don\u2019t see how this solves the issue, since it won\u2019t remain an Ultra flagship.<\/p>\n

So far, no Android brand has mentioned its next-generation Ultra flagships. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has been around for a while, but the vivo X300 Ultra just launched recently, and the OPPO Find X9 Ultra is due to launch this month. So there\u2019s plenty of time left before these Android brands start talking about their next flagships. We should hear from the supply chain through leakers before that, so fingers crossed for good news.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Triggs \/ Android Authority TL;DR Surging RAM and memory prices are reportedly forcing Chinese manufacturers to reconsider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,16113,80,2570,2215],"class_list":{"0":"post-392034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-oppo","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-vivo","14":"tag-xiaomi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}