2026 is looking like a tough year to be in the market for consumer electronics, as the race to dominate AI continues to devour more and more RAM. Unsurprisingly, Nothing isn’t immune to these current market conditions, and it’s bound to mean more expensive smartphones come later this year.
Carl Pei, CEO and founder of Nothing, published a blog post to Twitter late on Tuesday. The post, titled “Why Your Next Smartphone Will Cost More,” breaks down the current frustrations being faced by the tech industry, as AI “fundamentally reshape[s] demand” for memory. While most of the observations shared here are universal — it’s not just Nothing that appears to face a choice between raising prices or downgrading specs — the real news comes towards the end of the post, when Pei confirms that Nothing’s smartphone portfolio will “inevitably” see a price increase.
It might not all be bad news for Nothing fans. Pei confirms an upcoming launch will see “some products” — presumably Nothing’s A-series — move to UFS 3.1 storage, though that also ties into these upcoming higher prices. There aren’t any exact figures here, though Pei does use seemingly-hypothetical guesses like “30% or more” when discussing unspecified smartphone brands. Earlier in the piece, Pei also points to estimates that “memory modules which cost less than $20 a year ago could exceed $100 by year-end for top-tier models.” Again, not really suggesting minor $5 or $10 price bumps here.
Still, Pei seems largely reassured by his own brand, calling the situation “a great opportunity” to prove to consumers that Nothing wins on more than “spec sheets alone.” Although the Nothing experience has hit some pretty big speed bumps in the past few months, it’s easy to see where this sense of optimism comes from. The company released some pretty solid products in 2025, even if each of them seemed to arrive with their own individual controversies.
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But Pei’s big swing sets 2026 as “the year the ‘specs race’ ends,” and I admittedly have a difficult time seeing that come to fruition. People are still looking for increasing amounts of power out of their smartphones, as we’ve seen with various Pixel 10-adjacent controversies over the past six months or so. Nothing’s overall experience on Android is pretty solid, give or take a short-lived lockscreen ads experiment, but whether that’s enough to see enthusiasts and other Android users give up on their race for the most portable powerhouse in their pocket remains to be seen.
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