{"id":633514,"date":"2026-10-01T20:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T20:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633514\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T20:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T20:22:12","slug":"samsung-suddenly-raises-prices-by-100-on-most-galaxy-s26-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633514\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung Suddenly Raises Prices by $100 on Most Galaxy S26 Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call it what you want: RAMageddon<\/a>, chipflation, the AI tax. Amid a global memory shortage that\u2019s compelling companies to hike prices on phones, PCs, laptops and gaming consoles, our devices keep getting more expensive. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Samsung quietly raised prices on the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra by $100, without issuing an official company statement. The Galaxy S26 FE didn\u2019t go up in price, and Samsung\u2019s newest foldables \u2014 Galaxy Z Fold 8<\/a>, Z Fold 8 Ultra<\/a> and Z Flip 8<\/a> \u2014 were also spared the carnage.<\/p>\n

For the larger 512GB models, the Galaxy S26 now lists at $1,200, the S26 Plus at $1,400, and the S26 Ultra at $1,600. The S26 Ultra with 1TB storage went up $200 and is now $2,000. All the company\u2019s smartphone prices are listed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Galaxy<\/p>\n

A Samsung representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The RAM shortage is a result of the massive buildout of AI data center infrastructure, which requires huge amounts of memory, especially high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. Apple and Google also raised prices by about $100 on their most recent phones.<\/p>\n

Read more: Why RAMageddon Might Force Apps and Operating Systems\u2019 Performance to Suck Less<\/a><\/p>\n

Is there relief in sight?<\/p>\n

In its Q2 earnings call in July<\/a>, Samsung said it expects the memory shortage to be worse next year and persist through 2028.<\/p>\n

At Amazon, the S26 Ultra is still available at lower prices<\/a>. It\u2019s not yet known whether any of the Galaxy S26 phones will be available during October Prime Day<\/a>, Oct. 6 and 7, but check out CNET\u2019s constantly updated coverage of all the deals.<\/p>\n

Cellphone carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T could mitigate some sticker shock with installment plans, trade-in credits and refurbished devices. But that won\u2019t reverse higher prices nor solve the memory shortage problem, GlobalData senior analyst Amanda Mitchell said in a new analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLasting relief depends on additional production capacity, but manufacturers\u2019 expansion plans will take years to reach the market, and much of the new investment is intended to serve AI demand rather than consumer devices,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cWith meaningful new capacity years away, price pressure is likely to persist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Alex\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEver since being admittedly fascinated by the Cambridge coffee webcam from the 1990s, I’ve written about VPNs, the NFL, smartphones, living wages, over\/unders and everything in between.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call it what you want: RAMageddon, chipflation, the AI tax. Amid a global memory shortage that\u2019s compelling companies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,46,125],"class_list":["post-633514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}