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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\u2019t immune to these current market conditions, and it\u2019s bound to mean more expensive smartphones come later this year.<\/p>\n
Carl Pei, CEO and founder of Nothing, published a blog post to Twitter<\/a> late on Tuesday. The post, titled \u201cWhy Your Next Smartphone Will Cost More,\u201d breaks down the current frustrations being faced by the tech industry, as AI \u201cfundamentally reshape[s] demand\u201d for memory. While most of the observations shared here are universal \u2014 it\u2019s not just Nothing that appears to face a choice between raising prices or downgrading specs \u2014 the real news comes towards the end of the post, when Pei confirms that Nothing\u2019s smartphone portfolio will \u201cinevitably\u201d see a price increase.<\/p>\n It might not all be bad news for Nothing fans. Pei confirms an upcoming launch will see \u201csome products\u201d \u2014 presumably Nothing\u2019s A-series<\/a> \u2014 move to UFS 3.1 storage, though that also ties into these upcoming higher prices. There aren\u2019t any exact figures here, though Pei does use seemingly-hypothetical guesses like \u201c30% or more\u201d when discussing unspecified smartphone brands. Earlier in the piece, Pei also points to estimates that \u201cmemory modules which cost less than $20 a year ago could exceed $100 by year-end for top-tier models.\u201d Again, not really suggesting minor $5 or $10 price bumps here.<\/p>\n Still, Pei seems largely reassured by his own brand, calling the situation \u201ca great opportunity\u201d to prove to consumers that Nothing wins on more than \u201cspec sheets alone.\u201d Although the Nothing experience has hit some pretty big speed bumps in the past few months, it\u2019s easy to see where this sense of optimism comes from. The company released some pretty solid products in 2025, even if each of them<\/a> seemed to arrive<\/a> with their own<\/a> individual controversies<\/a>.<\/p>\n \tAdvertisement – scroll for more content<\/p>\n But Pei\u2019s big swing sets 2026 as \u201cthe year the \u2018specs race\u2019 ends,\u201d 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\u2019ve seen with various Pixel 10-adjacent controversies over the past six months or so. Nothing\u2019s overall experience on Android is pretty solid, give or take a short-lived lockscreen ads experiment<\/a>, but whether that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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