When the Samsung Galaxy S26 series debuts next year, it could see a price hike. Analysts believe this could happen due to price hikes on several components that Samsung will use in the devices. This is also why Samsung could opt to use the Exynos chip over Qualcomm, since the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is quite pricey, and OEMs have to pay royalties to Qualcomm to just use the chip they already paid for.
A report out of Korea notes that the Galaxy S26 series could all receive a price hike as component costs are all going up at the same time. The Galaxy S25 series launched at the same pricing as the Galaxy S24 series, but we did get a price hike on the Ultra in the Galaxy S24 series.
Reports have stated that mobile chipset costs have risen by around 12% compared to the average a year ago, while camera modules have risen by about 8%, and LPDDR5 RAM has increased by about 16% year over year. Now, while these components are a small fraction of the cost of the actual phone – a lot more goes into it, like R&D, marketing, etc – it could still force Samsung to raise prices.
On the base and plus models, Samsung has not raised prices in quite a few years. Really, they’ve stayed the same since the Galaxy S21 series, at $799 and $999 respectively.
Now, this might not mean a price increase in the US. If we take Apple as an example, they have raised prices virtually everywhere every year for the iPhone. But in the US, the iPhone hasn’t seen a price increase since the iPhone X. A big part of this is the carriers, and making it easier to upgrade every year. So Samsung could follow the same route and only increase prices in some markets.
Expect prices to increase for all smartphones next year
Component prices are not just rising for Samsung, but for all smartphone manufacturers. And quite a few of them sell their devices at cost, or with very little profit, like Nothing, OnePlus , OPPO , and some other Chinese manufacturers. That means they will need to raise prices to afford these new component prices.
It’s an unfortunate reality, but that’s what’s going to happen. I’d suggest that if you need a new phone, you buy it now, before the higher-priced, new phones start launching next year.
As for the Galaxy S26 series, it’s expected to launch in March, with an event in late February. That’s a full month after the Galaxy S25 launch event earlier this year. And Samsung is also expecting to sell more Galaxy S26 models than S25 .
