Samsung exec confirms you can blame RAM - and other materials - for the Galaxy S26's higher pricetag

"Samsung's Won-Joon Choi, the COO of its mobile business, tells The Verge that the memory shortage alone made a "significant contribution" to the price. All the increasing material costs factored into the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus costing $100 more than their predecessors this year, as did tariffs, but the memory was "significant.""

"Samsung chip partner Qualcomm warned in its February quarterly results that it was seeing a big dip in its handset business "100 percent" due to the memory shortage, telling investors that the AI industry's appetite for components would likely define the entire scale of the phone industry all year long."

""What we are witnessing is not a temporary squeeze, but a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain, with ripple effects spreading across the entire consumer electronics industry," writes IDC."

Samsung's Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus models cost $100 more than their predecessors, with memory shortage identified as a significant factor in the price increase. Samsung COO Won-Joon Choi confirmed that rising material costs and tariffs also contributed to the higher prices. While the S26 offers double the storage at 256GB compared to 128GB previously, it remains $40 more expensive than the S25 with equivalent storage at launch. The S26 Ultra includes upgrades like a built-in privacy screen and enhanced cooling. Qualcomm reported severe handset business declines due to memory shortages, with AI industry demand for components expected to shape the entire phone industry. IDC forecasts a record 12.9 percent drop in worldwide smartphone shipments for 2026, describing the situation as a supply chain crisis affecting consumer electronics broadly.

Read at The Verge