The Samsung Galaxy S26 might hit your wallet harder

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Samsung bumped the price of its flagship lineup back in 2024 with the Galaxy S24 series. The hike saw the S24 Ultra getting expensive by $100 and costing $1,299. It seems the company might again be forced to increase the prices of its upcoming 2026 flagship — the Galaxy S26 family — due to rising component costs.

An ET News report claims that smartphone component prices are rising at a faster-than-usual rate, especially for the AP (Application Processor) and RAM.

There’s a massive shortage of supply for the latter, as NAND makers allocate more production lines to the more profitable HBM NAND. 12GB LPDDR5 RAM modules have already supposedly seen a price hike of more than 16% from Q1 of this year. The rise will continue due to the limited supply.

Samsung is not the only one battling with higher smartphone component pricing, though. Other companies, including Apple, are also facing the same issue. On a positive note, the report might just be specifically talking about a price hike for the S26 lineup in Samsung’s home market: South Korea.

The company will most likely try to avoid making the S26 Ultra more expensive in the US, provided the Trump government does not impose new tariffs.

Samsung wants to sell more Galaxy phones in 2026

Despite the potential price hike and NAND supply shortage, Samsung has reportedly set itself an ambitious target of selling 240 million smartphones and 27 million tablets in 2026.

For the Galaxy S26 lineup, the company has internally set a target to ship 24 million units — 2 million more than the S25. This is despite reports of Samsung unveiling the S26 a bit later than usual next year, in late February, instead of late January.

It’s even more optimistic about the demand for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Flip 8, as it expects to ship a combined 5 million units in 2026.

Samsung has seen strong sales for both the S25 and Z Fold 7 this year, and it expects the momentum to continue in 2026 as well. Demand for the Z Fold 7 has been particularly strong, all thanks to its sleeker design.