Smartphone buyers hoping for those big, juicy discounts during the next sales season might be in for a letdown. Rising component costs are shaking things up, and memory chips have quietly become the most expensive part of building a phone these days.
Nothing’s co-founder and CEO, Carl Pei, called this out in a post on X on June 12. He explained that RAM and storage together can now make up more than half of a phone’s total bill of materials. For Nothing’s own Phone (4a), the memory costs literally doubled between the time they decided to build it and when it actually launched. And since it hit the market, those prices have doubled again. That kind of jump forces tough decisions and is pushing prices up across the board.
Suppliers are stretched thin, so phone makers aren’t just ordering whatever they need anymore; they’re stuck with limited quotas and have to pay premium prices for what they can get.
Pei pointed out that since February, a lot of new phones have launched about $100 more expensive than their predecessors. With costs still climbing, those big promotional discounts we’ve gotten used to are becoming much rarer.
Industry watchers back this up. DRAM prices have shot up sharply in 2026 because of the AI boom, adding 10-30% or more to the cost of building phones depending on the model. Budget and mid-range devices are feeling it the hardest, though even some premium ones have seen adjustments. Nothing itself had to increase the prices of both the Phone (4a) and Phone (4a) Pro across all variants shortly after their March launch.
Pei’s straightforward advice to anyone thinking about upgrading? The best time was yesterday. The second-best time is right now. Waiting longer could mean paying more and missing out on the kind of deals we used to see.
Whether you’re looking at entry-level devices or flagships, brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, Google, and Nothing are all navigating the same challenges. And it’s not just smartphones; the ripple effects are showing up elsewhere too. I just spotted the Lenovo ThinkBook 16 with the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS on Amazon, priced nearly double compared to January 2026.
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