RAM crunch will see smartphone specs decline in 2026, experts warn – here’s why

With RAM in high demand for AI data centers, prices for it are rising
As a result, smartphone manufacturers may choose to equip their upcoming phones with less RAM than originally planned
In some cases, this may mean that they have less RAM than we are used to

We’ve heard a lot about how rising RAM prices can lead to higher costs for upcoming smartphones, but this unwelcome increase now looks like it could also – or alternatively – lead to weaker smartphone specs.

According to a TrendForce report, high-end smartphones are likely to slow their transition to 16GB of RAM. This basically means that for models that currently have 12GB, like the iPhone 17 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S25, we will likely see their successors also have 12GB of RAM instead of getting an increase.

But for lower-end models, specs may actually drop, with mid-range phones seemingly no longer coming in 12GB configurations, instead topping out at 8GB. Low-end models can also be limited to 4GB, with some currently having 6GB or 8GB of RAM.

(Image credit: TrendForce)

A RAM drop even for high-end phones

However, according to leaker Lanzuk, the situation could be even worse, claiming that as well as the tweaks to mid-range and low-end phones above, high-end models that currently ship with 16GB of RAM are likely to drop back to 12GB for their successors in most cases.

It could affect things like the OnePlus 16 and Google Pixel 11 Pro, as the current top models from those brands have 16GB of RAM.

All of this is potentially happening because right now there is massive demand for RAM in AI data centers, pushing prices up. Ironically, however, this can actually hurt the performance and development of AI on phones, as smartphones also rely on a lot of RAM to handle AI tasks.

While these reports seem credible, they are currently just predictions, so it remains to be seen if they will come true. But we’d be very surprised if either prices weren’t increased or RAM amounts weren’t reduced, so right now we’re mostly hoping that only one of those things happens, rather than paying more for inferior hardware.

A RAM drop even for high-end phones

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