Prepare yourself: Xiaomi warns of a ‘significant increase’ in smartphone prices next year

Xiaomi’s president has warned that smartphone prices could go up a lot
This is due to the increasing cost of memory chips
Memory prices will affect all phone brands, not just Xiaomi

If you thought smartphones were expensive now, you may be in for a shock next year, as their prices can expect a “significant increase,” according to Xiaomi president Lu Weibing.

This claim was made during an earnings conference call (via Pakinomist), citing the rising cost of memory chips as the reason.

You see, memory chips are in high demand right now as they are used in artificial intelligence servers, so the prices of memory chips are sky high and this will also affect the price of the memory used in phones.

Since this claim of smartphone price increases comes from the president of Xiaomi, we can be almost certain that Xiaomi’s upcoming phones will cost more than they otherwise would have – so for example, next year’s Xiaomi 18 series could be extremely expensive.

The Xiaomi 18 Pro series may be even more expensive than the Xiaomi 17 Pro series (Image credit: Xiaomi)

A problem for everyone

But this issue is not one that only Xiaomi will face – the entire industry will have to deal with rising memory prices, which will likely mean either higher smartphone prices or lower profits for companies if they don’t pass the cost on to consumers.

Since most companies are not known to be fans of sacrificing profits, we would assume that in most cases there will likely be price increases. This means that big name phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26 series and the iPhone 18 line can also cost more than their predecessors.

In fact, South Korean publication Chosun recently reported that a price increase for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was expected. But interestingly, News Pim has claimed that the base model Galaxy S26 will not see a price increase – but that this will be achieved by reversing course on some planned upgrades. So that’s another possibility – that next year we’ll see fewer upgrades than usual to keep prices at current levels.

Neither of these options sound good, so for now we’d suggest saving up if you were planning to upgrade your phone next year – or hold out a little longer and hope that the price of memory chips eventually drops again.

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