To be honest, if it didn't decrease in spite of old camera hardware and comparatively slow charging speed and battery capacity, then it wouldn't decrease after this decision.
I'm skeptical that your average joe on the street is paying cash for a phone instead of using trade-in incentives and financing. I haven't "paid" for a phone in probably 10 years at this point. Is a $2/mo increase going to slow anyone down? Not really. Especially when your average consoomer just wants the newest thing as a status symbol.
Personally, I have no desire to upgrade anytime soon, solely due to specs, aside for the fact that I need more actual storage since I went with the base tier 25u when I left Apple and I'm rapidly running out of room. That was my own stupid mistake, and if anything I'll probably just trade it for a 1tb 25u and call it good for a few years.
I haven't paid for a phone in 8 years myself. And by not paid for a phone, I mean it. I bought my phone 8 years ago, and haven't purchased a phone since.
i rather buy a phone fully rather than finance it. I upgrade once per year. There is always a family member who wants my previous phone. I.e. gave my flip 6 to my mother when i received Flip 7 *cough* shit chip. I meant Motorola Razr 60 ultra. But I ended up not liking having a motorola, so i'm looking for either S26 ultra or Flip 8 (my fear is they will use shit chip again)
Caring about, and understanding anything about are two completely different things.
Specs (outside of battery life) have been “good enough for almost a decade now. Camera right along side them. Most people if told no different would rarely tell a difference.
I like to be a bit of an amateur photographer myself. In my opinion phone cameras haven't gotten meaningfully better in 15 years. I don't care about the camera spec on the phone. Whatever it is, it's going to be pretty damn good and more than what I need for spontaneous pictures.
That said, there is simply no beating a camera with a good lens, and well, phone cameras by-in-large can't mount to a lens. Also no array of censors or post processing will ever replace high quality lenses. Furthermore, adding phone features onto a 'prosumer' camera is silly. I just want the camera functionality please.
Buying a phone for the camera specs in 2010 makes a lot of sense to me. In the current year? Nah. Any advertising about these specs is much ado about nothing.
It's the only spec I really care about anymore. I used to choose phones because they had headphone jacks, removable battery or storage etc but as the phone design became more homogenized the inly two factors that really differentiate phones for me anymore is physical size and camera. So I want the smallest phone I can find that has the best camera.
And I'd argue as long as a camera can take a photo of a document and record a cake cutting at a birthday well enough most people don't care. Not everyone has an IG friendly life.
If people didn't care, phones today would not have 3 cameras that all have to be super duper.
I wish honestly because I personally don't care about it and would not mind cutting down on costs and the bumps for the camera stuff in phones but alas, people seem to care enough about it.
Must all be brand I guess because Samsung sure ain't the cheapest if people actually care about price and (apperently) don't care about anything else according to /r/Android
Because the camera is still good, the battery will last you all day, and the charging speed is fast enough. Most people aren't anal about little increases in specs like this sub is.
I've been waiting for two Samsung generations to have a significant improvement in camera hardware. If the S26 still does not have significant improvements, I'll switch to another brand.
Because the camera is good enough, I found the charging speed fast enough and battery lasts me more than a day already, not everyone spends all day on their phone.
Bought a Note 20 directly from Samsung when it came out, had it until it broke last year, and because of insurance Samsung sent me a S23 Ultra for $200. Why wouldn't I just keep doing this forever?
I'm on a flagship from 2017. Does everything I need it too. Browse reddit, play Balatro, workout timer, kitchen timer, music player, spontaneous photos or video, and making calls or texts.
What else do I need my phone to do? It also has a headphone jack I'm using right now because I keep forgetting my headset.
I can't imagine paying hundreds of dollars, let alone over a thousand, for a new phone that doesn't do anything more. In fact new phones today are less functional than phones from the 2010s.
Kinda yes, kinda no. Generally for electronics, unless they're having a really hard time selling things prices stay the same now-a-days. It's like the rate of inflation more-or-less matches the depreciation of the asset.
So the price is increasing, although normally it increases with the rate of inflation. Many electronics after being discontinued can become commodities; essential for repairing systems, and can even have their price inflated. I don't think that normally happens with phones all that much though. I'm mostly thinking of PC components and AV Equipment.
Battery life depends on how many changing cycles you have. The more cycles your battery has the lower battery health it will have. Use an app like Accubattery or batteryguru to see the estimated battery health.
You can always get the battery changed if the endurance is poor.
I wonder if having a phone on a wireless charger all-day while working a desk job might be a big part of why there’s so many comments about battery life in any phone?
Because doing that usually tremendously shortens the useful life of a battery due to excessive heat.
It’s a pattern I’ve noticed…
And then at home, it’s TikTok or Instagram videos all-evening.
Right and when you do finally upgrade, the current "budget" options are going to be at least equivalent to what you're used to. That's where I'm headed with my s10 which is still doing fine.
I have S23 Ultra and switch back to a Pixel 4. The last one died and I got another. The Samsung is a good phone especially if I want to use the pen or, you know watch videos unexpectedly. It's just painful to hold and honestly, the Samsung updates make that phone laggier than the Pixel 4 which did cost me like 13 times less
My S23u works fine and I'd rather pay $100-200 in another 2-3 years for a new battery or if necessary a screen if something happens than $1200-1500+ for a new one. Or wait for a "new" one to show up on ebay in good condition from someone with more money than sense.
There's no reason to upgrade every year for even power users in most cases.
I have been buying "renewed" versions of 3-4 year old phones for years and am shocked at how good they have been. It's like $180. Almost cheaper than a screen or battery replacement. New phones are not worth it unless you want a fold, imo.
honestly buying a used flagship is a great choice, all the new ones now just have better numbers with no real world improvements. I got a 24 Ultra for $450 used in perfect condition.
Even the budget phones are crap compared to the value for money they used to be, look at the Redmi Note 3 pro/note 5 pro and how they had a really good SoC that wasn't too far behind flagships
Now look at the latest Redmi Notes and sure they have nice screen ok cameras etc but the low-mid range SoCs are still a78 trash
That's unfortunate. Back in the day one of the biggest reasons why I used to pay a premium for phones was for getting sufficient ram and storage space. These days you absolutely don't need a premium phone for either of those and well I don't get premium phones anymore.
Someone did a review of the cheapest pixel phone versus the pro models and basically said you get 90% of the experience for a significantly cheaper price. Look at apple. The base model iphone 17 is an insane value.
If ram is going up, premium or not phones will get more expensive across the board. Yes more ram means more expensive but it won't just be the premium ones going up. Plus I guarantee right now the price won't come down when ram does come down
Your phones, PCs, TVs and consoles will go up in price more than the 2021 inflation because corporations need to race to the top to create the best AI model to serve you shitty AI slop and take your job away. Enjoy.
Last year we were shopping for a new washing machine and the new model they were showing us had stickers all over it saying it has AI built in. We're doomed.
That wasn't actually GenAI, it is just stuff like sensors and wash cycle calculations that have been around for over a decade. The problem is that consumers don't understand this, so they think they are getting a better value just by slapping the sticker on.
It isn't like "Smart" appliances where the device itself was changed with unnecessary crap. It is the exact same product with AI slapped to it. I was confused about this too when buying a new washer. It took some historical feature research to figure out what they classified as "AI."
"it didn't give me the exact thing I wanted when I said «pls fix», thus it sucks"
I can partially understand the hate, I'm sick & tired of getting "AI" shoved in my face everywhere.
No, I don't think Word or Excel needs "AI" baked. No, I don't think my phone needs "AI".
I love to use AI for coding/troubleshooting, because it empowers me to do stuff faster, or stuff that I wouldn't have wanted to do myself: I'm a terrible coder, and I lack the discipline to put all my ideas into code, but with LLMs, I can shoot out scripts/apps tailored to my needs in a very short time.
And I do dabble in GenAI for images when I need an icon/some artwork for a project of mine.
But I'm also TIRED of getting it shoved in my face everywhere. No, I do not need or care for Copilot.
No, I do not need/care for a "Copilot PC" unless you somehow manage to give me the performance of a RTX 5090 (roughly 800+ TOPS) from a chip.
...but no, to qualify as a "Copilot PC", you need to ship it with a performance of... drumroll 40 TOPS. That's not even 5% of the performance of an RTX 5090.
And to put it into more context, the Blackwell nVidia GPUs have around 4000 TOPs!
I'm perfectly fine using agents (like Claude Code) or directly using it as a Chat Bot in my browser. I do not need a dedicated "Copilot Key" or an "AI Browser" filled with security holes.
Is still going to happen. Old models will go on sale before they are sold out at retailers. Smartphones that are not foldables have stagnated since 2020.
And you would be foolish to not get the s25u, the elite chip is incredible and to get the s24u instead would be a really ignorant choice to make especially for the Bluetooth s-pen.
I have the S23U and it's plenty fast, there's no real need for an Elite imo. And the S24U still looks unique while the rest of the specs are pretty much the same.
I had both, s25u and s24u.
S25u is noticeably lighter, has better speakers, better screen (my s24u had grain issue at low brightness), rounded corners feel better to hold in hand.
Camera processing is different, s24u is overbrightening pictures, s25u shots are more true to life, but it's a preference thing, details are pretty much the same.
For me s25u is just a lot more comfortable to hold and use, that's the main difference.
Speaking of Galaxy AI, I wonder which feature might be paywalled, between that and high RAM prices, it doesn't look good for them, especially if they were planning to run some of those tasks locally.
Glass backs are also a major PITA for those of us that want to replace our batteries. Just did the battery in my Pixel 6, and yeah, I cracked it. I put a case on it, but it's no longer water proof, and I will have to replace it on the next battery replacement.
On the other hand, non-removable batteries are a large part of the reason why batteries are as big as they are today. The Galaxy XCover 7 and Fairphone 6 both “only” have ~4000mAh batteries.
I am all for that, since I am battery number 3 on my Pixel 3XL, but repairs will get expensive. New batteries are not being made for my phone anymore, so battery number 4 will be "new old stock" and may jump in price, and I doubt it will last me 2 years, and after a certain point some things aren't worth maintaining. When the LCD went out on my Pixel 2 it was retired, it cost more to upkeep then it was worth.
This should be more standardised. If there is no reason at all to upgrade your phone other than satisfying that particular itch of getting that freaking new phone again, to just do the same basic things you would do with your previous one, why upgrade it then?
Reduce my 16gb to 12gb and don't increase the price, whist also making the OS a bit more efficient on the ram, and then we're probably good. But don't go adding £/$/€200 to everything please I beg
It not likely ram will be cut because of this ram shortage since they need even more of it to run on device AI stuff. Unless they've decided to shift away from AI which is even less likely
I mean are they really? Brand New flagships get a massive discount about 3 months after they come out. My Z Flip 6 cost me $300 with trade in and it was the same year it came out. I just had to wait a few months.
Wouldn't it be cool if someone came in and developed a phone operating system that you could install onto all of your old devices that allowed them to function forever? The reason that people need to buy new phones for a faster experience is because the experience itself is bloated. Most people haven't really done anything new with their phone in years but we still have to keep buying new phones for this perceived feeling of it being better because they're slowing down our phones every two years and making such bloated interfaces that something that could do everything you needed can't anymore.
LineageOS exists and can buy your device several more years, but ultimately it’s still going to get sluggish as newer versions of Android are (a) heavier and (b) eventually required by apps.
A totally new third-party OS is pretty much doomed to fail because the big app developers are unlikely to support it.
Here in the United States our consumer rights are essentially whether or not we're allowed to use a clean towel to wipe when corporations spit directly in our face.
AFAIK my carrier phone came unlocked, I just slowly paid it off in 5 dollar installments over 24 months and a 100 dollar lump sum to keep it instead of 800 MSRP
Nobody is talking about carrier deals. It's just that Samsung has offers all year round. You can buy the latest Ultra for like 500€ + bundle deals at launch because of all their promos
My s24u (512gb - double storage for free) came out at about £550 or so after Samsung cashback (double), trading in a £3 galaxy burner off eBay and selling the galaxy watch that came with it.
In my experience with the Ultra, you never beat the presale offers in terms of price.
Awesome, so those morons are making Apple look cheap and basically hurting their market on Europe(in the US Samsung is a shadow of its former self by now). Chinese brands are going to capture a lot of global market from Samsung too, and when this memory super cycle ends, Samsung may end up with a much slower smartphone division
No, chinese phones are also being supplied by chinese manufacturers, which means they are not bound to Samsung, SK or Micron supply. Whatever is sold outside of the US can use those components, and most of Europe will do so too.
Currently? Sure. But with the way prices are going, its only a matter of time when CXMT modules are placed into Chinese phones. I would wager theyre already in talks with Chinese manufacturers as we speak.
And that was the whole point. They're currently not being supplied by chinese manufacturers.
Xiaomi execs have said similar things as Samsung, phone prices will go up because of the ram, it's unlikely that chinese manufacturers will catch up that fast.
How? They have access to CXMT's supply for their newer phones. Older phones in their production cycle, yes. But things move quickly in Tech. The next Chinese phones will 100% be cheaper than ours.
Lmaoooo you for real believe CXMT's modules will be in Chinese flagship phones right THIS YEAR, that's crazy.
(Intended for domestic use) Chinese phones are cheap because big ol' CCP puts shitton of money into it. They are already and will be cheaper than "western phones" but not for the deluded reason you think. This year's teardown videos will be a great watch for ya, huh?
Nanya and CXMT are supplying Huawei now and they have capacity for more production! Their technology is not on par with the Big 3, however we are talking about a shortage so a 30% less efficient production will still sell like hot cakes for low to mid range phones
They rely on big 3 for flagship phones, they can use some capacity for other models. Also worth noting that Chinese firms do not have enough capacity in place to replace big 3, but at least they will help on fillimg some demand. Even Asus is rumored to start shipping Chinese made RAM this year
Everything from flagships, mid-tier performance focused devices, and even the lower end models get their RAM from the big 3. Check Weki Home's channel to see teardown of many chinese devices and you'll see how everything other than Huawei don't get their RAM from chinese manufacturers.
Asus is rumored to start shipping Chinese made RAM this year
In what, their laptops? Because they announced they won't be releasing any new phone this year
It was rumored like a week ago that Asus will start selling DIY RAM sticks. CXMT at the same time is aiming for a 15% marketshare in the consumer market worldwide. The gap left by the 3 main manufacturers rn is so big that any fab capacity will sell. Also don’t forget that they literally stole Samsung trade secrets for the 10nm RAM manufacturing process… If the current super high demand from AI continues for long, CXMT and Nanya will benefit from it on the consumer market for sure as they are not competitive on the server space
Asus does not manufacture RAM themselves though. The only thing they do is source RAM from Samsung or SK Hynix like how they source GPU from Nvidia or AMD.
I'm extremely pleased by my S25 Edge. I don't know why I would ever want to upgrade since it fits my use case perfectly while being the size and specs of an Ultra, but lighter than my S23.
I rotate phones every few years but I know this won't have calmed down in the next few years. Prices will not come back down to what they were in 2025. With how inadequate the yearly versions are, people are already losing the desire to replace working devices.
AI might be about to crash the phone market while AI is still yet to become profitable or useful for consumers. Greed sure is speed running the worst timeline. You cannot make money when people don't have money to spend. If everything costs more then people cut back especially luxuries like swapping phones.
Yet they are making record profits.
Puts the "courageous" decision to "freeze prices" in select markets, in a different perspective.
There's a difference in running an ethical business & plainly just milking the masses.
I bought a "new" phone last year, the Samsung galaxy s ultra+ or whaver (the big one with the stylus)
It was between the older 2022 @ 512gb ssd or newer 2023 @ 256gb ssd.
Think I'm glad I went with the 2022 @ 512gb. The extra storage is nice and it does more than enough, I don't really see what benefits a slightly newer phone would add.
Seeing this just makes me stick with my Magic 6 Pro longer. Nothing wrong with it, still smooth, battery easily lasts my day. I was curious about Samsung cameras, but no rush now.
I guess I'll be sticking with my S25 for longer than usual...I normally replace my phone every 2 years which does not seem feasible now with the anticipated price increase.
Samsung isn't one giant company, IIRC each division is independent, but operate under the same group, otherwise the ones making the RAM would've easily supplied the mobile division, but they'd rather make money from other companies as they're willing to pay more, correct me if I'm wrong.
I believe there were news reports that Samsung's foundry division was refusing orders from the Samsung Phone division for RAM because they're too busy selling to AI customers. Can't really blame the overall company for following where the money is, naturally if its more profitable to let the phone division suffer because selling RAM to AI customers is THAT profitable, naturally the company will take that path. They have no inherent reason to prop up the phone division
Samsung is more like a loose conglomeration of companies that happen to share a name. Samsung the phone company is not firmly tied to Samsung the chip fab, that’s why they flip-flop between Exynos and Snapdragon so much.
Higher price? It already feels close to my limit. If it goes higher, I’d probably look at better value brands instead. Stuff like Honor still offers solid flagships with affordable price
Consumers warn Samsung their upcoming sales are going to decrease.
To be honest, if it didn't decrease in spite of old camera hardware and comparatively slow charging speed and battery capacity, then it wouldn't decrease after this decision.
One day /r/android will learn that most people buying phones do not give a shit about specs. But price? Everyone cares about price.
I'm skeptical that your average joe on the street is paying cash for a phone instead of using trade-in incentives and financing. I haven't "paid" for a phone in probably 10 years at this point. Is a $2/mo increase going to slow anyone down? Not really. Especially when your average consoomer just wants the newest thing as a status symbol.
Personally, I have no desire to upgrade anytime soon, solely due to specs, aside for the fact that I need more actual storage since I went with the base tier 25u when I left Apple and I'm rapidly running out of room. That was my own stupid mistake, and if anything I'll probably just trade it for a 1tb 25u and call it good for a few years.
I haven't paid for a phone in 8 years myself. And by not paid for a phone, I mean it. I bought my phone 8 years ago, and haven't purchased a phone since.
i rather buy a phone fully rather than finance it. I upgrade once per year. There is always a family member who wants my previous phone. I.e. gave my flip 6 to my mother when i received
Flip 7*cough* shit chip. I meant Motorola Razr 60 ultra. But I ended up not liking having a motorola, so i'm looking for either S26 ultra or Flip 8 (my fear is they will use shit chip again)I'd argue the only spec people care about (if they do) is the camera since people don't carry separate cameras anymore.
Caring about, and understanding anything about are two completely different things.
Specs (outside of battery life) have been “good enough for almost a decade now. Camera right along side them. Most people if told no different would rarely tell a difference.
I like to be a bit of an amateur photographer myself. In my opinion phone cameras haven't gotten meaningfully better in 15 years. I don't care about the camera spec on the phone. Whatever it is, it's going to be pretty damn good and more than what I need for spontaneous pictures.
That said, there is simply no beating a camera with a good lens, and well, phone cameras by-in-large can't mount to a lens. Also no array of censors or post processing will ever replace high quality lenses. Furthermore, adding phone features onto a 'prosumer' camera is silly. I just want the camera functionality please.
Buying a phone for the camera specs in 2010 makes a lot of sense to me. In the current year? Nah. Any advertising about these specs is much ado about nothing.
It's the only spec I really care about anymore. I used to choose phones because they had headphone jacks, removable battery or storage etc but as the phone design became more homogenized the inly two factors that really differentiate phones for me anymore is physical size and camera. So I want the smallest phone I can find that has the best camera.
And I'd argue as long as a camera can take a photo of a document and record a cake cutting at a birthday well enough most people don't care. Not everyone has an IG friendly life.
If people didn't care, phones today would not have 3 cameras that all have to be super duper.
I wish honestly because I personally don't care about it and would not mind cutting down on costs and the bumps for the camera stuff in phones but alas, people seem to care enough about it.
What companies do =/= what people want, cause no one i know wanted to get rid of expandable storage or headphone jacks.
It'll get folders into the monthly payment as we do so well in the states. Few will notice or care.
Must all be brand I guess because Samsung sure ain't the cheapest if people actually care about price and (apperently) don't care about anything else according to /r/Android
Because the camera is still good, the battery will last you all day, and the charging speed is fast enough. Most people aren't anal about little increases in specs like this sub is.
I've been waiting for two Samsung generations to have a significant improvement in camera hardware. If the S26 still does not have significant improvements, I'll switch to another brand.
Because the camera is good enough, I found the charging speed fast enough and battery lasts me more than a day already, not everyone spends all day on their phone.
I also appreciate their warning that AI has infested their phones.
I appreciate it. I'll stay away.
Europeans: You guys got sales?
Well, guess my days with flagship smartphones are over. They can keep it then. Lots of budget and used options available.
The budget options aren't staying the same price either.
But they'll be cheaper than the flagships, right?
Technically yes, but everything that uses RAM will get more expensive, even budget phones, even if by not that much.
Either way, you will pay more, no matter which phone you chose.
Even devices that have already been manufactured and are using RAM that was supplied at the old price?
Great question! I would say no, but I'm not a capitalist pig trying to raise my company's stock price to even higher levels.
But based on previous events? It's somewhat likely.
Time to buy a used flagship from 2023
Bought a Note 20 directly from Samsung when it came out, had it until it broke last year, and because of insurance Samsung sent me a S23 Ultra for $200. Why wouldn't I just keep doing this forever?
because, presumably, you pay monthly for the insurance? And $200 + 5 years of insurance payments is probably A LOT more than buying an s23 in 2025?
Idk man, you tell me
I'm on a flagship from 2017. Does everything I need it too. Browse reddit, play Balatro, workout timer, kitchen timer, music player, spontaneous photos or video, and making calls or texts.
What else do I need my phone to do? It also has a headphone jack I'm using right now because I keep forgetting my headset.
I can't imagine paying hundreds of dollars, let alone over a thousand, for a new phone that doesn't do anything more. In fact new phones today are less functional than phones from the 2010s.
Kinda yes, kinda no. Generally for electronics, unless they're having a really hard time selling things prices stay the same now-a-days. It's like the rate of inflation more-or-less matches the depreciation of the asset.
So the price is increasing, although normally it increases with the rate of inflation. Many electronics after being discontinued can become commodities; essential for repairing systems, and can even have their price inflated. I don't think that normally happens with phones all that much though. I'm mostly thinking of PC components and AV Equipment.
I have an s23. Budget is where I'm going when my phone died in 2031.
I mean phones do the same stuff anyway
I seriously dont know how people's batteries are good. I have my s23u on power saving mode constantly and battery is horrendous .
Battery life depends on how many changing cycles you have. The more cycles your battery has the lower battery health it will have. Use an app like Accubattery or batteryguru to see the estimated battery health.
You can always get the battery changed if the endurance is poor.
I wonder if having a phone on a wireless charger all-day while working a desk job might be a big part of why there’s so many comments about battery life in any phone?
Because doing that usually tremendously shortens the useful life of a battery due to excessive heat.
It’s a pattern I’ve noticed…
And then at home, it’s TikTok or Instagram videos all-evening.
My S8 still works fine for my needs.
Right and when you do finally upgrade, the current "budget" options are going to be at least equivalent to what you're used to. That's where I'm headed with my s10 which is still doing fine.
I'm still happily rocking my Pixel 4a.
My Pixel 3 XL is on battery number 3 now.
I have S23 Ultra and switch back to a Pixel 4. The last one died and I got another. The Samsung is a good phone especially if I want to use the pen or, you know watch videos unexpectedly. It's just painful to hold and honestly, the Samsung updates make that phone laggier than the Pixel 4 which did cost me like 13 times less
My S23u works fine and I'd rather pay $100-200 in another 2-3 years for a new battery or if necessary a screen if something happens than $1200-1500+ for a new one. Or wait for a "new" one to show up on ebay in good condition from someone with more money than sense.
There's no reason to upgrade every year for even power users in most cases.
because only flagship phones use RAM
Such diminishing returns these days, nothing really lost unless you're a power user.
What's a "power user"?
She'll never know. xd
I don't understand what you mean. My question was simple: what's a power user, according to OP, and why would (s)he need a very powerful phone?
Unfortunately, Reddit's automatic translator changed the original context of my writing in another language...
Sorry
No worries ;-)
I have been buying "renewed" versions of 3-4 year old phones for years and am shocked at how good they have been. It's like $180. Almost cheaper than a screen or battery replacement. New phones are not worth it unless you want a fold, imo.
honestly buying a used flagship is a great choice, all the new ones now just have better numbers with no real world improvements. I got a 24 Ultra for $450 used in perfect condition.
Even the budget phones are crap compared to the value for money they used to be, look at the Redmi Note 3 pro/note 5 pro and how they had a really good SoC that wasn't too far behind flagships
Now look at the latest Redmi Notes and sure they have nice screen ok cameras etc but the low-mid range SoCs are still a78 trash
And what did you expect from entry-level phones?
scoff
“Well, they used to be good enough! They put good chips in the cheaper phones, but then they stopped doing that!”
[deleted]
A spent a few years procrastinating digging through an old dead PC to find a crypto wallet. Most I ever got paid to procrastinate.
Im so jealous, i lost access to a wallet that would have over 25k value. Spent days trying to find the seed
Welcome to the club, my last "flagship" was Nexus 5 hahahaha. I stopped when "flagship" price become mid range. Looks like it's going to happen again.
Can't wait until memory shortages are solved, but prices of things don't go down
They got shareholders to please, ofc the prices ain't going down. Just like post covid, stuff will be called the new normal.
That's unfortunate. Back in the day one of the biggest reasons why I used to pay a premium for phones was for getting sufficient ram and storage space. These days you absolutely don't need a premium phone for either of those and well I don't get premium phones anymore.
Someone did a review of the cheapest pixel phone versus the pro models and basically said you get 90% of the experience for a significantly cheaper price. Look at apple. The base model iphone 17 is an insane value.
Yes but that wasn't the case especially for Apple until the 17.
Yeah I agree. The biggest upgrade this year for their base model is the display. They finally added a 120hz oled versus the crappy 60z they had prior.
Apple's always 3 to 5 years behind.
Pixels have always had, and will always have average hardware for an absurd price point. And the Pro models barely even are any better.
If ram is going up, premium or not phones will get more expensive across the board. Yes more ram means more expensive but it won't just be the premium ones going up. Plus I guarantee right now the price won't come down when ram does come down
I love AI! said no one ever
Your phones, PCs, TVs and consoles will go up in price more than the 2021 inflation because corporations need to race to the top to create the best AI model to serve you shitty AI slop and take your job away. Enjoy.
Last year we were shopping for a new washing machine and the new model they were showing us had stickers all over it saying it has AI built in. We're doomed.
That wasn't actually GenAI, it is just stuff like sensors and wash cycle calculations that have been around for over a decade. The problem is that consumers don't understand this, so they think they are getting a better value just by slapping the sticker on.
It isn't like "Smart" appliances where the device itself was changed with unnecessary crap. It is the exact same product with AI slapped to it. I was confused about this too when buying a new washer. It took some historical feature research to figure out what they classified as "AI."
LG's lineup has had "Think AI" for ages, well before the AI-craze.
It's just a glorified if-then-else, IMO.
Yes, it's "smart" in the sense that it looks at your laundry load and the textures and adjusts it's program for your clothes.
Which is fine, right up to the point the internet goes out and your coffee pot no longer works.
All the twitter AI-gurus
I love AI as a technology but I also hate how companies are using it.
I love it. It's cool tech and a fun toy. Also helps me a lot with my job. I use it practically every day.
Its weird that pretty much everybody I know uses it and likes it, but the moment I get to a tech forum/subreddit everybody hates it.
"it didn't give me the exact thing I wanted when I said «pls fix», thus it sucks"
I can partially understand the hate, I'm sick & tired of getting "AI" shoved in my face everywhere.
No, I don't think Word or Excel needs "AI" baked. No, I don't think my phone needs "AI".
I love to use AI for coding/troubleshooting, because it empowers me to do stuff faster, or stuff that I wouldn't have wanted to do myself: I'm a terrible coder, and I lack the discipline to put all my ideas into code, but with LLMs, I can shoot out scripts/apps tailored to my needs in a very short time.
And I do dabble in GenAI for images when I need an icon/some artwork for a project of mine.
But I'm also TIRED of getting it shoved in my face everywhere. No, I do not need or care for Copilot.
No, I do not need/care for a "Copilot PC" unless you somehow manage to give me the performance of a RTX 5090 (roughly 800+ TOPS) from a chip.
...but no, to qualify as a "Copilot PC", you need to ship it with a performance of... drumroll 40 TOPS. That's not even 5% of the performance of an RTX 5090.
And to put it into more context, the Blackwell nVidia GPUs have around 4000 TOPs!
I'm perfectly fine using agents (like Claude Code) or directly using it as a Chat Bot in my browser. I do not need a dedicated "Copilot Key" or an "AI Browser" filled with security holes.
Said me
I love how out of touch you are considering ChatGPT alone is nearing 1 billion weekly users
Lets see how many of them remain once the companies start charging the real costs to recoup their ever bleeding investments.
I did
Except developers, so me
Your job will be replaced by AI so I'm not sure why you love it.
And here I was waiting for the S26 lineup launch for a price drop in S25 lineup :(
Is still going to happen. Old models will go on sale before they are sold out at retailers. Smartphones that are not foldables have stagnated since 2020.
Already has effectively been a few price drops on S25 due to frequent sales. We got one new for 250 off around October.
I was waiting for the S24U to drop, but it's the same price, even slightly more expensive than the S25U.
And you would be foolish to not get the s25u, the elite chip is incredible and to get the s24u instead would be a really ignorant choice to make especially for the Bluetooth s-pen.
I have the S23U and it's plenty fast, there's no real need for an Elite imo. And the S24U still looks unique while the rest of the specs are pretty much the same.
I had both, s25u and s24u. S25u is noticeably lighter, has better speakers, better screen (my s24u had grain issue at low brightness), rounded corners feel better to hold in hand. Camera processing is different, s24u is overbrightening pictures, s25u shots are more true to life, but it's a preference thing, details are pretty much the same.
For me s25u is just a lot more comfortable to hold and use, that's the main difference.
So your plan is to upgrade an s23u to an s24u? Do I have that right?
More expensive phones + Galaxy AI subscription. I love the future 😍🙏
Speaking of Galaxy AI, I wonder which feature might be paywalled, between that and high RAM prices, it doesn't look good for them, especially if they were planning to run some of those tasks locally.
Just hold on to your current phone. Problem solved.
This is why every manufacturer went to non-removable batteries. When the battery capacity starts dropping, most people will just get a new phone.
Glass backs are also a major PITA for those of us that want to replace our batteries. Just did the battery in my Pixel 6, and yeah, I cracked it. I put a case on it, but it's no longer water proof, and I will have to replace it on the next battery replacement.
On the other hand, non-removable batteries are a large part of the reason why batteries are as big as they are today. The Galaxy XCover 7 and Fairphone 6 both “only” have ~4000mAh batteries.
The other reason is no more security updates after 3 years so people are forced to upgrade to have the latest software
I am all for that, since I am battery number 3 on my Pixel 3XL, but repairs will get expensive. New batteries are not being made for my phone anymore, so battery number 4 will be "new old stock" and may jump in price, and I doubt it will last me 2 years, and after a certain point some things aren't worth maintaining. When the LCD went out on my Pixel 2 it was retired, it cost more to upkeep then it was worth.
This should be more standardised. If there is no reason at all to upgrade your phone other than satisfying that particular itch of getting that freaking new phone again, to just do the same basic things you would do with your previous one, why upgrade it then?
Another price hike would push me away from Samsung. My backup Magic 6 pro handles most things fine without feeling overpriced.
My S23 going to last me until the 2030s.
S21+ still going strong over here.
As will my 6s Plus at this rate.
Reduce my 16gb to 12gb and don't increase the price, whist also making the OS a bit more efficient on the ram, and then we're probably good. But don't go adding £/$/€200 to everything please I beg
They will decrease the RAM and increase the price :)
Sadly I'm sure this will be the answer
It not likely ram will be cut because of this ram shortage since they need even more of it to run on device AI stuff. Unless they've decided to shift away from AI which is even less likely
Same phone, different name, higher price.
I mean are they really? Brand New flagships get a massive discount about 3 months after they come out. My Z Flip 6 cost me $300 with trade in and it was the same year it came out. I just had to wait a few months.
Wouldn't it be cool if someone came in and developed a phone operating system that you could install onto all of your old devices that allowed them to function forever? The reason that people need to buy new phones for a faster experience is because the experience itself is bloated. Most people haven't really done anything new with their phone in years but we still have to keep buying new phones for this perceived feeling of it being better because they're slowing down our phones every two years and making such bloated interfaces that something that could do everything you needed can't anymore.
LineageOS exists and can buy your device several more years, but ultimately it’s still going to get sluggish as newer versions of Android are (a) heavier and (b) eventually required by apps.
A totally new third-party OS is pretty much doomed to fail because the big app developers are unlikely to support it.
developers, developers, developers 😓
Nobody but idiots pay retail for Samsung so the question is how this impacts the real average price.
I'm an idiot, sadly.
Why do you pay retail for a phone?
They keep their old phone boxes, but actually put their old phones in them instead of trading them in
Why the fuck would you pay a "subsidized" price via operators?
My mobile plan is 5€/mo, with unlimited everything.
Over in the US, Samsung usually discounts their phones sold directly from their website. Usually for holidays or whatever.
And then they have student, teacher, first responder, and military discounts, too.
It will probably push people more towards purchasing carrier phones instead of unlocked and that is a bad thing.
So I am in the UK where the dynamic is slightly different as it's not legal to sell locked phones to consumers.
Here in the United States our consumer rights are essentially whether or not we're allowed to use a clean towel to wipe when corporations spit directly in our face.
Yeah, that way you pay retail AND some on top for the carrier.
AFAIK my carrier phone came unlocked, I just slowly paid it off in 5 dollar installments over 24 months and a 100 dollar lump sum to keep it instead of 800 MSRP
[deleted]
I am in the UK - it's illegal to sell locked phones.
Nobody is talking about carrier deals. It's just that Samsung has offers all year round. You can buy the latest Ultra for like 500€ + bundle deals at launch because of all their promos
That's very region dependant.
When I bought my S24U, straight from Samsung, I got (I just looked at the invoice)
That's it. No extra goodies, no free buds, no free anything. I paid a total of 930€ (after trade-in rebate).
Yeah that's what matters and I bet consumers will still pay the price because of brand loyalty
Right I want an s24u in the UK without paying retail.
My s24u (512gb - double storage for free) came out at about £550 or so after Samsung cashback (double), trading in a £3 galaxy burner off eBay and selling the galaxy watch that came with it.
In my experience with the Ultra, you never beat the presale offers in terms of price.
Awesome, so those morons are making Apple look cheap and basically hurting their market on Europe(in the US Samsung is a shadow of its former self by now). Chinese brands are going to capture a lot of global market from Samsung too, and when this memory super cycle ends, Samsung may end up with a much slower smartphone division
The prices of Chinese phones will go up as well. This RAM shortage affects everyone.
No, chinese phones are also being supplied by chinese manufacturers, which means they are not bound to Samsung, SK or Micron supply. Whatever is sold outside of the US can use those components, and most of Europe will do so too.
Lol what? Are those chinese manufacturers in the room with us? Chinese phones all use Samsung or SK for their ram modules
You guys dont do your research, clearly:
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/chinese-memory-maker-cxmt-prepares-to-file-for-ipo-aiming-to-raise-usd4-2-billion-usd-to-take-advantage-of-tight-memory-market-company-lays-out-path-to-profitability-as-dram-demand-skyrockets-worldwide
While they are far away from making the same supply as other RAM makers, Chinese CXMT is getting there.
You didn't read what he said, clearly.
That's just not true. Only maybe Huawei is using ram from a chinese manufacturer. The rest are mostly Samsung/SK.
Currently? Sure. But with the way prices are going, its only a matter of time when CXMT modules are placed into Chinese phones. I would wager theyre already in talks with Chinese manufacturers as we speak.
And that was the whole point. They're currently not being supplied by chinese manufacturers. Xiaomi execs have said similar things as Samsung, phone prices will go up because of the ram, it's unlikely that chinese manufacturers will catch up that fast.
Redditors think a single fab/company can just ramp up RAM manufacturing 10x over night...
Which means...they are still absolutely bound to the Big 3's memory supplies.
How? They have access to CXMT's supply for their newer phones. Older phones in their production cycle, yes. But things move quickly in Tech. The next Chinese phones will 100% be cheaper than ours.
Because CXMT ram is still nowhere near as good as the top 3.
They already are, so this won't matter anyway.
Lmaoooo you for real believe CXMT's modules will be in Chinese flagship phones right THIS YEAR, that's crazy.
(Intended for domestic use) Chinese phones are cheap because big ol' CCP puts shitton of money into it. They are already and will be cheaper than "western phones" but not for the deluded reason you think. This year's teardown videos will be a great watch for ya, huh?
Yeah that guy sounds a bit funny
Nanya and CXMT are supplying Huawei now and they have capacity for more production! Their technology is not on par with the Big 3, however we are talking about a shortage so a 30% less efficient production will still sell like hot cakes for low to mid range phones
Yes, as I said only Huawei is getting it from chinese sources. All the rest still relie on the big 3
They rely on big 3 for flagship phones, they can use some capacity for other models. Also worth noting that Chinese firms do not have enough capacity in place to replace big 3, but at least they will help on fillimg some demand. Even Asus is rumored to start shipping Chinese made RAM this year
Everything from flagships, mid-tier performance focused devices, and even the lower end models get their RAM from the big 3. Check Weki Home's channel to see teardown of many chinese devices and you'll see how everything other than Huawei don't get their RAM from chinese manufacturers.
In what, their laptops? Because they announced they won't be releasing any new phone this year
It was rumored like a week ago that Asus will start selling DIY RAM sticks. CXMT at the same time is aiming for a 15% marketshare in the consumer market worldwide. The gap left by the 3 main manufacturers rn is so big that any fab capacity will sell. Also don’t forget that they literally stole Samsung trade secrets for the 10nm RAM manufacturing process… If the current super high demand from AI continues for long, CXMT and Nanya will benefit from it on the consumer market for sure as they are not competitive on the server space
Asus does not manufacture RAM themselves though. The only thing they do is source RAM from Samsung or SK Hynix like how they source GPU from Nvidia or AMD.
sounds like a them problem.
If they increase price on the upcoming S26 it's just plain greed. They bought those memory chips probably at least a year ago.
Samsung made this possible... along with all the other investors in things like AI.
me wanting to retire my S9 this year...
Year old flagships have always been the way to go.
This could be great, if people held on to their "old" phones longer.
Security updates are a must of course.
I'm extremely pleased by my S25 Edge. I don't know why I would ever want to upgrade since it fits my use case perfectly while being the size and specs of an Ultra, but lighter than my S23.
I rotate phones every few years but I know this won't have calmed down in the next few years. Prices will not come back down to what they were in 2025. With how inadequate the yearly versions are, people are already losing the desire to replace working devices.
AI might be about to crash the phone market while AI is still yet to become profitable or useful for consumers. Greed sure is speed running the worst timeline. You cannot make money when people don't have money to spend. If everything costs more then people cut back especially luxuries like swapping phones.
Good thing I'm upgrading now, going from the Oppo Reno 2 to the Oppo Find X9 Pro by the start of 2026 might be the best investment I've ever done.
BS Samsung. You ARE a fab, you make the damn dram chips. You're only increasing the prices because everyone else is.
Yet they are making record profits. Puts the "courageous" decision to "freeze prices" in select markets, in a different perspective. There's a difference in running an ethical business & plainly just milking the masses.
https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-announces-earnings-guidance-for-fourth-quarter-2025
No doubt. Or we'll be dropping back to phones with 2GB or less of RAM
I bought a "new" phone last year, the Samsung galaxy s ultra+ or whaver (the big one with the stylus)
It was between the older 2022 @ 512gb ssd or newer 2023 @ 256gb ssd.
Think I'm glad I went with the 2022 @ 512gb. The extra storage is nice and it does more than enough, I don't really see what benefits a slightly newer phone would add.
Seeing this just makes me stick with my Magic 6 Pro longer. Nothing wrong with it, still smooth, battery easily lasts my day. I was curious about Samsung cameras, but no rush now.
I’ll keep my Magic 7 Pro then. It still runs smooth and lasts all day. I wanted to try Samsung, but price hikes put me off.
Guess I'm keeping my phone for a few years then.
glad i got my s24+ last year.
don't think i'll need another phone for at least 5 years.
Will this affect the older models like S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra or just future flagships like S26 Ultra and the upcoming Folds?
I guess I'll be sticking with my S25 for longer than usual...I normally replace my phone every 2 years which does not seem feasible now with the anticipated price increase.
Man I'm never getting a new phone
They will simply have to reduce their profit margins...
Behold the new S26 Ultra with 1gb of ram.
Samsung execs
warn ofsalivate from upcoming phone price hikes over memory shortagesDid Samsung forget they did this to themselves?
They typically make their own memory. There is no "shortage" for them.
Samsung isn't one giant company, IIRC each division is independent, but operate under the same group, otherwise the ones making the RAM would've easily supplied the mobile division, but they'd rather make money from other companies as they're willing to pay more, correct me if I'm wrong.
I believe there were news reports that Samsung's foundry division was refusing orders from the Samsung Phone division for RAM because they're too busy selling to AI customers. Can't really blame the overall company for following where the money is, naturally if its more profitable to let the phone division suffer because selling RAM to AI customers is THAT profitable, naturally the company will take that path. They have no inherent reason to prop up the phone division
Samsung is more like a loose conglomeration of companies that happen to share a name. Samsung the phone company is not firmly tied to Samsung the chip fab, that’s why they flip-flop between Exynos and Snapdragon so much.
All a manufactured shortage anyhow, create a problem to drive up demand. Seems like a great idea
Just wait and buy. Suprisingly a good strat since 2020.
This is why I've gotten OnePlus phones, more memory than you'll ever need for half a decade. My OP7 Pro is still going strong and it launched in 2019.
I thought I read somewhere that Samsung's mobile division already allocated their memory needs through 2026. So is the just more FUD from this guy?
Cool, yet another reason not to upgrade from my S23 ultra!
Just like 4 days ago I heard news of freezing S series prices. Do they not think before they speak?
I'm gonna manage with my S23 Ultra couple of years still.
Higher price? It already feels close to my limit. If it goes higher, I’d probably look at better value brands instead. Stuff like Honor still offers solid flagships with affordable price
Billion dollar company should take the hit.
Consumers warn Samsung that they will have to eat the cost. (They've been coasting for years and have 0 leverage)
shocker.. full out assault on everything consumer electronic... so much winning...
People warn Samsung execs of upcoming purchases of phones other than Samsung.