Manufacturers will raise prices and downgrade RAM to combat memory cost surge, market research suggests

Manufacturers in the smartphone and notebook (laptop) space are expected to slow down upgrades, and even downgrade specs in some cases, early next year. We’ve already seen prices being raised in the desktop market – aside from DDR4 and DDR5 itself, prebuilt gaming PCs have also had their prices raised as a result of the memory shortages. Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were considered the best chance to upgrade, as custom PC builders raised their prices shortly after.

Market intelligence firm TrendForce projects a sharp rise in memory prices during Q1 2026, and has outlined the expected effect on smartphone and laptop brands. We should point out that Samsung is expected to launch its Galaxy S26 series early next year. As as result of the shortages, RAM specs are expected to be adjusted, with lower-spec configurations being priortized.

RAM prices continue to rise, and manufactuers are cutting costs

“TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that memory prices are projected to rise sharply again in the first quarter of 2026, exerting significant cost pressure on global end-device manufacturers. Consequently, smartphone and notebook brands are compelled to increase their product prices and reduce specifications. A further downward revision of shipment forecasts now seems unavoidable, with market resources becoming more concentrated among a few leading brands.”

Source: TrendForce

As seen in the table above, we can expect to see a sort-of migration of specs, favoring the lower-end of what is currently available on the market. The transition to 16GB RAM in smartphones is being slowed, the high-end notebooks will most focused on this 16GB spec, rather than any higher configurations such as 32GB or 64GB. As for the entry-level, 4GB smartphones may continue to be the norm as costs are being cut, and 8GB notebooks are unlikely to change.

The good news is that adjusted specs are not expected to drop below the already-established baseline – it’s obvious to say that consumers certainly won’t react positivity to that. However, don’t expect any new smartphone or notebook releases to be equipped with more RAM than their current-gen models.