With RAM prices soaring, it’s time next-gen phone specs got creative

The RAM crisis affects smartphones, PC components, handheld game consoles, and more, is really starting to bite. Between product delays, cancellations, and the expectation of price hikes, 2026 isn’t shaping up to be a good year for buying new gadgets. While the outlook isn’t great, the tech industry remains adaptive, if nothing else. Every crisis is also an opportunity, and I’m not the only one who thinks that.

I have some sympathy for Carl Pei’s position that the RAM shortage presents an opportunity for brands that are less dependent on spec sheets — and the looming price increases — to market their wares. I don’t think that Nothing is exactly primed to benefit any more than anyone else (affordable phones are probably more vulnerable to BOM price hikes), but that’s by the by. The RAM shortage might present some opportunities for brands to break the mould, but will they take it?

The big decision that brands have to make is how best to respond to this shared problem. Simply charging more or settling for less RAM (and perhaps storage space) to hold prices steady are the obvious options, but they might also be the weakest: consumers will ask why they’re paying more for the same hardware or why the spec sheet is weaker this year. Waiting to see what your competitors do also feels like a no-win situation.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume brands unanimously come to the realization that everyone’s prices are likely to go up in 2026. The question then becomes: could — or should — you invest that headroom in something other than memory?

There are definitely some interesting decisions that could be made. Perhaps a baseline $799 flagship can settle for 8GB of RAM (which was perfectly fine a couple of years ago) instead of 12GB, and spend the difference on improving its camera setup. Everyone loves better-looking pictures, and a better camera, or an extra one, is a good way to get a leg up on the competition. Alternatively, investing in a larger silicon-carbon battery would stand out far more than a little extra RAM.

Maybe mid-range phones can finally spring for those pricey IP ratings, or invest a bit more money in design and build materials. Alternatively, brands could double down on unique software tools, ideas like hardware keys, MagSafe-style wireless charging, or other smaller features that often make the difference between mid- and flagship-tier handsets.

Those features can make a tangible difference to the everyday user experience, and consumers might feel that they’re getting more bang for a slight price increase versus a few more gigabytes of RAM (or even the same amount as last year). In any case, these options could allow phones to differentiate themselves from those that take the more obvious route of simply passing on the ballooning cost of RAM.

That’s fine on a phone with 12GB or 16GB to go around, but under tighter constraints like 8GB, you have to consider whether AI features or app responsiveness should take precedence. Given the mixed reception to AI tools, I don’t think many consumers would be all that bothered if some offline features take a little longer to boot up. Still, if you’re planning to launch the best AI-equipped phone, having large amounts of RAM is pretty non-negotiable these days.

There’s also a tangent here that doesn’t get talked about much anymore: better memory management. Smarter app eviction, more aggressive background limits, and perhaps even resorting to that dreaded swap space could all help stretch smaller RAM budgets further. That won’t magically solve the problem — AI models, in particular, are still voracious — but it could be enough to smooth over the experience on phones that can’t afford to throw 12GB or 16GB of RAM at the problem.

Even so, this effectively splits the market into two segments: the big brands that can absorb RAM costs or pass them on to consumers in order to maximize AI capabilities, and the smaller players that can’t.

While this is already true to some extent — Google and Samsung have two of the larger AI ecosystems, even though Nano runs with reasonably modest requirements — the gap could widen if there’s a divergence between phones that can and can’t meet future hardware demands. Likewise, the experience may feel very different between phones with spare RAM to dedicate to AI and those without.

Perhaps this is a good thing. AI isn’t universally loved in the mobile space (or anywhere, for that matter), and nudging some companies to seek out alternative ways to differentiate their products could be healthy. Maybe brands that focus more on battery life, photography, or distinctive designs might fare better than AI-obsessed competitors — but I doubt many corporate strategies would want to bet on that.

All that being said, smartphone designs take years, not months. Changing plans at the last minute to accommodate the explosive prices of RAM in the past few months is unlikely. There’s probably very little the Samsung Galaxy S26 series can do about it, for example, other than to stump up the added cost or move to a slightly different RAM configuration. Changing a broader range of features is off the table.

However, phones launching in the second half of 2026 have had a bit more time to weigh additional options. There are optimistic expectations that the crisis will ease somewhat by early 2027, in which case waiting it out might be the best bet. That said, the RAM crunch could easily persist beyond the next year. If it does, it may pay to start thinking about how to build more exciting phones without relying on copious amounts of RAM and storage to pad out spec sheets or power next-gen AI models.

Obviously, I don’t think expensive RAM is a good thing, let alone a golden opportunity for some brands. It’s a headache that will make devices harder to buy and more expensive, at least temporarily. Still, there may be a sliver of opportunity for brands to shake up the status quo over the next year or two. We’ll just have to wait and see if we end up with some great buys out of it.