That’s not to say that Samsung isn’t feeling the squeeze when it comes to memory pricing; Quandt’s post says that the company is absorbing increased materials costs to launch the S26 series at similar price points to the S25. He goes on to say we shouldn’t expect free pre-order upgrades for the S26 series, however (you could nab the 512GB Galaxy S25 Ultra for the same $1,299 as the 256-gig model during its launch window).
S26: base models are pretty much the same price as last year, except for Ultra, which is ~100 Euro cheaper for 256 and 512GB
S26U 1TB is the same as last year
prices are changing in different ways. overall Samsung is “eating” the higher mem cost in most cases
!no free preorder upgrades expected
In a subsequent post, Quandt qualified this info by saying it’s “based on retail data from a country isn’t paying in Euro” — so it’s possible parts of the full picture have been lost in translation, so to speak. Consistent year-over-year pricing in Euro markets also wouldn’t necessarily guarantee that pricing will also remain the same in the US. Still, it’s nice to hear any indication that Samsung’s next generation of flagships might be spared from AI-driven RAM inflation, even if it would mean thinner margins for the company.