Samsung just put a price tag on the global memory shortage. The company's Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus cost $100 more than last year's models, and mobile chief Won-Joon Choi isn't being shy about why. In an exclusive interview with The Verge, Choi confirmed that RAM shortages made a "significant contribution" to the price hike, marking the first time a major phone maker has directly blamed the ongoing memory crisis for consumer pricing decisions. The admission validates what the industry's been whispering about for months - the so-called RAMageddon is hitting wallets hard.
Samsung is doing something unusual for a tech giant - it's being remarkably candid about why your next phone costs more. Won-Joon Choi, the COO of Samsung's mobile business, just confirmed what the industry's been dancing around for months. The memory shortage everyone's been calling RAMageddon made a "significant contribution" to the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus costing $100 more than their predecessors.
"The memory shortage alone made a significant contribution to the price," Choi told The Verge in an interview. "All the increasing material costs factored into the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus costing $100 more than their predecessors this year, as did tariffs, but the memory was significant."
It's a rare moment of transparency in an industry that typically buries supply chain issues behind vague statements about "market conditions." But Samsung's facing a different reality this year. The Galaxy S26 lineup launched to reviews describing it as "more of the same for more money," according to The Verge's Allison Johnson. When you're asking customers to pay more for what appears to be incremental upgrades, honesty might be the only play.
