Samsung is reportedly planning price increases for its upcoming Galaxy S26 series smartphones in specific markets, including South Korea, while maintaining stable pricing in others, such as the United States. Concurrently, early benchmark data and memory specifications for the series have surfaced, indicating the use of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and a base RAM configuration of 12 GB. These developments occur amid rising industry-wide component costs and currency fluctuations.
Price Adjustments and Market Strategy
According to reports from South Korea's Financial News, Samsung has approved an internal plan to increase the prices of the Galaxy S26 series in South Korea by 44,000 won ($30) to 88,000 won ($60). For context, the Galaxy S25 launched in South Korea with prices of 1.155 million won for the base model, 1.353 million won for the S25 Plus, and 1.6984 million won ($1,175) for the S25 Ultra. With the anticipated adjustments, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is projected to retail for approximately 1.8 million won ($1,245) in the region.
This potential adjustment would represent a shift from Samsung's previous strategy of largely stable pricing for its flagship S-series over the past three years, with the Galaxy S24 Ultra being an exception. The previous pricing strategy was noted to have contributed to the Galaxy S25 series reaching a cumulative sales volume of 3 million units approximately two months faster than its predecessor.
Conversely, Samsung has reportedly decided against implementing price hikes in key markets such as the United States. This strategy could result in the Galaxy S26 series being priced lower in the US compared to South Korea. Projected US retail prices for the series include:
- Base Galaxy S26: $799.99
- Galaxy S26 Plus: $999.99
- Galaxy S26 Ultra: $1,299.99
Technical Specifications and Benchmarking
Recent Geekbench results for a Samsung smartphone identified as the US version of the Galaxy S26 Ultra (model number SM-S948U) indicate the presence of a Qualcomm CPU. The benchmark score for this device was observed to be slightly lower than other devices utilizing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a discrepancy potentially attributed to an underclocked chipset or pre-release software. The entry-level Galaxy S26 was also listed with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, showing a slightly higher clock speed than the Ultra variant in the benchmarks.
Both the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Ultra models are indicated to feature 10.80 GB of usable memory, corresponding to 12 GB of RAM. Discussions have arisen regarding the adequacy of this memory capacity for complex applications, particularly future local processing generative artificial intelligence routines. It has been suggested that a 16 GB RAM option might be reserved exclusively for the top-tier 1 TB storage model of the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Influencing Cost Factors
Several industry-wide cost pressures are cited as contributing to the potential price adjustments and specification considerations:
- Memory Component Costs: The price of 12GB LPDDR5X modules has more than doubled since early last year. Counterpoint Research has forecasted an additional 40 percent increase in smartphone memory prices by the second quarter of 2026.
- Currency Volatility: Fluctuations in the South Korean won are affecting Samsung's costs related to procuring application processors (APs), specifically the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, from Qualcomm. Rising memory and storage prices are also cited as a factor influencing memory capacity decisions.