Samsung suddenly increases prices of Galaxy S26 phones
Most got a $100 increase, while the 1TB Galaxy S26 Ultra jumped from $200 to $2,000.
Samsung has increased the prices of its Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra phones by at least $100 on its website, even though most configurations were already more expensive than last year’s equivalents when they launched in March. The S26 FE, which the company launched a month ago, is the only one of the current slate smartphones that has avoided a sudden price increase.
Unless you opt for an FE or are waiting for a sale (Black Friday is fast approaching and Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days are next week), it will now cost you at least $1,000 to buy a Galaxy S26 phone. That’s the price of the base model with 256GB of storage, meaning this particular version of the Galaxy S26 now costs $200 more than its Galaxy S25 equivalent.
If you want a Galaxy S26 with 512GB of storage, it will now cost you $1,200. The Galaxy S26+ costs $1,200 for 256GB of storage and $1,400 for the 512GB variant. As for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, you’ll have to pay $1,400 for 256GB of storage, $1,600 for 512GB, and $2,000 for 1TB. The latter stands out since Samsung increased the price by $200, up from $100 for the other variants.
Even though the S26’s prices were higher and its revenues increased overall, Samsung’s mobile division posted its first-ever loss for the April-June quarter of this year. It blamed a decline in operating profit on higher costs and components such as RAM and storage becoming more expensive. This is probably why the company increased the prices of the S26 even further. (Woozad has contacted Samsung for clarification).
On the contrary, Samsung’s chip division is doing gangbusters. This helped propel the company to record quarterly revenue and operating profit in its fiscal second quarter.
This may not mean the end of Samsung’s smartphone price hikes either. Reports suggest that the company could make storage upgrades even more expensive in the S27 lineup.
