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Galaxy S27 Ultra price hike could be the worst of all

The Galaxy S27 Ultra may suffer due to Qualcomm's latest decision.

By Anam Hamid

Published: Jul 26, 2026, 11:58 AM

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The Galaxy S26 Ultra. | Image by PhoneArena

Price hikes are practically a given in the smartphone industry this year, but for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S27 series and other Android phones, the situation is shaping up to be a double whammy. As if memory component inflation wasn't already pushing smartphone makers to raise prices, Qualcomm has now decided to add fuel to the fire.

Pay up for Snapdragon

Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors powered nearly a quarter of all smartphones in Q1. Its top-tier chips remain the gold standard for premium Android phones, delivering snappy performance and lag-free gaming.

Qualcomm is planning to raise chipset prices by double-digit percentages, per Bloomberg.

The company reportedly notified its customers on Friday that the increase will hit all products shipped after September 1.

TSMC bottleneck

AI companies haven't just cornered the market on memory chips. Their data centers are straining semiconductor production and causing component shortages across the board.

Qualcomm gets its silicon manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and TSMC is struggling to keep up with demand. While it's trying to increase production, it expects shortages to drag on for a while.

The confluence of these problems means rising costs for Qualcomm, which it says it can no longer shoulder on its own.

How much more would you pay for the Galaxy S27 series?

Consequences

Samsung's new foldables cost more than their predecessors. | Image by PhoneArena

The effects of the price hikes will be felt throughout the smartphone industry.

Qualcomm's next flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, was already expected to cost more than the Gen 5. With these new supply chain headaches, the price per unit could easily soar past $300.

Meanwhile, smartphone makers have already started raising prices due to the memory crunch. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Flip 8 are about $100 more expensive, and Apple and Google have already told customers to brace for price hikes.

This suggests trouble for the Galaxy S27 Ultra, the successor to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which starts at $1,299.99.

Alternatives

While the Galaxy S26 Ultra is exclusively powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, global variants of the Galaxy S26 and S26+ ship with the in-house Exynos 2600.

With Qualcomm raising prices, Samsung could increase the ratio of Exynos chips to soften the blow.

Since Qualcomm chips are generally considered superior to Exynos, that may not go over well with buyers.

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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.

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