Two major phone makers announce price hikes starting next week

Up, up, up! That's the sound of everything getting pricier and now, two more phone makers are about to raise their prices.

Oppo and OnePlus, the companies behind some of the most interesting, powerful and popular flagships and mid-rangers, might start to raise their prices next week (March 16 and onwards).

Yes, the change will affect even current models.

Why?

Beyond the real explanation ("Such are the times!"), factors like the ongoing RAMpocalypse are to blame here. The price of memory chips has skyrocketed in recent months and many companies that operate on thin margins in the first place find it impossible to absorb the higher RAM costs. So they pass the inflated RAM prices on to the end users.

Fast Technology reports that Oppo (which is joined with OnePlus at the hip) and its official online store will "strategically adjust the prices of some products on March 16".

Now, the word "raise" isn't used, but I think it's fairly safe to guess Oppo and OnePlus will "adjust" prices by raising them and not by introducing discounts.

It's not clear which models will be affected by the price hikes, but these could be handsets from Oppo's A and K series phones… and some OnePlus handsets. The report has it that for now, Oppo's Find and Reno series won't be subjected to a price increase.

Not the first player to play this game

Xiaomi already announced a slight price hike on some of their models that are popular in China.

Samsung also raised prices recently with the Galaxy S26 series. Both the "vanilla" Galaxy S26 and the bigger Galaxy S26 Plus are $100 costlier than their predecessors (in terms of starting price). The maxed-out champ Galaxy S26 Ultra didn't get pricier, but it's already premium at $1,300.

So, there are two clear paths ahead: either we'll pay more for phones (as it is the case with virtually everything else these days), or we'll get less (in terms of hardware) for our money. Maybe there's a hidden, third path ahead where certain world leaders stop screwing around and we're allowed to enjoy several decades of trade and growth instead of wars. Just don't get your hopes too high on that third option.

Whichever path the industry goes, chances are that smartphone shipments in 2026 will go down for the first time in years.

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