Samsung Galaxy S26 Series to Reportedly See Price Hike Amid Rising Chip Costs, Raising Competitive Concerns

The Samsung Galaxy S26 series is set to be launched at the Galaxy Unpacked event scheduled for next week. Ahead of its anticipated debut, a new report from South Korea suggests that a price hike now looks increasingly likely for the next-generation Galaxy S series lineup. While there are concerns among the tech giant's mobile leadership about weakening its competitive position in the premium segment, it might not be able to absorb the additional expenses caused by increasing memory component costs.

Price Hike for the Galaxy S26 Series

According to a report by South Korean publication IT Chosun, Samsung is grappling with soaring costs tied to advanced chip production. The standard Samsung Galaxy S26 is expected to use the Exynos 2600 processor in several markets, which is rumoured to be built on its 2nm GAA (Gate All Around) process.

This transition is reported to substantially increase wafer and yield costs compared to previous nodes.

Samsung reportedly intended to hike the price of the Galaxy S25 series last year, but the planned move was prevented due to a last-minute intervention from TM Roh, the Head of Mobile eXperience (MX) and Device eXperience (DX) Divisions, and President and co-CEO of Samsung Electronics.

This time around, however, absorbing the additional manufacturing costs may not be feasible for the company. The report suggests that a price hike is becoming difficult to avoid, even if Samsung would prefer to maintain stable pricing to protect market share.

The report also mentioned that TM Roh is concerned about Samsung's competitive imbalance with Apple. The latter has been widely rumoured to launch the iPhone 18 series in September at a similar price as the current iPhone 17 lineup. Thus, any price increase for the Galaxy S26 lineup could potentially widen the pricing gap and affect Samsung's competitiveness in the ultra-premium segment.

The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 will be held on February 25 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET (11:30 pm IST) in San Francisco, California. The tech giant's upcoming flagship Galaxy S lineup is expected to comprise three models — Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra. With less than two weeks remaining, we can expect more details to surface in the coming days.