Samsung’s Jacking Up Galaxy S26 Prices, Because of Course It Is

The base Samsung Galaxy S26 with 256GB of storage will now cost you $100 more than it did last week, because we can’t have anything nice anymore. And as a neat reminder, the S26 lineup already retailed for $100 more than last year’s S25 phones , which means Samsung’s latest flagship phone will now set you back $200 more than the S25 did at launch.

Pretty much every S26 configuration will see the $100 price hike, but matters get even worse if you’re looking to get your hands on the S26 Ultra with 1TB of storage. The retail price of Samsung’s top-of-the-line phone is actually going up $200, putting its starting price with 256GB of storage at a whopping $1,999.

The updated prices as of today on Samsung’s web store are:

While certainly frustrating, the price hikes are by no means a surprise. When Samsung unveiled the S26 lineup earlier this year, it cited the rising cost of RAM as the reason for the $100 increase over the S25’s launch price. At this point, higher launch prices are quickly becoming standard. Both of Apple’s new smartphones, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max , were launched last month at $100 more than the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max .

And, unfortunately, raising prices on gadgets well after they hit the market is also becoming old hat. Back in June, Apple hiked the prices on almost all of its laptops and desktops, with some products seeing increases as high as $500. The company also quietly raised the price of older phones like the iPhone 16 , iPhone 17e , iPhone 17 , and iPhone Air last month. Even gadgets like Amazon’s Kindle and Echo devices , which have very little RAM, have seen price increases in recent months.

If you’re looking to buy a new-ish Samsung phone at the same price as it was at launch, pretty much your only option at this point is the Galaxy S26 FE , which still retails for $699. Otherwise, you’ve got no shot at buying a new Galaxy S26 phone without shelling out at least a grand or waiting for a good sale.

Samsung’s latest foldable flagship, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 , has also been marked safe from a price hike. For now, that is. Your best bet, at this point, is to buy any new tech you might want before it inevitably gets more expensive in the next few months.