Planning to upgrade your phone? Nothing co-founder says waiting could be costly

We’ve already been tracking what soaring RAM prices could mean for your next smartphone — from RAMageddon pushing flagship costs higher to newer Android launches creeping up in price. It’s largely fuelled by surging demand from AI-heavy computing workloads, and this is now affecting how much you pay for your next phone. That’s exactly the point Carl Pei, co-founder of Nothing, recently highlighted on X, putting a very real industry concern back into the spotlight.

Pei had already warned earlier this year that 2026 could reshape how we think about consumer electronics pricing. Now, he’s doubling down on that stance, resharing his old post on X and reinforcing a point many buyers are only just beginning to feel in real time: smartphones are getting pricier, and it’s not because brands suddenly decided to get greedy.

The global rush to build AI-heavy systems’ surge has pushed up memory costs across the board, and according to Pei, the impact is significant enough that memory now costs more than the processor and display combined, accounting for over half of the total hardware bill.

Pei even pointed to the Nothing Phone (4a) as an example of how quickly things are changing. He noted that during its development and launch cycle, memory prices effectively doubled — and then, before the industry could stabilize, they doubled again. That kind of spike is actually brutal. It’s like planning a product and its economics around one parts list, only to find out halfway through that your biggest expense just doubled again.

And this isn’t just a Nothing problem. According to Pei, the ripple effects are already visible across the Android ecosystem. Since February, newer smartphones have reportedly launched at prices up to $100 higher than their predecessors.

What makes this more important is the timing. We’re entering a period when seasonal discounts are used to soften the blow for buyers. But if Pei is right, those familiar festive deals may not feel as generous anymore because the base prices are already rising faster than discounts can offset.

His closing point is blunt: “If you’re planning to upgrade your phone, the best time was yesterday, and the next best time is now.” It’s also because the price floor itself may keep rising over the next year.

So, the era of predictable smartphone pricing might be ending, and RAM, something most people never think about, is becoming the biggest reason why.