How Samsung’s latest RAM decision will affect budget Android phones

He RAM crisis The exciting technology markets show no signs of easing and, in some cases, may get worse. Demand for AI data centers is not slowing down and Samsung Electronics just took its latest orders for cheap smartphone memory: LPDDR4 chips and 4X RAM that, despite their age, still power a good portion of affordable devices. As one of the few major players in the memory space, Samsung’s decision to push LPDDR4 toward the end of its life to free up capacity for newer, higher-margin memory is a double-edged sword.

To put it in context, most (but certainly not all) smartphones have moved to LPDDR5 and 5X, including relatively affordable models like Samsung Galaxy A37. But there are still many exceptions. the low cost Nothing phone 4a It’s a recent example of a device sticking with older memory, and some budget chipsets, including Samsung’s own Exynos line, continue to support it.

LPDDR4 may not be cutting edge, but it is still widely used, especially at lower price points. And that is exactly where the current crisis is hitting hardest. Budget devices are more exposed than flagships, simply because they have much less space to absorb rising component costs.

According CounterpointDRAM’s share of bill of materials (BOM) costs in affordable (less than $200) and mid-tier ($400-$600) smartphones has increased over the past year. On the lower end, phones using LPDDR4X (the same memory that Samsung is phasing out) have seen an increase in BOM share from around 13% to 26% between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, with projections reaching an unsustainable 35% in Q2. A major supplier accepting late orders will only further restrict supply and drive up costs even further.

That leaves budget phone makers with few good options. Raising prices is the obvious move, but it undermines the entire value proposition and risks pushing these devices into direct competition with better-equipped mid-range phones.

The cutting specifications are not much more attractive. There’s little wiggle room left: weaker processors, lower-end cameras, or even stricter memory configurations may be on the table in some cases, but each comes at the cost of a noticeably worse user experience. For consumers shopping on a budget, that means paying more for less or settling for devices that feel increasingly compromised. There are no easy victories here.

At first glance, shifting production towards LPDDR5 may seem like good news for high-end devices. There is some truth in that. By removing older memory, Samsung can redirect capacity to newer, more cost-effective DRAM and NAND storage, which is also under pressure. But there’s no guarantee Samsung will dedicate additional capacity to mobile chips when high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in data centers is currently much more cost-effective.

Even if it were, this is not a quick fix. Demand at the high end is arguably even more intense and the impact on costs is already being felt. DRAM is expected to account for 20% to 23% of the BOM costs of mid-tier and premium smartphones in the second quarter of 2026, up from well below 7% a year earlier for LPDDR5X. This is a dramatic increase that will force manufacturers to cut back in other sectors or pass costs on to consumers.

Any relief from the production shift will also take time. Samsung just received the last orders for LPDDR4, which means those chips will continue to roll off production lines for a while yet. Retrofitting manufacturing plants is neither quick nor easy – it can take months for additional LPDDR5 capacity to come online. And even then, pent-up demand can absorb any gains without significantly lowering prices.

Samsung isn’t operating in a vacuum, of course, and the shape of RAM supply depends both on how Micron and SK Hynix handle production priorities. But based on current trends, significant relief for high-end consumer technology may not come until 2027 at the earliest. For budget phones, the situation is about to get even more difficult.