A Galaxy A17 5G costs $70 more than it did at launch and a Pixel 10a costs $100 more.
Both Samsung and Google are raising the starting price of their budget phones, possibly due to the RAM crisis that no tech company seems to be able to escape. The Pixel 10a now costs $100 more, reportedly 9 to 5 googleduring Android authority writes that Samsung has raised prices across its entire Galaxy A lineup, the second price increase the company has made this week.
As part of the price increases, the Galaxy A17 5G jumped from $200 to $270 (the phone received an earlier price increase in August), the Galaxy A27 5G jumped from $350 to $380, the Galaxy A37 5G jumped from $450 to $490 and the Galaxy A57 5G jumped from $6050. All told, Samsung’s A series phones cost anywhere from $30 to $70 more than they did before.
Google started selling the Pixel 10a for $499 in March, but with the $100 increase, it will now cost $599. This price is still on the cheaper end of things for a Pixel, but not quite the deal it was before. Mobile syrup writes that the changes are even more extreme in Canada, where the phone launched for $679 and now costs $849.
It would be one thing if these changes were temporary, but it is very likely that the next version of these budget phones will be launched for a similar inflated price. That’s because the best case scenario is that the RAM shortage improves in a year due to an increase in Chinese RAM production. The more pessimistic outlook is that we will have to deal with higher RAM prices until 2030. For anyone looking at an affordable phone, buying used seems more and more like the only option.