As we approach the Galaxy S26 series' likely launch window, we're starting to hear more about what Samsung could charge for its new phones. While we're bracing for the possibility of price hikes all round, one new source has a more positive view.
Techmaniacs, a Greek tech news site, claims to have the inside knowledge on what Samsung has in store for the Galaxy S26's prices, thanks to its industry sources. While it doesn't have specific costs to share, Techmaniacs does at least tell us if prices are higher or lower, The Price Is Right-style.
Starting with the top Galaxy S26 Ultra model, the cited sources claim that this year's Ultra won't be victim to a price hike. Good news for anyone who wants to get their hands on the unique upgrades for this edition, which are tipped to include a new privacy display and faster 60W charging.
As for the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus, we have the caveat that the prices aren't final yet. But as things stand, we're told that the base models will be more expensive, while the higher storage ones will be cheaper. While this seems counterintuitive, this is apparently planned in order to balance out Samsung's costs against the volume it expects to sell of each version.
What have previous Galaxy S26 price leaks said?
These details are quite different from those found in the last big Galaxy S26 price leak. According to that leak, the higher storage versions of the S26 and S26 Plus are the ones getting the price increase, not the entry-level models. Things are still different in the case of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but the details diverge. The older leak says that the Ultra will have a lower price for its base 256GB and 512GB storage version but the same for the 1TB version.
It's also worth keeping in mind the potential impact of the rumors claiming that the basic Galaxy S26 is tipped to skip the 128GB storage version, and will start at 256GB like the other models. This presumably means the Galaxy S26 will be more expensive than the Galaxy S25, no matter what happens, but at least you'll have more space for all your stuff out of the deal.
Not happy about the rumored price hikes? Blame AI
The impact of RAMageddon — the massive, rapid price increase in RAM due to the demand from AI data centers — is looking to be inescapable in 2026. However, that only applies to whoever is buying RAM directly. In the case of smartphones, it's all handled by big companies like Samsung, which can get better rates than a typical consumer.
Samsung is in an even better position than most, since RAM manufacturing is one of the conglomerate's numerous divisions. Between getting the best possible bulk-buying deals and carefully selecting which models get more expensive, we'll hopefully get a Galaxy S26 series that doesn't cost noticeably more than its main rivals.
The Galaxy S26 series, including the all-important Galaxy S26 Ultra, is likely to launch soon, with February 25th being the rumored launch date. We probably won't get confirmed pricing until the end of Samsung's presentation, but that's still not too long to wait.
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