Carl Pei Explains Why Your Next Smartphone Will Cost More; Also Teases Upcoming Storage Upgrades

But nothing appears to be preparing for an increase in prices on its new smartphone line-up. A company executive said this move “fits with more recent smartphone industry trends,” where increasing memory component costs are reportedly pressure manufacturers’ margins, meaning that the retail price for consumers is going up. Also, nothing will likely make memory type upgrades on some mid-range models — fuelling the price hike.

Nothing Phones to Get More Expensive

In X, the new article by Nothing Co-Founder and CEO Carl Pei about 2026 being an “unprecedented” year for consumer electronics, as well as the smartphone industry in particular. This post cites the rising memory NAND and DRAM prices, as large volumes are being diverted to data centres to meet the demand for AI infrastructure.

Carl Pei said the company will launch a number of models in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026. brands, including Nothing, will either raise prices by 30 percent or more as memory price increases; consumers are expected to suffer from the brunt of this – or downgrade specifications that can be used in order to manage costs.

The executive said ‘Nothing will choose the former, and prices of Nothing smartphones that are coming out in Q1 2026 will see an ‘inevitable’ increase.

One notable update for the next Nothing phones is a switch to UFS 3 as one of the most important changes that has been predicted. A memory of 1 storage. With future Mid ranges, this is the most likely upgrade for that type of adolescent. None of its latest mid-end phones, such as Nothing Phone 3a and CMF phone 2 Pro (which is a variant of the current model), have UFS 2 on their handsets. 1. 2 storage for ? the transition to UFS 3 as a . It is also possible that 1 will be more read and write faster, as well as a better system responsiveness.

However, Carl Pei (left) emphasized that Nothing was more expensive than the industry behemoths because it focused on user experience rather than winning the specifications race. According to the official, 2026 will be the year when the “specs race” ends at the end of this year.

There are already a number of brands that have suggested they will be pricing hikes for their smartphones. The alleged statement by Samsung’s President and Chief Marketing Officer Won-Jin Lee at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026, said “The memory chip shortage is growing indefinitely,” which could lead to the company selling its products back into the future for the next few days.

Speaking to Gadgets 360 in a recent conversation with Realme India Chief Marketing Officer, Francis Wong said ‘Smart phones launched in 2026 will cost more than smartphones of similar specifications in the year 2025. This is a trend that can never be stopped and will continue until H2 2027,’ the official added.

More concrete information is expected as Nothing prepares for official announcements later this year.