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

The RAM crisis gripping tech markets shows no signs of easing — and in some cases, it may get worse. Demand from AI datacenters isn’t slowing down, and Samsung Electronics has just taken its last orders for budget smartphone memory: LPDDR4 and 4X RAM chips that, despite their age, still underpin 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 life to free up capacity for newer, higher-margin memory is a double-edged sword.

For context, most — but certainly not all — smartphones have moved to LPDDR5 and 5X, including relatively affordable models like Samsung’s Galaxy A37. But there are still plenty of exceptions. The low-cost Nothing Phone 4a is 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 remains widely used, particularly at the lowest price points. And that’s exactly where the current crunch is now biting hardest. Budget devices are more exposed than flagships, simply because they have far less room to absorb rising component costs.

According to Counterpoint, DRAM’s share of bill-of-materials (BOM) costs in affordable (sub-$200) and mid-tier ($400–$600) smartphones has surged over the past year. At the low end, phones using LPDDR4X — the very memory Samsung is phasing out — have seen BOM share jump from around 13% to 26% between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, with projections hitting an unsustainable 35% in Q2. A major supplier taking last orders will only tighten supply further and push costs even higher.

That leaves budget handset 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.

Cutting specifications isn’t much more appealing. There’s little slack left to trim: weaker processors, lower-end cameras, or even tighter memory configurations might 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 wins here.

At first glance, shifting production toward LPDDR5 might seem like good news for higher-end devices. There’s some truth to that. By winding down older memory, Samsung can redirect capacity to newer, more profitable DRAM and NAND storage, which is under pressure as well. But there’s no guarantee Samsung will dedicate extra capacity to mobile chips when data-center high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is currently far more profitable.

Even if it does, this isn’t a quick fix. Demand at the high end is arguably even more intense, and the cost impact is already showing. DRAM is expected to account for 20–23% of phone BOM costs in mid-tier and premium smartphones in Q2 2026 — up from well below 7% a year earlier for LPDDR5X. That’s a dramatic increase, and one that will force manufacturers to either cut elsewhere or pass costs on to consumers.

Any relief from shifting production will take time, too. Samsung has only just taken last orders for LPDDR4, meaning those chips will continue rolling off production lines for a while yet. Retooling fabrication plants is neither quick nor simple—it can take months for additional LPDDR5 capacity to come online. And even then, pent-up demand may absorb any gains without significantly easing prices.

Samsung isn’t operating in a vacuum, of course, and the shape of RAM supply depends just as much on how Micron and SK Hynix handle production priorities. But based on current trends, meaningful relief for higher-end consumer tech may not arrive until 2027 at the earliest. For budget handsets, the situation is about to get even tougher.