Samsung raised Galaxy S26 prices by $100 across the US lineup on 1 October 2026, and the 1TB Galaxy S26 Ultra went up by $200. A new rumour now claims the Galaxy S27 series, expected early next year, will carry its own Galaxy S27 price increase on top of that, and some storage tiers are set to climb further than others. The culprit in both cases is the same: a global DRAM and NAND shortage, driven largely by AI firms buying up memory supply, that has already pushed the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s top price above Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max.
How steep the Galaxy S27 price increase could get
A rumour out of South Korea says Galaxy S27 devices will cost at least KRW 130,000, about $95, more than their S26 equivalents, but that figure only applies to the base storage tier. Higher-capacity models are expected to rise by more. GSMArena’s source lays out an example: the Galaxy S26 Ultra launched at $1,299 for 256GB, with the 512GB version costing $1,499, a $200 gap between tiers. For the S27 Ultra, the base model is rumoured to start at $1,399, with the gap to the next storage tier widening further still. A separate leak puts the overall range of hikes at roughly $74 to $96 depending on market and configuration.
Why the bigger storage tiers take the bigger hit
By our arithmetic, going from 256GB to 512GB is a 100 percent increase in onboard memory, literally double the chips inside the phone. That is the likely reason higher tiers are rumoured to see a steeper price rise than the base model: a shortage that prices itself by the gigabyte will always hit the variant carrying twice the gigabytes harder. It is the same pattern behind October’s Galaxy S26 move, where the 256GB and 512GB models rose by a flat $100 but the 1TB Ultra rose by $200. Samsung has not commented on any S27 pricing yet, and its current lineup is still listed at the official Galaxy S page.
A phone that looks the same costing more
The hardware changing least, per leaks so far, might be the part everyone looks at first. Tipster Ice Universe says the Galaxy S27 Ultra’s screen protectors are close enough to the S26 Ultra’s to be interchangeable, calling it one of the smallest front-display changes between consecutive Ultra generations. The phone is rumoured to keep roughly the same 7.9mm thickness as its predecessor despite packing a new M16 OLED panel, a display technology that already debuted on the iQOO 16.
We covered the rest of the design story as it broke: our piece on the Galaxy S27 Ultra case leaks found the camera module still a point of disagreement between leakers, and earlier renders showed a design split from the Ultra. A price rise landing on a phone with minimal visible changes is a harder sell than one arriving alongside a redesign.
What to watch before Galaxy Unpacked
None of the S27 figures are confirmed, and the series is not expected to launch until early 2027, so treat them as leaks rather than list prices. Whether the memory shortage eases before then will decide if these numbers hold or move again. It is worth remembering the Galaxy S26 hike was reported as a possibility weeks before Samsung actually moved on it, so an official S27 price would likely surface as a rumour well before any Unpacked event.
