Whatever physicist determined that what goes up must come down never had to contend with smartphone prices. Lately, it seems as if the prices of flagship phones are only headed in one direction, as consumers are asked to pony up even more when they've decided its time to upgrade.
Samsung has never been shy when it comes to testing the waters on just how much people are willing to pay for its premium phones. In 2024, three of the most expensive phones sold by the company — the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6 all saw $100 price hikes over their competitors. And in the case of the upcoming Galaxy S25 models, history could be about to repeat itself.
There's no official word from Samsung about pricing for its upcoming flagship phones, nor will there be until the next Galaxy Unpacked event, which is expected to happen in late January. But while we wait for the Galaxy S25 release date, rumors are filling in the gaps about what Samsung could charge for its latest flagships. And the news isn't looking good if you were hoping to not have to pay more to upgrade your phone next year.
Why Samsung might raise prices
Specifically, multiple reports out of South Korea indicate that Samsung will have to charge more for the Galaxy S25 phones. In part, that's because of the current political turmoil in that country where an attempt to impose martial law followed by the impeachment of South Korea's president has knocked the exchange rate out of whack. But some analysts are also pointing to rising component costs, particularly for the chip that's tipped to power the entire Galaxy S25 lineup.
That would be the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm's latest system-on-chip that not only promises a boost in both performance and efficiency but greater support for AI. It's also apparently a more expensive chipset, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimating earlier this year that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will cost 25% to 30% more than its predecessor.
Put those factors together, and it sounds like Samsung will have little choice but to adjust its phone prices. Yonhap News, one of the Korean publications reporting on S25 pricing rumors expects prices on all three S25 models to increase, with the Galaxy S25 Ultra in a line to "rise slightly from the 1,698,400 won starting price" Samsung charges for the Galaxy S24 Ultra in Korea.
If there's a bright side to this, it's we could only be talking about price hikes in Korea — admittedly, this is not a bright side if you are reading this sentence in Seoul — with Samsung taking different approaches to pricing in different regions. Still, if the Snapdragon 8 Elite is as pricey a component as analysts are claiming, you'd have to imagine increases are at least a possibility in your particular part of the world.
Galaxy S25 price hikes: Would the new features be worth it?
All of this raises an uncomfortable question for Samsung: given what rumors have said about the expected changes to the Galaxy S25, can anyone really make the case that the new phones should cost more than the respective $799. $999 and $1,299 starting prices of the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra? At this point, the answer would have to be not really.
Nobody's expecting a major change to the look or the materials Samsung uses for its Galaxy S phones. there's talk of the standard S25 model getting a larger display, but phones increase screen size all the time without a corresponding rise in price. On the battery front, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is tipped to feature the same 5,000 mAh power pack as its predecessor, and we'd imagine the same thing goes for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras could get a boost, with a higher-resolution sensor supposedly coming to the ultrawide camera and the telephoto lens possibly adapting a variable aperture to help with smoother zooms on videos. These would be welcome improvements, though not the kind of thing that would take the sting out of paying more than $1,300 for a new phone.
That leaves us with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset and the likelihood of new Galaxy AI capabilities, both of which figure to be the major selling points for the Galaxy S25 lineup. Having seen the Qualcomm chip in action when I ran Snapdragon 8 Elite benchmarks on a reference device, I can certainly vouch for the chip's power, as it posted blazing numbers on benchmarks that measure both CPU and GPU performance. And now that we've tested some of the first Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered phones like the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, we can agree that all the extra horsepower won't drain your battery — the new ROG Phone is the longest-lasting device we've ever tested.
So the Snapdragon 8 Elite certainly lives up to its hype. But will that be enough to justify paying $50 to $100 more than what you would have paid for a Galaxy S24 (assuming that's kind of price hike being discussed)? That's a lot harder to definitively answer at this point.
Upcoming Galaxy AI improvements are even more difficult to talk about, because Samsung really hasn't teased any yet. There's talk that the Bixby digital assistant will get added intelligence, including the ability to recognize what's on your phone screen and act accordingly. An example of this would be you looking up a location and Bixby knowing enough to have weather and traffic conditions for that area at the ready.
Smarter assistants that seamlessly move from task to task has been the goal for years, and I'll believe that it can happen once someone actually manages to deliver an on-phone assistant I don't spend a chunk of my time arguing. So should Samsung provide something similar, it will certainly be noteworthy — but again I don't know that it's something that will ease any ill will about paying more for a phone. Maybe if the features require that advanced neural engine of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, it might convince people that a more expensive Galaxy S25 model was worth it.
Galaxy S25 outlook
We're still more than a month out from the rumored Galaxy S25 launch date, which gives us plenty of time to hear about new leaks that convince us a price hike for any of the new models will be met with a shrug instead of a shaken fist. But after hiking prices on a lot of major phones in 2024, Samsung would do well to tread carefully when it's time to settle on a price for its new handsets.
