The ongoing memory chip crisis is still hitting smartphone prices and deals. Last month, Samsung hiked the price of the then nine-month-old Galaxy Z Fold 7, alongside a $280 increase for the 1TB Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.In the Korean company’s defence, it has continued to discount where it can — as is the case with the new Galaxy S26 Ultra price cut.
Except the new deal doesn’t quite match up to a similar promotion for the Galaxy S25 Ultra at the same time last year.
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Samsung Drops Galaxy S26 Ultra Price
The good news is that Samsung has dropped the price of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. All storage models are $200 cheaper, with the flagship now starting at $1,099.99 instead of its regular $1,299.99 price.
A $200 saving is not to be sniffed at. That’s a solid discount for a phone that launched two months ago. But it’s also a slightly less impressive deal than the equivalent discount the Galaxy S25 Ultra received on May 12th last year, which I reported on at the time.
The deal structure is similar. Samsung knocked $230 off the Galaxy S25 Ultra if no phone was traded in, and that came with a selection of free software trials and discounted accessories.
There are other key differences to last year’s promotion. The Galaxy S25 Ultra came with three free months of Samsung Care Plus, whereas the Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn’t. The long-running “APP5” discount code that knocked 5% off a Samsung purchase when bought through the Samsung Shop app no longer works either.
Shoppers are losing out in a couple of ways here. While Samsung is still discounting, it has trimmed deals at the edges. Before the Galaxy S26 series launched, leaks suggested Samsung would be more reserved with promotions because of the memory chip crisis hitting its profit margins. These look like early examples of that.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Trade-In Prices Also Disappoint
Samsung’s trade-in prices for equivalent devices last May and today also don’t quite match up. Comparing equivalently aged devices, the gap is clear.
- Galaxy S21 Ultra, May 12th 2025: $300. Galaxy S22 Ultra today: $260.
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro, May 12th 2025: $250. iPhone 14 Pro today: $214.
With that said, $200 off the Galaxy S26 Ultra is a solid discount in a market where prices are only going upwards. Samsung is walking a fine line between maintaining its aggressive discount strategy and protecting profits in the face of high manufacturing costs. We’ve seen how that plays out elsewhere—price hikes for the base Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus, the brief axing of the double storage pre-order deal, and now trimmed discounts and trade-in prices making up the shortfall.
This strategy is likely to continue until RAM prices drop, which might not happen this year. Analysts from IDC don’t expect memory prices to stabilise until late 2027, while Gartner estimates a 130% surge in combined DRAM and SSD prices by end of 2026. Weaker Galaxy S26 Ultra deals are probably here to stay for a while.
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