Should You Buy a Laptop or Phone Now, or Wait Out the RAM Spike?

Why are laptop and phone prices rising in 2026?

Laptop and phone prices are rising because of a memory shortage, not a normal pricing cycle. AI data centers are consuming an enormous share of the world’s memory chip production, which leaves less supply for the RAM and storage inside consumer devices. Less supply plus steady demand pushes prices up.

The scale is unusual. The per-gigabyte cost of the LPDDR5X memory used in phones rose from about $2.80 in 2025 to around $12 in 2026, a near-sixfold jump, according to Morgan Stanley data cited by Google’s devices chief. For a phone shipping with 16GB of RAM, that turns roughly $45 of memory into roughly $192 before any other part is counted.

The three companies that make most of the world’s memory, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, have shifted capacity toward the high-bandwidth memory that AI accelerators need. That is the root cause, and it explains why this is our follow-up to the fuller background in why the AI memory shortage is raising device prices. This piece answers the practical question that one raises: buy now, or wait?

Will device prices come back down soon?

Not soon, and this is the single fact that should drive your decision. The forces pushing prices up are structural, and the companies closest to the supply chain are not forecasting near-term relief.

Memory makers are prioritising AI-related orders under long-term contracts, so consumer RAM stays short. Building new memory-fabrication capacity takes years, not months, which means supply cannot respond quickly even as prices climb. Industry forecasts point to new capacity easing the shortage no earlier than 2027 or 2028, and one major memory supplier has warned the tightness could persist past 2030.

The takeaway is blunt. There is no imminent price drop to wait for. A device you buy in six months is more likely to cost more than less, so the usual instinct to wait for a better deal works against you in this specific market.

How much more are prices actually going up?

The forecasts are consistent across research firms, and they point the same direction. Match your situation to the numbers before deciding.

These are forecasts and reported figures, not guarantees, and actual retail prices vary by model, region and promotion. HP’s finance chief has said memory and storage climbed from around 15% of a PC’s build cost to about 35% in 2026, as TweakTown reported. Confirm the current price of any specific device before buying, but the direction is not in dispute across the major forecasters, and none predicts a 2026 decline.

Should you buy a laptop or PC now?

Buy now if you need one in 2026. Waiting has no upside in this market, because the thing you would be waiting for, a lower price, is not coming this year.

There is one extra reason to act that is specific to a shortage. Some manufacturers are responding to memory costs by shipping devices with less RAM at the same price, or by quietly dropping entry-level configurations. So the risk of waiting is not only a higher price, it is a worse device for the money, or your preferred configuration disappearing from shelves. If you are shopping on a budget, our guide to the best laptops under $500 is a sensible starting point, though expect that ceiling to buy less machine than it did a year ago.

Buy more RAM than you need right now, up front. Most modern laptops use soldered memory that cannot be upgraded later, so the amount you buy today is the amount you keep. Paying for 16GB instead of 8GB now is cheaper than being forced to replace the whole machine in two years, and far cheaper than the same upgrade will cost if prices keep climbing. If your current PC is merely slow rather than inadequate, try our fixes for making a laptop faster and clearing RAM on Windows 11 before spending anything.

Should you buy a phone now?

The same logic applies, with one caveat. Buy now if you need a phone this year, because smartphone prices are forecast up around 13% and are not expected to fall in 2026.

The caveat is the ordinary phone-buying calendar. If a model you specifically want is weeks away from launch, waiting for that launch is reasonable, since you are waiting for a product rather than a price cut. Just do not wait in the hope that prices generally will ease, because that particular wait has no payoff right now. As with laptops, choose the higher storage and memory tier at purchase, because you cannot add either to a phone afterward. For context on the latest hardware, our rundown of everything announced at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked covers the current flagship lineup.

When does it make sense to wait?

Waiting makes sense in one situation: your current device still does its job. If your laptop or phone is working, there is no price argument for replacing it early, and holding on to a working device is the one reliable way to spend nothing in a rising market.

This is the opposite of the usual advice, and the shortage is why. In a normal year, waiting a few months often brings a better model or a lower price. In 2026, waiting brings neither. So the decision is not “buy now versus buy later for less.” It is “buy now if you need it, or keep what you have if it still works.”

One thing that does not make sense is buying a device you do not need simply to beat future price rises. A phone bought a year early to save 13% is still a phone bought a year early. The saving rarely justifies the early spend, and your existing device keeps its value to you by continuing to work.

Is this shortage connected to AI spending?

Directly. The memory squeeze is a consumer-visible symptom of the enormous capital being poured into AI infrastructure. Data centres now absorb a large share of global memory production, and the major cloud companies have guided to hundreds of billions of dollars in combined capital spending for 2026.

That spending competes with your laptop and phone for the same finite pool of memory chips. It is a rare case where an abstract industry trend shows up directly on a retail price tag. If you want the wider financial picture, our reports on the 2026 AI spending reckoning and Nvidia’s record earnings cover where the money is going and why.

None of that changes your buying decision, but it does explain why waiting will not help. The pressure on prices comes from a spending wave that is still accelerating, not from a temporary blip that will pass on its own.

This article is general information about device pricing trends, not financial or purchasing advice. Prices change quickly, so confirm current figures for your specific model and region before you buy.

FAQ

Should I buy a laptop now or wait for prices to drop?

Buy now if you need one in 2026, because prices are rising rather than falling and there is no near-term drop to wait for. A memory shortage is pushing PC prices up around 17% this year, and analysts do not expect relief before 2027 or later.

When will RAM and device prices go back to normal?

Not before 2027 at the earliest, and possibly later, because building new memory capacity takes years while makers prioritise AI-related orders. One major supplier has warned the tightness could last past 2030.

How much have RAM prices gone up?

The per-gigabyte cost of the mobile RAM used in phones rose from about $2.80 in 2025 to around $12 in 2026, a near-sixfold increase, per Morgan Stanley data. Desktop DDR5 memory kits saw similar moves, with some kits several times their early-2025 price.

Should I buy more RAM than I need right now?

Yes, if the device uses soldered memory that cannot be upgraded later, which most modern laptops and all phones do. Paying for a higher memory tier now is cheaper than replacing the whole device sooner, and cheaper than the same upgrade will cost if prices keep climbing.

Is it worth buying a device early just to beat price rises?

No, because buying a laptop or phone you do not yet need purely to beat a future price rise rarely saves enough to justify spending a year early. Keep a working device until you genuinely need to replace it, since that is the one certain way to spend nothing in a rising market.