Users who are planning to replace their entry-level mobile phones in the near future may want to pay attention. Some bloggers in the market revealed that although the sub-brands of major mobile phone brands are making full efforts to attack the thousand-yuan affordable phone market this year, many newly launched models have abnormal adjustments in specifications. In addition to continuing to use the classic 1080P LCD screen or water drop screen design, the core memory combination has even returned to the specification of 6GB RAM paired with 128GB ROM. This phenomenon has caused many netizens to complain on the Internet, describing the configuration of the new phone as making it feel like returning to the entry-level phone market ten years ago.
The reason behind this collective downgrade of specifications is not deliberate reservation by manufacturers, but stems from the continued crazy rise in memory chip prices across the industry in recent times. According to public data from market research firm TrendForce, from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, the contract price of global DRAM chips has recorded an increase of more than 40% for two consecutive quarters.
The latest report from another authoritative organization, Counterpoint, further confirms this trend. The report pointed out that in the first quarter of 2026, the month-on-month increase in all memory categories reached 80% to 90%, and the prices of all storage chips, including DRAM, NAND flash memory and HBM, all hit record highs. It’s no wonder that many netizens joked on social platforms that the asset with the fastest appreciation in the past six months was neither gold nor silver, but the memory chips in computers and mobile phones.
Faced with this wave of chip price increases, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun has publicly stated before that this round of memory price increases is very drastic, and it is expected that the price trend of the entire memory industry will continue to rise in the next two years. He also suggested that consumers who plan to replace their mobile phones should do so as early as possible.
Looking back not long ago, the storage configuration of entry-level phones worth 1,000 yuan generally started with 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM. Now, under the real pressure of skyrocketing costs, the entry-level configuration strategy of the entire mobile phone industry is forced to adjust accordingly. It can be expected that the market price of models equipped with high-capacity storage versions will most likely continue to rise for a long time to come.
