Like most Android fans, you probably enjoy having the latest and greatest smartphone buried in your pocket. The best camera, the best display, the fastest processor, and of course, as much RAM as any given smartphone OEM will pack in. And even as we’ve watched the typical flagship price balloon into the four-digit space, trade-in offers, carrier deals, and steep sales on certain hardware brands like Pixel have made it all too easy to keep up on what’s new in gadgets without breaking the bank year-in and year-out.
Obviously, all of those routes towards a cheaper smartphone purchase still exist today — I assure you, anyone who regularly tunes into the NFL can recite Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T’s various deals by heart. But prices are rising so rapidly, with no sign of slowdown in sight, that I can no longer be sure any of those routes towards making new hardware more expensive will be available tomorrow. And honestly, we might hit a point where it’s increasingly difficult to recommend these phones to all but the most hardcore of enthusiasts, no matter how many sweeteners you add to the deal.
Throughout 2026, we’ve watched as new generations of barely-modified hardware have launched with $100 price hikes. We’ve watched as months-old hardware suddenly jumped up in price without so much in the way of a warning or an official announcement. And even outside of smartphones, you have to wonder if Google really hoped its latest lineup of laptops would’ve launched with more models available for under four figures. What’s been an underlying problem throughout the market throughout the last year, though, seems ready to burst into something much larger beginning throughout the next few months.
Recent price leaks have not exactly filled me with confidence over what hardware to recommend to anyone in the market for a new phone….