New Delhi: Based on data from Counterpoint Research, smartphone buyers in India are increasingly aware of the prices this year and are able to keep the hikes at a lane lower than that of its rivals, including OnePlus.
The average price of smartphone increased by 16% in India during the first half of 2026. The companies, including Samsung and Apple, are raising the prices of their smartphones in response to the high costs of memory chips and weak rupee. OnePlus was the stand-out with an average growth of approximately 8%, which was well below the industry growth figure. Other competitors increased prices by more than 100% for some variants.
The cheap phones have been worst hit. The average price increases in handsets selling for less than ₹10,000 were around 32% as memory constitutes a higher percentage of the total handset manufacturing price. Memory itself now makes up right over 45% of the BOM for a low end phone, which was less than 20% prior to the crunch, reads Counterpoint’s cost breakdowns. The prices of low-end devices’ build costs have risen about 70% YoY.
The squeeze has been caused by the AI boom. Memory makers are transitioning to manufacturing more chips for AI servers, constricting the supply of these for smartphones. According to TrendForce’s data, LPDDR5X mobile memory prices rose by approximately 78% to 83% Q2 2026.
OnePlus has already purchased components early in the year, had locked their memory at lower costs, as prices have now jumped, said the analysts. Tarun Pathak, counterpoint analyst, also gave credit to its diverse product portfolio which it did not have to sacrifice for margin protection as well as volume protection. The brand was the fastest-growing among top five online sellers in the above ₹20,000 category, in the second quarter.
The OnePlus brand is not an exception, though. It is claimed to have hiked prices 5X since December, 2025, and a recent round has seen the increase reaching ₹4,000 in five Nord and N series phones. Samsung is said to have raised and lowered prices nine times in eight months. The company has thus far not explicitly linked its increases to memory prices.
Other effects of the blow have been cushioned by manufacturers. High-tier sticker prices have been dampened by trade-in options, free of-cost EMI financing, and some brands have scaled down their specifications, and thus, shifted budget vehicles from 8GB RAM and 256GB storage to lower storage sizes.
The future doesn’t look bright. Memory prices don’t have to fall down until at least 2028, Counterpoint believes, and import pressures might continue with the currencies. Nearly 99% of all phones sold in India are made in the country but the manufacturers are still vulnerable to the global component prices.
