The Galaxy S25 launch is about a month away, and you might be making upgrade plans already, especially considering what you might have heard about the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip that will power the new Samsung flagships.
The first phones running on the Elite chip are here, and they offer monster battery life in addition to great performance. That’s a great teaser of what’s expected from the Galaxy S25 series, especially the Ultra.
But that Snapdragon 8 Elite chip won’t come cheap. If you’ve been dreading a price hike for the Galaxy S25 series, especially for the Ultra, I have bad news for you from Korea. The first price rumors are here, and they detail the two main factors that might prompt Samsung to increase prices next year.
According to Yonhap News, Korea is still in the middle of a major political crisis, right at a time when Samsung is sourcing components for the Galaxy S25 series. The won has fallen against the dollar as uncertainty grows. The immediate result will be a cost increase for imported smartphone parts. The Galaxy S25 price will suffer as a result.
The report notes that the Galaxy S25 Ultra price should increase slightly from the 1,698,400 won that Samsung charged in the country for the Galaxy S24 Ultra last year. Unlike last year, the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus models should also be more expensive.
Even with a stable currency, there’s another factor driving up the manufacturing costs. All Galaxy S25 models will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, as Samsung’s Exynos 2500 processor isn’t likely to power any of the three models.
The report says Qualcomm usually increases the price of each of its flagship chips by up to 30% over the previous model. This suggests the Elite has seen a similar hike, which is a big reason why the Galaxy S25 price might go up across the board.
Yonhap News says that Galaxy S25 prices will go up in Korea as well, as Samsung will have to pass the increased production costs down to consumers.
The report doesn’t offer price points for international markets. But it sounds like price hikes are inevitable, at least for the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
As a reminder, Samsung hiked the price of the Galaxy S24 Ultra by $100 this year, bringing it up to $1,299.99. The Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus started at $799.99 and $999.99 respectively, in line with their predecessors. These are the prices before any deals.
You can expect Samsung to throw in various preorder perks, as is the case every year, to make the Galaxy S25 price more exciting. On top of that, carriers will also come up with all sorts of trade-in deals to drop that starting price.
Samsung should unveil the Galaxy S25 series in mid-January. I’d expect price leaks for the EU and US to follow soon.
