Smartphone prices going up: Vivo, Realme, and Xiaomi blame rising memory costs
If you're eyeing a new phone from Vivo or Realme, or a tablet from Xiaomi, get ready for higher prices.
Starting December 1, Vivo's T4 Lite will cost ₹1,500 more, T4x ₹1,000 more, T4R ₹1,500 more, and T4 ₹2,000 more.
Xiaomi is bumping up all Redmi Pad 2 tablet variants by ₹1,000.
Realme already hiked its C-series and 15-series phones by up to ₹1,500 last month—all thanks to pricier memory chips.
Why the sudden hike?
There's a global shortage of LPDDR4 memory (the kind budget Android phones use) because manufacturers are switching to newer LPDDR5 chips.
This has pushed LPDDR4 prices up by 29% in just one quarter and they might hit $22 by early 2026.
With the rupee also losing value against the dollar, making affordable phones is getting tougher—almost half the production cost for budget models could soon go just into memory alone.