Shrinkflation Is Quietly Making All Devices Worse

You might have heard the time period “shrinkflation” used for a rising variety of grocery merchandise, like how your cereal prices extra yearly despite the fact that there may be much less Captain Crunch within the field. Similarly, in 2026, every little thing from telephones to PC parts to boutique gaming merchandise shouldn’t be solely costlier, they’re additionally getting worse.

The high main semiconductor corporations who create the overwhelming majority of reminiscence parts embody the likes of SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. All three have adjusted their companies for the sake of constructing the high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) needed for developing AI datacenters—those self same large tech-backed building initiatives have residents up in arms in small cities throughout the U.S.

You can see the ravages of shrinkflation play out with main smartphone manufacturers as massive as Google. The semi-reliable Telegram leaker Mystic Leaks (by way of PhoneArena) posted a variety of supposed specs for the upcoming Pixel 11 lineup. There doesn’t appear to be anybody killer characteristic, despite the fact that the upcoming Pixel 11 Pro XL may obtain a brand new vary of digital camera sensors. At the identical time, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold might get downgraded to 12GB of RAM. That’s 4GB lower than the 16GB on the earlier Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Google can have a tough time justifying the brand new Fold if it prices the identical or extra because the 2025 mannequin.

Those upcoming Pixel telephones can also lose their coveted thermometer characteristic and substitute it with a tiny RGB LED array akin to the Nothing Phone 3 Glyph Matrix. Already, Google’s newest midrange telephone—the Pixel 10a—supplied no discernible improve over the Pixel 9a for a similar $500 value.

The drawback is that tech corporations have fewer selections than ever. They can both damage efficiency or increase costs. Framework, the maker of boutique, repairable laptops, has hiked costs of its RAM modules time and again over the previous couple of months. Its new Framework 13 Pro laptop computer is considered one of its most costly but, in no small half due to the ballooning value of LPDDR5X RAM and M.2 SSDs. Nvidia not too long ago unleashed a 12GB VRAM model of its cellular RTX 5070 GPU for laptops. While on paper it gave the impression of a solution to provide higher graphics efficiency on lower-end GPUs, the 12GB 5070 module of a Framework Laptop 16 prices $1,200. That’s $500 greater than than the 8GB module.

Motorola has opted to each increase costs and constrain reminiscence. The new 2026 model of the Razr flip foldable telephones now prices $800, up from $700 on the 2025 mannequin. It now begins with 128GB of storage as an alternative of 256GB. The telephone continues to be the most effective offers for a flip foldable for U.S. consumers, however it’s possible you’ll be higher off discovering a less expensive, older mannequin. The 2026 Razr+ options the identical Qualcomm Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chip that the 2025 had final yr. At the very least, Motorola upgraded the Razer+’s battery from a 4,000mAh capability to 4,500mAh. But they’re basically the identical telephones as final yr, although with a 50-megapixel ultrawide as an alternative of a 2x telephoto digital camera lens.

Last October, PlayStation 5 slim fashions noticed their system storage slip from 1TB to 825GB. Memory prices are strangling smaller corporations much more than bigger manufacturers. AYN, the maker of area of interest retro handhelds, announced final month that it had downgraded the beloved AYN Thor dual-screen handheld’s storage spec. It now makes use of UFS 3.1 customary storage, with learn and write speeds which might be far beneath that of UFS 4.0. The handheld maker then added one other 16GB RAM possibility and hiked the price of the utmost 1TB storage configuration to $550.

PC parts are equally downgrading their specs for the sake of preserving costs low. Taiwanese PC parts producer ASRock labored with DRAM producers to develop its own variety of “affordable” DUDIMM DDR5 modules. In a nutshell, this number of RAM sticks affords half the bandwidth and density of your customary stick of DDR5 reminiscence. These parts will supposedly include Intel 600, 700, and 800-series chipsets, in keeping with Intel normal supervisor of its fanatic channel Robert Hallock.

Korean tech information outlet The Elec reported that the subsequent era of RAM customary, DDR6, is now totally in growth by all three main RAM makers. The new customary guarantees sooner knowledge switch speeds as much as 8.4Gbps. We seemingly gained’t see cover nor hair of DDR6 till 2028 on the earliest. At the identical time, these corporations are telling shoppers RAM costs gained’t come down for one more two years or extra. And in that point, our devices won’t solely get costlier—they’ll worsen.

Nobody is protected, not even Apple. Last week, Apple silently discontinued its former $600 entry-level 2024 Mac mini with its 256GB reminiscence spec. Now, Apple’s pint-sized desktop prices $800 and it’s important to go for the 512GB model. In a latest earnings name, outgoing CEO Tim Cook mentioned there have been chip shortages impacting “several Mac models.” It appears we’ll should endure increasingly abuse lengthy earlier than we’ll see the sooner reminiscence most couldn’t presumably afford.