Katarzyna Petru
The RAM memory market is in an increasingly poor condition. For many weeks now, the technology industry has been inundated with a wave of concerning reports about a dramatic deterioration in the situation on the RAM memory market. In just the last two months, the prices of modules have risen several times, and all indications suggest that the year 2026 will bring no relief. On the contrary – manufacturers are already preparing for prolonged issues with the availability of DRAM chips and further increases in their purchase costs.
Less RAM in new devices
The effects of the crisis will be directly felt by consumers. More and more signals indicate that next year laptops and smartphones will debut with significantly less RAM than their counterparts from 2024 and 2025. A notebook with 8 GB of RAM and a smartphone equipped with just 4 GB of memory may again become the market standard, especially in the lower and mid-price segments.
TrendForce's Forecasts for 2026 and the Mid-Range Segment
The company TrendForce has published preliminary forecasts regarding changes in RAM configurations in laptops and smartphones for 2026. The report indicates that the only segments relatively resistant to cuts will remain high-end devices. In the case of notebooks, we are still talking about configurations of 16–64 GB, although models with 16 GB of RAM will clearly dominate. Variants of 32 and 64 GB will become niche and noticeably more expensive. In top-end smartphones, the standard is expected to remain in the range of 12–16 GB of memory.
The situation is significantly worse in the mid-range segment. TrendForce predicts that by 2026, most mid-range laptops will be sold by default with 8 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB. Configurations with larger amounts of memory will not disappear completely, but they will become rarer and noticeably more expensive. A similar trend applies to mid-range smartphones, where the currently present 6–12 GB of RAM is expected to be limited to 6–8 GB.
Changes in RAM Configurations – TrendForce Table (2026)
Category | Market Segment | New RAM Configurations | Previous RAM Configurations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Smartphones | High-end | 12-16 GB | 12-16 GB | The shift to 16 GB is clearly slowing |
Smartphones | Mid-range | 6-8 GB | 6-12 GB | 12 GB is gradually disappearing from the mid-range |
Smartphones | Entry-level | 4 GB | 4-8 GB | Cost pressure and supply limits |
Notebooks | High-end | 16-64 GB | 16-64 GB | Mass configurations focused on 16 GB |
Notebooks | Mid-range | 8-16 GB | 8-16 GB | More and more models are starting with 8 GB |
Notebooks | Entry-level | 8 GB | 8 GB | No further reductions possible |
Entry-level returns to 4 GB in smartphones
The biggest cuts will affect the entry-level segment, particularly in the world of smartphones. While 8 GB of RAM will remain the minimum level in laptops – mainly due to the requirements of Windows 11 and modern applications – in the cheapest smartphones, TrendForce expects a return to configurations with 4 GB of RAM. Variants with 8 GB are expected to gradually disappear, displaced by cheaper and more stripped-down versions.
2026: The year of hardware regression?
Considering the scale of the issues with DRAM availability and the pace of rising prices, there is a very high probability that these forecasts will indeed materialise. The year 2026 may turn out to be a moment of clear regression for the market in terms of hardware standards – at least outside of the most expensive, flagship devices.
