The Samsung Galaxy S25‘s rumored launch date is just over a month away, but leaks still pour in seemingly every day. Unfortunately, the latest bears bad news: a potential price hike. The Galaxy S25 price may rise by roughly 150,000 won (around $105 USD), according to The JoongAng newspaper. The South Korean Won (KRW) has weakened compared to the USD (and currently sits at around 1,432 won to 1 USD), which means higher costs for importing components, according to Yonhap News, a South Korean news site.
A person holding the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The average price of Samsung devices is lower in foreign markets compared to Korea, but a major change in the home market pricing will spill over into foreign pricing, too. The recent political turmoil in South Korea, paired with increased exchange rates, is apparently driving the potential increase. The Samsung Galaxy S24 launched at $800 for the base model. The potential price increase means the Galaxy S25 could start at $900 or higher. Following that trend, we could see a starting price of $1,000 for the Galaxy S25 Plus and $1,400 for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The S24 Ultra was already $100 more expensive than the previous generation.
Recommended Videos
Sadly, the bad news doesn’t stop there. Leaker Roland Quandt claims the Galaxy S25 will start with just 128GB of storage in its baseline model, which is absolutely too little to work with for a flagship device. Between high-quality photos, video, and even just basic games and apps, that amount of memory would fill in no time at all. With potentially increased costs due to a variety of socioeconomic factors, Samsung might have no choice but to raise prices, making upgrades to the internal memory less likely to arrive this year. However, we urge caution you to exercise a fair amount of skepticism with leaks like this as pricing isn’t always decided until close to release date.