The continuous surge in upstream storage prices is putting more cost pressure on domestic smartphone manufacturers.
&#34;Price increases&#34; to pass on costs have become a survival choice that domestic smartphone manufacturers must make under the current supply chain turmoil.
On March 10, the actions of two major domestic smartphone manufacturers, OPPO and Honor, in the morning and evening respectively, precisely reflected the different risk-averse logic in the current smartphone market.
This morning, OPPO's official mall fired the &#34;first shot&#34; of price adjustment, announcing that starting from March 16, 2026, it would adjust prices for certain already released products.
From the scope of the price adjustment, the affected products are mainly concentrated in the cost-effective product lines, including the A and K series as well as some models of the OnePlus brand; while the mid-to-high-end Find, Reno, and Pad series have not yet been included in the price increase.
Behind this differentiated pricing strategy is the reality of different price tier models under supply chain fluctuations.
Mid-range models priced around 2000 yuan have long relied on &#34;thin profits and high sales,&#34; and under the backdrop of skyrocketing storage costs, their already thin profit margins have been severely compressed, forcing manufacturers to directly adjust prices to pass costs onto consumers.
In contrast, mid-to-high-end models priced above 4000 yuan have a stronger risk resistance due to their higher gross profit base, allowing them to absorb the rise in storage costs.
Facing the same supply chain pressure, Honor's high-end models are currently playing the card of &#34;no price increase for small memory, price increase for large memory.&#34;
On the evening of March 10, Honor officially launched its new generation foldable flagship smartphone, the Magic V6, with the 12+256GB version priced at 8999 yuan, the same as the Magic V5.
However, in terms of &#34;large memory,&#34; the Magic V6 has added a &#34;12+512GB&#34; model, priced at 9999 yuan, which is on par with the Magic V5's &#34;16+512GB&#34; model.
At the same time, Honor has raised the prices of the Magic V6's 16+512GB and 16+1TB versions, setting prices at 10999 yuan and 11999 yuan respectively, which is an increase of 1000 yuan compared to the same memory version of the Magic V5, with an increase rate of about 10%.
From the perspective of hardware parameters such as battery, chip, and screen, the Magic V6 has not reduced specifications. For example, it is equipped with the fifth-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, and the battery capacity reaches 7150mAh.
This refined SKU management strategy of &#34;keeping the starting price, raising the top configuration version&#34; stabilizes the product's market base and consumers' initial price expectations, avoiding customer loss caused by the increase in starting price, while accurately passing the pressure of supply chain surges to the top-tier customers who are relatively insensitive to price and pursue extreme capacity and top configuration experience.
As OPPO and Honor successively reveal their strategies, the logic of addressing the storage cycle faced by the domestic smartphone camp in 2026 has gradually become clear.
In this passive defensive battle triggered by upstream inflation, the rigid cost increase in the mid-to-low-end market will ultimately have to be borne by the end consumers. Meanwhile, in the high-end flagship battlefield, manufacturers are trying to find a delicate balance between maintaining profit margins and market share through more flexible pricing ranges and technological enhancements
Under cost pressure, how to persuade consumers to pay a premium with truly irreplaceable innovative experiences will be the mandatory question for all smartphone manufacturers in 2026

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The surge in storage prices forces domestic smartphones to adjust prices: Honor's new foldable phone "guarantees a price increase at the top"