Samsung Galaxy faces price surge from chip shortage and critical security update rollout

Samsung announced that its upcoming foldable Galaxy Z8 series will launch in London on 22 July 2026 with base prices of about $1,899 for the Z Fold 8 and $1,099–$1,199 for the Z Flip 8, reflecting a sharp rise caused by a global shortage of DRAM and NAND memory chips. TrendForce estimates memory component costs have risen nearly five‑fold over the past year, prompting Samsung to warn customers of possible 20 % price increases for DRAM in the current quarter.

In parallel, Samsung began rolling out its July 2026 security patch to millions of Galaxy devices, starting in South Korea. The update closes 57 vulnerabilities, five of which are classified as critical, including memory‑related flaws in Adobe’s DNG library (CVE‑2026‑27280) and the libpng image library (CVE‑2026‑33636). The patch is being distributed to the Galaxy S25‑ and S26‑series as well as the new Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7 and Z TriFold models, with older phones to follow later.

Consumers are advised to install the update via Settings → Software update and to be prepared for higher purchase prices for Samsung’s newest foldable phones due to the ongoing chip shortage.