Buy Tech Now or Wait? RAMageddon Changes the Math

Late summer has a reputation, and it’s a fair one most years: wait. New iPhones land in September, a new Pixel lineup lands in August, and last year’s models get cheaper the moment the new ones show up. That advice made sense for a decade.

It’s wrong for laptops, consoles and storage in 2026. An AI-driven memory shortage nicknamed “RAMageddon” has pushed DRAM and NAND prices up so fast that waiting for a normal price drop now means betting against the entire chip industry. Manufacturers aren’t discounting outgoing laptops the way they used to. They’re raising prices on old and new models alike.

So the honest answer depends on what you’re buying. Some categories genuinely reward patience this year. Others are getting more expensive by the week, and the smart move is to stop waiting.

How we compared

This isn’t a lab test. It’s a synthesis of what’s being reported right now: pricing trackers, manufacturer statements, and the buy-now-or-wait columns running across tech outlets this month, including a What The Tech syndicated piece published July 24, 2026 and a similar breakdown from Yahoo Tech in late June. We weighted named, dated price data over vague “experts say” framing wherever we could find it.

The decision, by category

Why late summer is normally the worst time to buy

The seasonal logic is simple. Apple typically announces new iPhones and Apple Watches in September, and retailers drop last year’s prices the moment the new ones ship, sometimes by $100 or more, according to reporting picked up by What The Tech. Google’s Made by Google event lands August 12 this year, with the Pixel 11 lineup expected alongside a new Pixel Watch. Samsung already ran its own Unpacked event on July 22.

Every one of those launches pushes older phones onto clearance shelves within weeks. If your only goal is the lowest price on a phone you’re not picky about, late July is close to the worst week of the year to buy one.

RAMageddon breaks that pattern for everything else

Here’s the part that’s new. AI data centers are consuming an outsized share of global memory production, and DRAM contract prices rose roughly 90 to 95% quarter over quarter in the first quarter of 2026, followed by another 58 to 63% in the second quarter, per industry pricing trackers cited by Tom’s Guide. Gartner’s February 2026 forecast, cited in the July 24 What The Tech column, projected a combined 130% surge in DRAM and SSD prices by the end of 2026, enough to push average PC prices up 17% and smartphone prices up 13% compared with 2025.

Micron has said the shortage won’t meaningfully ease until its new US fab reaches volume production, which it doesn’t expect before 2028. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told TechRadar the RAM crisis will “last quite a few years,” and said that’s exactly why he’d buy a laptop now despite today’s higher prices instead of waiting for a fix that isn’t coming soon.

None of that is manufacturer scare talk. It’s the reason Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer and Asus have all raised laptop prices, and why a 32GB DDR5 kit that cost $80 to $120 a year ago ran about $439 by mid-June 2026, according to Notebookcheck, a three-to-fourfold jump in under twelve months.

Laptops: buy now, don’t wait for a sale

HP told investors that RAM now makes up roughly 35% of a laptop’s component cost, up from 15 to 18% just two quarters earlier, per Notebookcheck’s reporting. That cost doesn’t come back out at the register. Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asus have already raised prices 15 to 30% since spring, and forecasts point to another sizable climb in memory costs through Q3, with estimates ranging from 10% to 50% depending on which tracker you trust.

Back-to-school and Black Friday sales are usually built on manufacturers absorbing margin to move volume. When the underlying component is the thing getting more expensive, there’s a lot less margin to give away. If you need a laptop before the end of the year, this month is a reasonable time to buy it, not a reason to wait for November.

Consoles: the increases are already scheduled

This one has a deadline you can put on a calendar. Xbox Series S and Series X prices rise again on August 1, 2026, per reporting from Push Square and ComicBook.com, with the Series X climbing to $749.99 for the digital model and $799.99 for the disc version. Microsoft told customers plainly that “console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x,” and warned of another doubling by fall 2027.

Sony already raised PS5 prices in April: the Digital Edition went to $599.99, the standard disc console to $649.99, and the PS5 Pro to $899.99. If you’ve been putting off a console purchase, waiting past August 1 has a known, published cost attached to it. That’s rare. Most buy-now advice is a guess. This is a posted price change.

Phones and TVs: the old advice still mostly works

Phones are the one category where RAMageddon and seasonal timing pull in different directions, and seasonal timing wins for most buyers. Samsung’s new Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 already shipped into a market with tighter RAM configs than last generation, and Google’s Pixel 11 lineup arrives August 12 with its own rumored price increase. But outgoing flagships from Apple, Samsung and Google typically still get discounted once the new models launch, even in a year like this one. If you’re not desperate for a new phone this week, September is close enough to wait for.

TVs are the easiest call. Panel memory is a small line item next to the display itself, so the shortage barely shows up in TV pricing. Normal seasonal advice, wait for Black Friday, the Super Bowl run-up, or a clearance on last year’s model, still applies here basically unchanged. The same patience is worth applying to software spending too: run through tech subscriptions you can replace for free before you assume a new device is the only fix for a slow one.

Alternatives

• If you can put the purchase off entirely, tech subscriptions you can replace for free is a good place to find the money that makes a higher eventual price sting less.
• DDR4 memory has mostly dodged this shortage. If your platform still supports it, that’s a real escape hatch instead of paying DDR5 prices.
• Before spending anything on new hardware, check whether the fix is actually software. Phone settings worth changing immediately often buys an aging device another year for free.

Verdict

USE this framework: buy the thing if you actually need a laptop, a console, or a RAM or SSD upgrade in the next few months. The memory shortage behind all of it isn’t cooling off before 2027 at the earliest, and two of the biggest price hikes this year, Xbox’s and the laptop makers’, are already dated and public.

Phones and TVs are the exception. Those categories still run on the old calendar, where new launches push old prices down, and RAMageddon hasn’t broken that pattern yet. Wait on those. Buy everything else now.

Common questions

Should I buy a laptop now, or wait for Black Friday 2026?

Buy now. Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asus have already raised laptop prices 15 to 30% since spring as RAM costs climb, per Notebookcheck’s reporting, and back-to-school and Black Friday sales are usually built on manufacturers absorbing margin that isn’t there this year. Waiting for a normal seasonal discount assumes a discount is coming, and the pricing data says the opposite.

Should I buy an iPhone 17 now, or wait for iPhone 18?

The old seasonal logic still applies here, unlike laptops and consoles. Apple typically announces new phones in September and discounts the outgoing model once the new one ships, and that pattern has held even in a year when RAM costs are pushing other categories up. If you’re not desperate for a new phone this week, waiting a few weeks for the next launch cycle is still the better financial move.