Google confirmed price increase for Pixel 11 series. RAM memory crisis is to blame

Google will not escape price increases either. Shortly before the August unveiling of the new generation of Pixels, it was heard directly from the manufacturer for the first time what had previously only circulated in leaks: phones will be more expensive this year, and the main culprit is the global memory shortage.

Google speaks about prices aloud for the first time

That the Pixel 11 series will increase in price was confirmed by Shakil Barkat, Google’s Vice President of Devices and Services, in an interview with 9to5Google conducted before the planned August unveiling. This is the first official admission from the company — until now, it had only been leaks.

Barkat points to the sharp rise in RAM memory prices as the main culprit. “There has never been such an increase in memory prices as the world is experiencing right now,” he stated, according to the server. To support this, he referred to Morgan Stanley data, according to which the price per gigabyte of memory jumped from 2.80 to approximately 12 dollars. These figures should be taken as an argument cited by the company, not as independently verified data.

However, Google did not officially quantify how much the phones will cost more. It even indicated that it intends to adjust prices continuously according to market conditions — which suggests they could continue to rise if components become more expensive.

More expensive phones with less memory

The crisis may not only affect prices. According to earlier leaks, the Pixel 11 Pro is expected to get 12 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB in its predecessor — meaning less memory for more money. The manufacturer has not yet confirmed this information either.

So far, only a price leak, which we wrote about earlier, has offered specific figures: the base model is expected to be the Pixel 11 with 256GB storage for 999 euros (approximately 24,200 Czech crowns), an increase of 100 euros (around 2,400 Czech crowns) year-on-year. You can find the entire leaked price table in our older article.

Google confirmed price increase for Pixel 11 series. RAM memory crisis is to blame Adam Kurfürst News Adam Kurfürst News

Google also promises to mitigate the impact on customers with discounts, trade-ins of older phones, and bundles like Google One subscriptions. It is also reportedly preparing “targeted efforts” to reduce the memory requirements of the entire Android system, so that more expensive memory doesn’t hurt as much.

However, market-wide price increases are not just a Google problem — virtually all phone manufacturers are struggling with rising memory prices.

Would you buy a more expensive Pixel 11, or wait until discounts and trade-ins bring the price down?

Sources: 9to5Google, Android Police