The $1200 Dilemma: Why Tech is Getting More Expensive in 2025 (And Why You Probably Don't Need an Upgrade)

Published: December 08, 2025

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Tech got expensive this year. Like, really expensive. If you’ve looked at the price tags of the latest flagship phones from Samsung, Google, or Apple lately, you probably felt that familiar sting in your wallet. We used to complain when phones crossed the $1,000 mark. Now? That seems to be the entry-level price for anything decent.

But it’s not just phones. If you are a PC builder or a gamer, you’ve noticed it too. DDR5 RAM prices are climbing, and SSDs aren't the dirt-cheap upgrades they were two years ago. So, what is going on? Is it just inflation, or is there something else eating our budget? Spoiler alert: It’s AI, and we are all paying the "AI Tax."

The Great RAM Squeeze of 2025

Remember when 16GB of RAM was considered "overkill" for a smartphone? Good times. In late 2025, 12GB is barely the bare minimum if you want your device to last more than two years. Why? Because on-device AI models are hungry. They eat memory for breakfast.

Manufacturers are shifting production lines to focus on high-bandwidth memory for servers (thanks, ChatGPT and friends), leaving fewer resources for consumer-grade DDR5 and LPDDR5X chips. Basic economics kicks in: lower supply + higher demand = you paying $150 more for the same phone tier as last year.

Flagship Fatigue: Are New Phones Actually Better?

This is the question I hear most often from friends in the UK and the US. And honestly? You probably shouldn't. The leap from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to the Gen 4 (or whatever they are calling it now) is impressive on paper, but in real life? It’s negligible for 99% of users.

Unless you are rendering 4K video on your phone or playing console-level games with ray tracing enabled, that extra power is wasted. We have hit a plateau. The cameras are slightly better, the screens are slightly brighter, but the experience is largely the same. Yet, the prices keep climbing because manufacturers need to justify the R&D costs of AI integration.

Don't Upgrade. Refresh Instead.

Here is my controversial take: Keep your current phone for another year. The hardware is fine. The battery is likely still okay (or replaceable). What you are actually bored with isn't the device itself—it’s the look and feel of it.

We get that dopamine hit from buying a new gadget because it feels "fresh." But you can get 80% of that feeling just by overhauling your software aesthetics. Change your launcher, swap out those icons, and for the love of tech, get some high-quality wallpapers that actually pop.

Instead of dropping $1,200 on new hardware, invest 10 minutes in customizing what you already have. It saves your wallet and, frankly, it’s better for the planet.