RAMageddon is real, and it’s finally come for the iPhone. Thanks to the ever-increasing costs of memory and storage, the prices of virtually all tech products are going up. A couple of months ago, Apple increased the pricing for the Mac and the iPad, by a couple of hundred dollars. Now, it’s the iPhone’s turn: Suddenly, all the iPhones are now $100 more expensive than they were yesterday, and the newly announced models are $100 more expensive than last year.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. The new AirPods are actually cheaper, and mercifully, some Apple products remain the same price.
The $100 iPhone bump
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
At the September keynote event, Apple introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The 18 Pro starts at $1,199 for 256GB storage, and the iPhone 18 Pro Max is now $1,399. Both of them are $100 more than the starting price of comparable iPhone 17 Pro/Max models.
The price bump doesn’t stop with the new phones: Apple has flipped a switch and bumped prices on all existing iPhone models by $100. While Apple did not introduce an iPhone 18, the price of the iPhone 17 has quietly gone up; it now starts at $899 for the 256GB model instead of $799. The older iPhone 16 model is now $799, while the “budget” iPhone 17e now sells for $699. Even the iPhone Air has gone up to $1099.
Apple Watch pricing stays the same
Surprisingly, the RAM and storage costs haven’t hit the Apple Watch yet, or, at least, Apple is willing to absorb those increases for these smaller devices. The Series 12 Apple Watch with a new S11 processor and on-device Apple Intelligence features starts at the same $399 price as the Apple Watch 11. The new Apple Watch Ultra 4 also remains at the same $799 introductory price as the Ultra 3.
AirPods are now cheaper (and better) than ever
One popular product escaped the price bump: I was surprised to see a new standard AirPods model at the iPhone 18 Pro keynote, but the price drop was even more unexpected. The base AirPods 5 now come with built-in ANC (which used to cost extra), along with better transparency and improved sound features, and they are just $129, the cost of the outgoing AirPods 4 without ANC. Apple does have a more expensive model of AirPods 5 that comes with a wireless charging case, better battery life, and an on-stem voice control feature for $149, or $30 cheaper than the outgoing AirPods 4 with ANC model.
