The RAM crisis gripping tech markets shows no signs of easing — and in some cases, it may get worse. Demand from AI datacenters isn’t slowing down, and Samsung Electronics has just taken its last orders for budget smartphone memory: LPDDR4 and 4X RAM chips that, despite their age, still underpin a good portion of affordable devices. As one of the few major players in the memory space, Samsung’s decision to push LPDDR4 toward the end of life to free up capacity for newer, higher-margin memory is a double-edged sword.
For context, most — but certainly not all — smartphones have moved to LPDDR5 and 5X, including relatively affordable models like Samsung’s Galaxy A37. But there are still plenty of exceptions. The low-cost Nothing Phone 4a is a recent example of a device sticking with older memory, and some budget chipsets — including Samsung’s own Exynos line — continue to support it.
