Chinese smartphone makers increase prices of new flagship models

Chinese smartphone makers have been rolling out new models in quick succession this autumn, but consumers are finding prices rising sharply across the board.

Flagship launches have come with across-the-board price increases. The standard versions of this wave of new flagships now generally start at around 5,500 yuan ($820), with models of the same storage configuration up more than 1,000 yuan from their predecessors. Some top-tier versions have risen by as much as 2,500 yuan — the largest increase in recent years, experts said.

The price increase came as Vivo kicked off the autumn smartphone launch battle on September 21 in Shanghai with its X500 series, followed by Oppo's three-model Find X10 series on September 22, Xiaomi's 18 Pro series on September 23, and Honor's Magic9 on September 28.

Hou Lin, a chief analyst at the market research company Omdia, said that the main driver is memory prices.

"The cost of a 12GB+256GB smartphone has risen by about 1,500 yuan."

At its launch event, Oppo unveiled its annual imaging flagship, the Find X10 series, which features a camera system co-engineered with Swedish optics brand Hasselblad, after years of research and investment in optics, algorithms and display.