The Cheapest New Galaxy S Went Up RM1,200 in a Year. Apple's Went Down.

Yesterday we worked out that the iPhone has quietly got cheaper in Malaysia, and that the ringgit did most of the work. So we ran the same check on Samsung, expecting the same answer.

We got the opposite one. The cheapest way into a brand new Galaxy S flagship went up RM1,200 in a single year, and unlike Apple, the currency has nothing to do with it.

Four years of launch prices

These are recommended retail prices on launch day, from Samsung Malaysia's own announcements and our launch coverage at the time.

Look at the entry column. It drifts gently for three years and then jumps.

The jump is about storage, not a price rise

Here is the part that explains it, and it is easy to miss. Samsung's launch price list for the Galaxy S26 has no 256GB option on it at all. The cheapest configuration Samsung offered on launch day was 512GB at RM5,199.

A year earlier you could walk in and buy a Galaxy S25 with 256GB for RM3,999. In 2026 that choice was not on the list. The entry point moved up a storage tier, and the price moved with it.

So the honest way to say it is this: Samsung did not put RM1,200 on the same phone. It stopped selling the cheap version of the phone. For a buyer, the effect on the bill is identical.

There is a footnote worth knowing if you are shopping now. A 256GB Galaxy S26 has since appeared at RM4,999, and a 256GB S26 Ultra at RM5,599, both marked as limited-time pricing on Samsung's site. Neither was in the launch line-up.

Two flagships, one market, opposite directions

To compare the two fairly they have to cover the same years, so this is 2023 to 2025 for both, at the same 256GB entry tier, each brand's top phone. Apple's came down RM500. Samsung's went up RM300.

2026 is left out of that comparison on purpose. Samsung has already launched a 2026 flagship and Apple has not, so there is no honest 2026 figure to put beside the Galaxy S26. The S26 numbers earlier in this article stand on their own as Samsung's own year-on-year move.

And the reasons are not the same reason pointing two ways. Apple's price fell because the ringgit strengthened nearly 10 per cent between its launches while the dollar price never moved. Samsung's rose because of what is inside the phone. Memory is the component whose price has been climbing hardest, and storage is exactly where Samsung moved its entry point.

That is the same pressure we wrote about when memory prices started pushing phone costs up, showing up in a Malaysian price list.

What this means if you are buying

If you want a new Galaxy S, the storage tier is now the price decision, more than the model is. The gap between the entry Galaxy S26 and the entry S26 Ultra is RM1,600. The gap between 256GB and 512GB on the Ultra is RM400.

And if you were waiting for the usual pattern where last year's flagship gets cheap, it still works: that is where the S25 sits now. What has changed is the starting line for the new one.

How we did this

Launch prices come from Samsung Newsroom Malaysia's own pre-order announcement and from our launch coverage going back to 2023. Current prices were read from Samsung Malaysia on 28 August 2026. The iPhone figures are from the analysis linked at the top, which uses Apple's own numbers and Bank Negara's exchange rates.

One limit worth stating. Launch RRP is not what most people pay. Samsung's launch promotions included a double-storage upgrade and an instant RM700 bank rebate, and trade-ins move it further. We have compared list price to list price across years, because that is the only comparison that stays honest over time.