Why I'm recommending last year's phones over 2026 models - with one exception
A ZDNet analysis argues that 2025 flagship phones like the Google Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus are better buys right now than their 2026 successors, with exactly one exception. A combination of unjustified price hikes, AI feature fatigue, and a global memory shortage make...
According to ZDNet's latest coverage, older flagship models, specifically the Google Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, have become more appealing purchases than the 2026 phones meant to replace them. The piece lays out a case that feels almost counterintuitive at first glance but lands with uncomfortable clarity once you look at what manufacturers are actually charging and what they are actually delivering in return. One 2026 device earns a recommendation, but the rest of the new class falls short of justifying the premium.
Why This Matters
This is not a minor consumer gripe. The smartphone upgrade cycle is one of the most reliable revenue engines in consumer tech, and if buyers are actively opting for year-old hardware, that signals a structural problem for manufacturers. Global smartphone shipments already face pressure from weakening economies across major markets, and a memory chip shortage confirmed by SK Group's chairman to last until at least 2030 is adding real cost to every new device coming off the line. When the industry needed AI features to be the compelling hook that drove a new upgrade cycle, consumers shrugged. That is a serious miscalculation worth understanding.
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The Full Story
The core argument from ZDNet centers on a simple equation: 2025 flagships have spent a full year getting software updates, bug patches, and ecosystem maturation, while 2026 models launch into a market where their price increases are not supported by meaningful improvements. The Google Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, both 2025 releases, now sit at lower price points than their successors while offering what most buyers actually need from a premium phone.
The pricing problem runs deeper than sticker shock. Manufacturers have leaned heavily on AI as the justification for charging more, pointing to on-device processing and intelligent camera features as the reasons consumers should hand over extra money. But analysts tracking earnings reports have found that the actual silicon costs and technical improvements in 2026 models do not support those price increases. The AI label has become a marketing instrument more than a genuine value signal, particularly in price-sensitive markets where buyers are already stretching to afford flagship hardware.
The memory shortage adds a structural layer to this problem. With SK Group's chairman publicly stating that memory chip shortages will persist until 2030, manufacturers face sustained cost pressure throughout the rest of this decade. That pressure gets passed to consumers, and the 2026 crop of devices reflects it. Buying a 2025 phone now means locking in mature, proven performance before the next round of cost increases hits even harder.
Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra and its sibling models do offer iterative gains, including display improvements and a refreshed S Pen experience, but these land on top of changes that already happened in the S25 generation. Google's 2026 Pixel continues the company's computational photography story, but that story was already well told in the Pixel 9 and reached a plateau in the Pixel 10. Neither company has delivered the kind of foundational shift that historically makes upgrading feel urgent.
A secondary force shaping 2026's underwhelming lineup is right-to-repair legislation. Regulatory pressure across multiple jurisdictions has pushed manufacturers to devote engineering resources toward modularity, parts availability, and compliance with repairability standards. That is genuinely good for consumers in the long run, but it means fewer resources went into the kind of feature innovation that makes a new phone feel exciting. The result is a generation of devices that cost more, look familiar, and deliver compliance documentation instead of breakthroughs.
The one exception ZDNet carved out of its general "skip 2026" advice is not fully detailed in the summary, but the implication is clear: at least one 2026 release delivers something genuinely differentiated, whether through design, capability, or value, that makes it worth considering over its 2025 predecessor. That exception matters because it shows the calculus is not binary. Buyers should evaluate specifically, not categorically.
Key Details
- The Google Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus are the two 2025 models ZDNet explicitly recommends over their 2026 replacements.
- SK Group's chairman confirmed the global memory chip shortage will continue until at least 2030, directly affecting smartphone manufacturing costs.
- A March 19, 2026 TechWiser analysis documented AI features being used to justify price increases without corresponding improvements in underlying hardware.
- Legislative pressure for device repairability in 2026 has redirected manufacturer engineering resources away from new features and toward compliance.
- Exactly one 2026 smartphone model earns ZDNet's recommendation as an exception to the broader pattern of incremental updates paired with higher prices.
What's Next
Samsung and Google both face a credibility test with their next software update cycles, since the software refinements on 2025 models will keep narrowing whatever gap the 2026 hardware technically holds. If memory costs continue rising through 2027 as projected, the 2025-versus-2026 value argument will only sharpen, and manufacturers will need to deliver something functionally transformative rather than just more expensive to reverse the trend. Watch how 2026 sales data shapes both companies' pricing strategy for their mid-year and 2027 lineups.
How This Compares
This situation echoes what happened in the PC market between 2012 and 2014, when Windows 8 gave consumers a genuine reason to stick with Windows 7 machines rather than upgrade. The parallel is uncomfortable for phone makers because the PC stagnation lasted years and reshaped how Microsoft approached feature development. If AI features cannot demonstrate clear daily-use value by late 2026, expect similar conservative buying behavior to persist well into 2027.
Compare this to the narrative Apple has managed more carefully. Apple has faced its own AI scrutiny with Apple Intelligence features rolling out slower than promised, but the company has consistently held upgrade volumes by controlling its pricing ladder more tightly and by keeping its oldest supported devices on current software. Samsung and Google lack that same lock-in architecture, which makes the value case for their older models even stronger when prices diverge.
The broader context from Forbes contributor Ewan Spence, writing on March 21, 2026, is that the 2026 smartphone market is disruptive in ways that hurt consumers rather than help them. Spence's framing aligns with Digital Trends' coverage noting a "nasty surprise" in the 2026 pricing structure. That convergence of independent analysis from multiple outlets points to a genuine market-wide pattern, not a single reviewer's bad week. For anyone following AI tools and platforms adjacent to mobile, this matters because on-device AI has been the selling point, and it is clearly not converting skeptics into buyers yet.
FAQ
Q: Should I buy a 2025 phone instead of a 2026 phone right now? A: For most buyers, yes. The Google Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus offer mature software, proven performance, and lower prices than their 2026 successors. Unless the one exception ZDNet carved out matches your specific needs, a 2025 flagship gives you more value per dollar in mid-2026.
Q: Why are 2026 smartphones more expensive than last year's models? A: A global memory chip shortage, expected to last until at least 2030 according to SK Group's chairman, is raising manufacturing costs. Manufacturers are also attributing price increases to AI capabilities, though analysts say the actual hardware improvements do not support those higher price tags.
Q: Are AI features on new phones actually useful in 2026? A: Consumer response suggests widespread skepticism. Analysis from March 2026 found that AI features in new phones have not driven the upgrade cycle manufacturers expected, partly because the practical daily benefits remain unclear to most users and the same features are already available on 2025 devices.
The 2026 smartphone market is a case study in what happens when an industry bets on a feature category, AI, to carry an upgrade cycle and that bet does not pay off for consumers. Manufacturers have real decisions to make about how they price and differentiate their hardware before the 2027 cycle begins. Subscribe to the AI Agents Daily weekly newsletter for daily updates on AI agents, tools, and automation.
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