Samsung Galaxy Phones Could Become More Expensive

Summary: High tariffs on both China and Vietnam could increase prices of Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Even if the company moves production to India, expect Galaxy phones to become more expensive.

The tariffs on China are poised to push up prices of virtually all smartphones. Samsung Galaxy phones are going to be more expensive too.

It is not only Android phones that are affected. The new iPhone will suffer as well since smartphone manufacturing is highly dependent on China.

And with countries like Vietnam being tariffed heavily, alternative suppliers aren’t looking good either. Even with the global tariffs paused in the interim, expect the instability to make Galaxy phones more expensive.

China’s smartphone dominance

The crux of the issue is that China has a stranglehold on the manufacturing of high-quality electronics, including smartphones. This means that any tariff on China has an impact on the pricing of phones in the market.

And this is not specific to any one brand. iPhone or Samsung, every phone uses components that are only produced in China. This includes all the other smaller Android phone brands too.

A lot of this boils down to the cost. There are other countries that have the capability to manufacture phone components too, but not as cheaply as China. Even with tariffs, it is usually still cheaper to rely on China than shift the entire supply chain.

What about Vietnam?

We have been talking about China, but Samsung’s phones typically carry a made-in-Vietnam label. So does this mean they are not affected? Not quite.

Samsung and many other brands have set up manufacturing hubs in Vietnam, but these usually only assemble the phones. The base components are still sourced from China.

More importantly, the new round of tariffs targets Vietnam as well with a whopping 46% rate. This makes Galaxy phones assembled in Vietnam too expensive as well.

The India Factor

India’s tariff rate is 26%, much lower than China or Vietnam. As a result, both Apple and Samsung are looking to shift their production to India instead.

Both companies had already set up factories in India to meet the local demand. They will simply scale up these investments to produce larger quantities for US exports.

Keep in mind that this still only reduces the effective tariff, it doesn’t remove it. So either way, your new Galaxy phone will get more expensive.

Currently, the tariffs have been paused for 90 days, except for China.