Experts have warned about rising laptop prices due to a shortage of memory on the market.

The Russian laptop market is entering 2026 in a contradictory state: demand for powerful devices and trust in online purchases are growing, but customers are increasingly feeling that they are getting less profitable configurations for the same money. Memory is once again becoming a key factor in market pressure — amid expectations of rising prices, manufacturers, sellers and corporate customers are already making changes to their purchasing strategies and upgrading equipment. This was announced on January 11 by the Delovoy Peterburg portal.

"It is likely that the share of laptops with 8GB of memory, which has been falling, will grow again, especially in the budget segment," said Kirill Ageev, head of the Merlion and Citylink Mobile Solutions procurement group.

According to him, manufacturers and retailers have limited room for maneuver, and margins are already at a minimum level.

Olga Kvashenkina, CEO of SNDGlobal Holding (a contract electronics developer), links the situation with the decisions of memory manufacturers in previous years. According to her assessment, in 2023-2024, the release of mass types of DRAM and NAND was deliberately restrained, and investments were redistributed to more marginal areas — HBM, DDR5 and enterprise solutions demanded by data centers and AI infrastructure. As a result, the mass PC market has been put in a lower priority position. In 2025, this has already led to a 20-35% increase in contract prices for DDR4 and an accelerated increase in the cost of DDR5, and by early 2026, the pressure will increase with seasonal demand and the release of new platforms.

Against the background of these processes, the share of laptops with soldered memory is growing and the choice of configurations is decreasing, and marketing is increasingly shifting from RAM to energy efficiency and "AI capabilities". At the same time, as Kvashenkina emphasizes, a 30% increase in the cost of memory can increase the total cost of the device by 6-10%, which is critical for segments with a margin of 5-8%.

Complete the processor: there is a shortage of budget laptops in Russia

What devices are we talking about and how is this related to the shortage of inexpensive processors on the global market?

In parallel, the structure of demand is also changing. Alexey Zaitsev, Head of Electronics at Wildberries & Rus, said that laptop sales on the marketplace are showing sharp growth, especially in the business and gaming segments with a high average receipt. However, the increase in the cost of components, in his opinion, will hit low-cost models the hardest, while in the premium segment the effect will be smoothed out.

Corporate clients respond faster than retail. Merlion and Citylink note that companies are increasingly postponing PC fleet upgrades, relying on repairs and partial upgrades. According to experts, the lifecycle of office devices can increase to 6-8 years, which breaks the usual model of regular upgrades.

The head of the Rustelecom agency, Yuri Bryukvin, notes that price increases are often accompanied by a decrease in value: for the previous budget, buyers receive less productive configurations, devices without pre-installed software, and more stringent service conditions. Under these conditions, there is a growing interest in repairs and upgrades as the most affordable way to extend the service life of equipment.

"The effect is already noticeable: demand has cooled, there is pressure on supplies (reduction in imports of Chinese laptops). There are signals about a shortage of budget models, with about 30,000 rubles in the niche. There, any delay in deliveries immediately affects availability," he said.

Bryukviny concluded that in 2026, pressure on the budget segment will continue, the gap between the average price and the cost of truly productive laptops will increase, and the demand for repair services and transparent service will continue to grow.

Earlier, on November 12, the Delovoy Peterburg portal, citing the Ministry of Industry and Trade, reported that from September 1, 2026, technological assembly is planned to be phased in in Russia — first from ready-made electronic devices such as laptops and smartphones, and then from individual modules and components. However, this may lead to higher prices and a stronger shadow market, industry representatives say. It is specified that both importers of foreign products and domestic manufacturers will pay the fee.

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