RAM

The Raspberry Pi 5 are so expensive that buying two with 16 GB of RAM costs the same as a MacBook Neo

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If today you decide to buy a Raspberry Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM, we have bad news: its price in the Adafruit store is 350 dollars. In Spanish stores like Raspipc.es the price with VAT is 313.03 euros. It is an absolutely absurd price for a miniPC with these characteristics, but the memory crisis has made us live in a world of crazy prices and absolutely strange situations. For example, what we propose here: For the price of two Raspberry Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM you can buy a MacBook Neo. Or almost. In Spain, the price of the MacBook Neo is 699 euros. In the US it is $599 without taxes, so that comparison certainly holds true there, because although it depends on the state in which you buy it, the final price is around $650. Less than two of those Adafruit Raspberry Pi 5s cost. What is happening is amazing but very real: Raspberry Pi 5 are really striking miniPCs that anyone can use even as a desktop PC and offer surprising possibilities. But in the comparison with the MacBook Neo (or even with 700 euro Windows laptops) they lose by a landslide. And in the MacBook Neo we have a much more “rounded” laptop as a product for the vast majority of users. Not only because it has a laptop with an enviable construction with its screen, keyboard and trackpad. It is true that the unified memory is 8 GB (the RPi 5 with 8 GB costs $200), but we are looking at a much more capable computer in terms of performance. Source: GeekBench. In GeekBench 6 the 16 GB RPi 5 gets 899 points in single-core and 2,144 points in multi-core. The Apple A18 Pro from the MacBook Neo gets 3,566 points in single-core and 8,646 in multi-core: It is four times more powerful in this synthetic benchmark. It’s all a reality check. What happened to the $25 computer promise? Just two months ago Eben Upton, creator of the Raspberry Pi, announced the launch of a new Raspberry Pi 4 with 3 GB of RAM. Under other circumstances this launch would have been strange, especially considering that the Raspberry Pi 5 is available for almost two years and the original Raspberry Pi 4 were launched, attention, in 2019. Pre-pandemic. That announcement, however, made a lot of sense because the memory crisis has caused the prices of all types of devices to increase extraordinary. Upton himself revealed that the price of the LPDDR4 RAM memory modules used in the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 had multiplied by seven. Hence the launch of an “affordable” version that at the time had a price tag of $83.75. The rest of the Raspberry Pi models, however, were impacted by the memory crisis and the creator of these devices announced significant price increases for all of them. Everything has meant that the company has had to betray its original objective more than ever. That $25 computer that was going to conquer the world soon made it clear that it was going to do so, but with many sacrifices: its original performance was poor, and you actually had to spend more money to use it with a monitor, mouse and keyboard (in addition to the SD/microSD, the necessary cables and the power adapter). Over time we saw how the Raspberry Pi became a much more rounded and capable product both in its original version and in others such as the fantastic RPi 400/500. But in doing so inevitably the price also increased: in November 2022 we complained about the lack of stock and that its price It was no longer 35 euros like the original, but triple. The firm, however, has always tried to maintain that spirit with which it was born, and in August 2024 it launched its Raspberry Pi 5 with 2 GB for $50. Today this model can be found at about 70 euros in Spanish stores, but of course, those 2 GB are not enough for that price. The memory crisis has harmed the entire market, but it has hit especially hard with these small miniPCs. The Raspberry Pi cannot compete in price/performance with more complete devices, but They continue and will continue to be a fantastic alternative in educational environments and, of course, in the industrial field in which the RPi in its Compute Module format have managed to become in all a reference. In Xataka | Raspberry Pi has risen like a rocket in the stock market for a simple reason: to use AI you don’t need a machine

First he tied up Samsung, now SK Hynix. At the RAM crisis party, Nvidia has secured the cake

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In any group of friends, there is one person who always tries to get along with everyone. In the technology world, that person is Nvidia. The American giant that until not so long ago was the one who dominated the conversation in the field of video game hardware, now it is synonymous with artificial intelligence. Nvidia is shaping the sector with billion-dollar investmentsbut also with its hardware. The H200 and the Blackwell B200 are the most coveted chips in the sectorwhich leads to everyone wants that platform and, therefore, Nvidia is one of the whales that is drinking the global stock of RAM. For Vera Rubin, their new platform, they need much more memory and, after reaching an agreement to ensure the best available that Samsung makesthey have achieved another with the other leg of the global RAM market: SK Hynix. And this is about data centersbut also eye-catching RTX Spark chiprobotics, accelerating development times and how consumers have years left to continue suffering with the supply of chips. Nvidia, SK Hynix and the deal to manufacture everything Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is traveling through Seoul. This time his objective was not to visit the new Samsung facilities (relations with Samsung They are already more than consolidated), but to secure the other South Korean (and world) memory chip giant: SK Hynix. During their visit, the two CEOs staged a multi-year agreement by which Nvidia will have priority access to the most refined memory coming out of the SK Hynix foundry. Because Nvidia already warned in January that this year it would need all the silicon possible, and seeing the roadmap it is something that is perfectly understood. As we say, they are immersed in the Vera Rubin AI platform for the training and inference of artificial intelligence models; have just presented the RTX Spark chips in response to Apple Silicon and Qualcomm chips for computers Windows ARM and then there’s another leg that we don’t talk about as much, but that they are pushing hard and that also requires a lot of memory chips: the Jetson Thor robotics platform. In it releasethe two state that this is an agreement to speed up development times on this hardware for AI. This is something that requires long development cycles, but also a lot of money to sustain the global demand for memory due to data centers for AI. This deal goes there. “AI factories are the drivers of the next industrial revolution, and advanced memory is essential to their performance” – Jensen Huang Because it is not so much about ensuring high bandwidth memory (something that Nvidia already had to be the great whale of the sector), but to improve the infrastructure so that the new generations arrive at the pace that the development of AI requires. In fact, Chey Tae-won, CEO of SK Group, highlights the same thing: “together we are co-developing the next generation of memory for AI factories, applying AI to semiconductor design and manufacturing.” That is to say, It is not a simple question of supply (which also, since 60-70% of SK Hynix’s HBM4 memory goes to Nvidia’s Vera Rubin), but to apply AI tools (which Nvidia has) for the design and manufacturing of semiconductors with the aforementioned objective of shortening times. This objective is something that is being pursued worldwide, and the company itself SK Hynix together with Samsung collaborate in a megacenter in the United States to streamline all these processes. As a result of this agreement, it is very possible that SK Hynix get its goal of setting up a fully autonomous semiconductor factory by 2030 (something that, again, share with Samsung). Now, what about the goal of those we want a RAM stick or one Steam Deck that doesn’t hit price increases of 300 euros at once? Well, unfortunately, we are going to continue eating this situation of debauchery when it comes to building AI platforms and gigantic data centers. During his visit, Huang himself commented that he expects the global shortage to last for years because the entire supply chain of this new industry depends on these chips and that demand is very high. In their wordsit is something that “will persist for several years”. They are not new statements either, since Huang gave about seven or eight years to the unbridled investment. And more important than all this, Nvidia, right now, has the four chip giants eating from his hand. SK Hynix and Samsung with memory and their factories for new generation memory. TSMC has turned Nvidia into your client A. And ASML that is what manufactures machines to make advanced chips It is the one that supplies those tools to the three mentioned. In Xataka | China already has a GPU that competes with Nvidia’s RTX 3060. The bad thing is that it arrives five years late and worse

The prices of RAM and SSDs are skyrocketing everywhere, but there are alternatives to avoid spending a fortune

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It’s no longer just that the price of RAM memory is through the roof (which also): that of SSDs has followed the same path. Upgrading a PC right now is complicated if you don’t want to spend a fortune trying, but there are alternatives to spend less. The AliExpress Summer Promo has very powerful offers (on mobile phones especially), but also in PC components: you have this 1 TB Netac SSD for 114.80 euros if you use the coupon ‘XATAKAES20‘and pay with PayPal. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Speaking of coupons, AliExpress has right now lots of assets to save on your purchases. We leave them here so that you have them on hand in case you want to make any additional purchases (remember that the coupons cannot be combined). Discount minimum purchase coupon 1 coupon 3 coupon 4 COUPON 3 euros 15 euros XATAKAES03 WEBEDES03 ESSS03 SSES03 6 euros 39 euros XATAKAES06 WEBEDES06 ESSS06 SSES6 10 euros 69 euros XATAKAES10 WEBEDES10 ESSS10 SSES10 20 euros 139 euros XATAKAES20 WEBEDES20 ESSS20 SSES20 30 euros 209 euros XATAKAES30 WEBEDES30 ESSS30 SSES30 45 euros 319 euros XATAKAES45 WEBEDES45 ESSS45 SSES45 65 euros 459 euros XATAKAES65 WEBEDES65 ESSS65 SSES65 110 euros 650 euros XATAKAES110 WEBEDES110 ESSS110 – Upgrading a PC without spending a fortune is still possible Is it a good price? Let’s analyze how the price of SSDs is currently with this one from the Forgeon brand as an example, similar in features. The lowest price for it, also with 1 TB capacity, was 61.95 euros last September. Since then it has done nothing but rise and right now it costs 189.95 euros (reduced from 234.99 euros). In that sense, it is clear that we are looking at a good price with this one from the Netac brand. It is about a NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD able to reach speeds of up to almost 7,400 MB/s read. Of course, a small note: it is necessary that your motherboard is compatible with it. If your board only has PCIe 3.0 connectors, you can also use it, although it will not take full advantage of all its speed. The SSD is sold by the brand itself through AliExpress and shipping is free (delivery is estimated between June 7 and 15). It should also be noted that it is an SSD also compatible with PlayStation 5. DDR4 RAM can still be an interesting solution What if what you need is RAM memory? DDR5 RAM has very inflated prices, but we can find DDR4 RAM at good prices, which remains an interesting option for many usersespecially if your processor and motherboard are a few years old and you don’t want to change them. This Netac RAM memory can do you very well there: two modules of 8 GB of RAM each come out 75.45 euros with the coupon ‘XATAKAES10‘. DDR4 Netac RAM memory at 3,200 MHz (2 modules of 8 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links As we say, they are two separate modules, so we will have a total of 16 GB of RAM in total. If we take a look at PcComponentes and look for something similar, it is difficult to find the same amount of memory with similar characteristics below 120 euros. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Andrey MatveevAliExpress In Xataka | DDR4 or DDR5? What RAM to choose so as not to pay even more than necessary in the middle of the price crisis In Xataka | Faster (and more expensive) is not always better: the big difference between buying an SSD and an HDD for backups

The manufacturers promised them happy with “Ultra” phones up to the top of specs. The RAM crisis has other plans for them

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Being an Ultra is not usually the best, unless you are a mobile phone. For years, manufacturers have been throwing darts at each other, launching models designed by and to demonstrate muscle. There was a manufacturer who threw the first stone, and the rest began to follow him. Today, with the component crisis that AI is causing, are in danger. The beginning of everything. The first “Ultra” mobile phone on the market was the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. The company did a fairly marketing exercise: 108 megapixel camera, 100x zoom… everything in a big way. Was it the best Galaxy to date? Yes. Was it a strategy to set a new industry standard through an even more striking surname? Also. China wakes up. China was quick to react to Samsung’s message. Xiaomi responded with the Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultraa phone that debuted 120W fast charging (absolute nonsense a few years ago), 120x zoom to surpass Samsung, and even a transparent finish to show off its hardware. It was the first Chinese mobile phone to fully enter the war: “we are going to put absolutely everything we can into a mobile phone, whether it is useful or not.” And from then on, the party began. Raised to the absurd. The war to launch increasingly powerful Ultra models is beginning to move away from its original objective. Samsung launched a first model with oversized specs, but with a certain commercial purpose. Manufacturers like Vivo launch phones like the 300Ultra They are sold directly in a kit that makes their price practically unattainable, and some of the direct rivals of Samsung and Apple surpass Western brands in price. Chinese manufacturers do not want to sell them, they want to continue demonstrating technological leadership. in check. As pointed out Ice Universethe flagship Ultra is in danger, and some of the big Chinese brands are considering pausing this product line. The Chinese Ultra is not born to sell in volume, and the Pro models or series number (Xiaomi 17simply) are those who are born to sell, even in China. The increase in costs of components such as internal memory or RAM makes launching Ultra models even more complicated, unless the manufacturer wants to raise the price to the absurd. Yes, but. Despite Ice’s predictions, it seems unlikely that the RAM crisis could completely knock down the Ultra models. Manufacturers have been betting for years on a strategy that allows them to reduce costs and continue advancing in their product line: launching exactly the same mobile year after year, but with some additional touches. This allows you to contain costs, recycle parts and reduce R&D spending, while maintaining memory configurations that cannot be reversed. Be that as it may, it seems inevitable that the RAM crisis will completely affect the mobile market, and that in 2027 we will see progress in dribs and drabs. In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2026), we have tested them and here are their analyzes

The RAM memory crisis is complicating the task of upgrading a PC, but there are alternatives if you don’t want to spend a fortune

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Straight to the point: if you want to upgrade or build a PC right now, you’re going to have to dig deep into your pocket. The price of RAM it’s shot right nowsomething that It is already being extended to storage as well.. But what if you have no choice and need to upgrade your PC or a new one in parts? Assuming that RAM is going to cost you more than it did a year ago, There are alternatives to spend less money. There are certain aspects to take into account that we will talk about a little further down, but in order not to spend a small fortune, the most economical option is to get some 32GB DDR4 RAM like these from Corsair: we have them available for 199.99 euros. CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz CL16-20-20-38 1.35V Intel AMD Desktop Computer Memory – Black (CMK32GX4M2E3200C16) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An especially interesting option if your PC is already a few years old Let’s go in parts. The first thing to take into account is the price, obviously. The price history of this article tells us that these RAM memory modules They have been between 50 and 60 euros before the month of August last 2025. Obviously, if we compare those prices with what it costs now, it is obvious that the same product costs much more. But of course, it must be seen from the perspective of the current price crisis suffered by these components. It’s not all bad news. These same modules They cost more than 280 euros in February of this yearan absurdly high price. So are they worth buying right now? The situation with the RAM does not seem to be getting better in the short term, but it is 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, which means that you have to take some things into account before buying them. If you already have a PC at home and it is already a few years old, then DDR4 RAM is a very interesting option. It is much cheaper than DDR5 which, despite offering more performancehas an even more skyrocketing price. In addition, this DDR4 memory offers more than enough performance for simple tasks such as office automation, Internet browsing or even undemanding games. DDR5 RAM prices are still high, but not as high as a few months ago Now, imagine that you want to build a PC and you want the most current so that it lasts longer. Here the ideal would be to go for DDR5 RAM, but the problem is, as you can imagine, the price. Among everything that there is right now, we also have from Corsair these two 32 GB modules per 399.99 euros. Yes, they have a very high price (more so if we take into account that they cost around 120 euros last year), but they have reached over 500 euros. CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) up to 6000MHz CL36 Intel XMP 3.0 Desktop Computer Memory – Black (CMK32GX5M2B6000C36) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Keep in mind that your motherboard and processor must be compatible with this memory, so if your PC is a few years old, you will also have to update these components. Now, in return, we will have a longer PC and that will also allow us to upgrade to other components in the future without spending too much. Other Corsair RAM memories that may interest you CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL36-44-44-96 1.35V AMD Expo & Intel XMP Desktop Computer Memory – White (CMK32GX5M2E6000Z36W) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz CL16-20-20-38 1.35V Intel AMD Desktop Computer Memory – Black (CMW16GX4M2C3200C16) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) up to 6000MHz CL30 AMD Expo Intel XMP 3.0 Desktop Computer Memory – Gray (CMK32GX5M2B6000Z30) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | corsair In Xataka | DDR4 or DDR5? What RAM to choose so as not to pay even more than necessary in the middle of the price crisis In Xataka | Buy and assemble your PC in parts: guide to choosing processor, SSD, RAM and graphics card

With the RAM market impossible, the inevitable happened: counterfeit DDR5 tablets

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Make a reference to ‘The Simpsons‘At this point it’s complicated because the new generations may not get it, but there is an episode in which Springfield declares the dry law and, when they knock it down, the mayor asks the mafia how long it will take for alcohol to flood the city. The answer: five minutes. And that is exactly what is happening now with the RAM memory: where the market does not reach, counterfeiters enter Because after the DDR5 memories that are really DDR2 come the DDR5 memories with plastic chips. In short. The truth is that I did not imagine that we would reach a point where there would be well-crafted scams with all the intention of deceiving buyers of a RAM memory stick, but the truth is that we have been there for a few months. It was at the end of 2025, at a time when the RAM crisis was beginning to tighten (but it was far from the current moment) when it was reported that an Amazon Spain buyer received a kit of supposed DDR5 memory from Ireland that was nothing more than a DDR and DDR2 chip with a sticker on top. It was quite tacky, but you realized it instantly and you could always claim a refund because Amazon covers it in these cases. The problem is that there are scams that may be a little more ‘worked’ and that involve unsoldering the chips from a RAM tablet and replacing them with plastic parts. This is what, as we see in Digital Trendshas just happened to some users in Japan, who report the sale of memory tablets that do not correspond to previous generations, but are carefully designed to appear to be legitimate RAM when, as we say, it is a PCB with imitation chips. Or directly the entire pill being fake. An example of an auction stick ram. He original message It has moved a lot on Twitter and describes a full-fledged scam. Through stores like Yahoo Japan, users sell used RAM sticks as “junk” or “untested” in batches and at affordable prices. This is a practice that is also done with processors that we can find in stores like Wallapop and it may work… or it may not. That is why there are those who risk buying. In this case, a frog came out. The SO-DIMM modules (for laptops) had stickers that looked legitimate from Samsung or SK Hynix, but were nothing more than labels cloned from real memories used to cover the supposed chips. Instead of being DRAM memory as such, these are modules made of fiberglass that obviously do not work. In some cases, there are real circuits, but they correspond to lower-grade recycled chips. The important thing is that, be it one case or another, it is obviously not what you are paying for, but they are made well enough so that a person without knowledge cannot identify why the new memory module they have paid for does not work. Even a quick inspection can fool someone who has changed a few of these pads. It is no longer that they clone real stickers with their serial number and so on, but rather the dedication to produce those fiberglass “chips” screen printed like a legitimate one. One supposedly made by SK Hynix Another from Samsung (with SK Hynix chips, curiously…) One of the chips made with fiberglass Meteoric. Unlike the December 2025 fake RAM case, these pills are being sold in auctions on Yahoo Japan and there are already users with the fly behind their ear, which causes them not to bid and the modules to no longer be sold. But in the end it is the consequence of a market that is really impossible and in which scammers enter with promises of components at better prices than those we can find on the market first-hand. Because building a PC today is extremely expensive due not only to RAM that has been able to increase up to 400% in some cases, but for some SSDs that have also explodedgraphics cards that are beginning to be scarce and segments such as processors and the motherboards that are moving to the hoarder we’ve been talking about for months: AI hyperscalers. As I say, with prices through the roof, scams appear. with head. And (again, I didn’t think I had to give recommendations to avoid falling into a scam when buying a RAM pill), the important thing here is to have common sense. It really is like any other scam attempt: if the thing is too good to be true, we have to tune our antennas to see if they want to sneak it in. The first thing is to buy in stores and platforms that provide certain guarantees to the customer, but also look closely at the photos, compare serial numbers and ask for more photos from the seller if we are not 100% sure. And if the price is very good and we are not convinced by the explanation that the person may not know the market situation, ask as much as possible and do not trust the first thing they tell us. The RAM with a sticker that appeared in December last year. Image from VideoCardz. In the end, it is curious, but buying second-hand memory pills can become something that validates criminology, just like buy retro games on cartridge through Wallapop. Images | Taki, ri In Xataka | Nothing will be the same again: the price increase of the Nintendo Switch 2 in less than a year draws a new horizon

The PC market is mortally wounded because of RAM. Excellent news for Apple’s plans

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If there was something missing from Apple’s catalog, it was undoubtedly the cheap MacBook. The non-Pro MacBook died a long time ago, the last attempt at a MacBook without a surname did not work and that role of “affordable” laptop fell into the Macbook Air. That laptop was still missing to stand up to the 800-900 euro market that Windows dominated at will and it turns out that Apple had the answer at home: the iPhone. Its processor, rather. Because that’s what he is macbook neo: the guts of a iPhone 16 Pro in a laptop chassis. In our analysis We lowered a bit what was being said about the MacBook neo, but pointing out that it was not only a very interesting device for a wide range of users, but a blow to the PC market. This is something that Apple does not want to miss and it seems that they have bent MacBook neo orders. However, they now face the “neo dilemma.” Stop or pay more, the neo dilemma To no one’s surprise, The MacBook neo worked like a charm in its first week. 699 euros for a perfect laptop for students, or for those of us who want a second computer, is an option that is difficult to reject. Because there are cheap laptops, but not with these battery features, system speed and, above all, build quality. For find something similar in Windows You have to go to more expensive models. In the midst of a memory crisis, furthermore, those 699 euros for the basic version seemed even more appealing. And it seems like Apple expected it to do well in the market, but maybe not so well. Tim Culpan is a former Bloomberg reporter, based in Taiwan and has a very interesting newsletter. Most importantly, you have some sources at the heart of the factories that produce components for these equipment. On your speaker, Blame point that Apple had planned a total shipment of between five and six million MacBook neo. Tim Cook described the reception of the laptop as “a demand through the roof”, showing himself very satisfied with its performance, and Apple was at a time when it had to take a decision to ensure the future of the device. The reason is that this laptop uses A18 Pro chips… different. They are the processors of the iPhone 16 Probut they were not suitable for the high standards of the iPhone. In this case, it implies that instead of six GPU cores, they had five. This happens with many other processors that are renamed or derived from more affordable products. They had a lot due to leftover shipments and they converted them into the guts of the laptop. These processors were practically “free” for Apple, but now Culpan points out that those in Cupertino had to decide whether to let the inventory run out or ask TSMC to manufacture a new batch. They have chosen the second. in a new publicationCulpan claims that Apple now aims to have a base of 10 million unitsdouble that initial forecast. But of course, ordering TSMC to manufacture a new batch of A18 Pro would mean having to pay a significantly higher price to build the laptop. This would greatly narrow the profit margin they have per unit sold. Although Apple to be TSMC’s second customerthe Taiwanese foundry does not work for free, obviously. A few days ago, Tim Cook pointed out to investors that Apple had been able to avoid the first wave of the RAM crisis due to the amount of stock accumulated, but that is over. After loading memory options both from Mac Studio as of Mac Miniit is evident that not even Apple is untouchable. Here, Culpan points to two scenarios. One is to eliminate the basic option of 256 GB of memory, which costs 699 euros, leaving only the 512 GB option for 799 euros. It would be the move they have already made with other products. The second letter is raise the price of both optionsbut giving some extra to “compensate”, such as extended free storage in the cloud for a period of time. We have already seen this strategy in the PC segment. The problem is that it doesn’t just increase the memory. Aluminum is also increasing and, no matter how little it increases, anything that increases the cost of a manufactured unit is something that will have an impact on the sales price. And there is another question. Since the MacBook neo was being manufactured with those A18 Pros that were not the best, when ordering a new batch you enter a scenario in which it is possible that the new MacBook neo are “better” than the ones we had until now. Simply because they have all six GPU cores intact. TSMC is not going to make them limited on purpose. Apple has the option of software limit one of the GPU coresbut in the end that is the least of the company’s problems at the moment. All components, including processors, have increased in price since the initial order a few months ago. If we are seeing something in the industry, it is that, in case it was not already clear, It is the user who ‘eats’ the problems either due to price increases or due to the impossibility of acquiring products because they simply do not exist. And something that we are also observing is that Apple is in that “neo dilemma” because they are seeing that the consequences of launching a product with an attractive price and a good value on a daily basis translates into they take it away like hot cakes. And all this within the context of the brutal component crisis that we are experiencing. In Xataka | Tim Cook optimized factories and processes, John Ternus builds things: what we can expect from the “new Apple”

the RAM crisis

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nintendo switch 2 is celebrating. Not because it has been on the market for almost a year (it will be on June 5 and must be near of the 20 million machines sold, an absolute outrage), but because Nintendo has just announced what has been expected for a few months. Nintendo Switch 2 will increase in price in all markets, being another example of an unusual situation in the world of console hardware. Because this generation is the first in which a console is cheaper at launch than after years of being on the market. In short. Through a publication On its website, the Japanese company has detailed how the new prices of Nintendo Switch 2 look. In the United States and Canada, prices without taxes will rise from 449.99 US dollars and 629.99 Canadian dollars to 499.99 and 679.99 dollars respectively. In Europe, where taxes are included, the recommended retail price will increase from 469.99 euros to 499.99 euros. That is, the price of the console alone is almost the same as the launch price plus ‘Mario Kart World’. In Japan, the prices of both the Nintendo Switch 2 Japanese Edition (which was cheaper than the Western one due to protectionist policies) and the Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite also increased. In Japan the measure will become effective on May 25, while in the rest of the world it will apply from September 1. Please understand. It pains me to refer to the famous phrase of an industry genius like Satoru Iwata (who was the beloved president of Nintendo), but in the press release, the Japanese company commented that they apologize for the impact of the price revision, but that they deeply appreciate our understanding. The problem is that, here, Nintendo is not entirely to blame. The company points to the “impact of several changes in market conditions that will extend in the medium and long term,” and that only means one thing: the blow of the component crisis reaches Nintendo. Since all NAND chip manufacturers are focused on creating chips for AI, there are no components left for the consumer market. It is difficult for a user to access an SSD, an HDD or a RAM stick, but for device manufacturers the costs also increase. We are seeing it in mobile phones, computers and even in an Apple that confessed that they had been able to avoid the first wave of the crisis, but that they can no longer continue to cushion the blow. In fact, several Apple options are disappearing from its store… and then we have Valve unable to launch its Steam Machine due to this crisis. what a generation…The price increase for Nintendo Switch 2 does not occur in a vacuum. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series were launched at the end of 2020 (in a nascent semiconductor crisis, too) and have since revised their price upwards on several occasions. Both reached 500 euros, but if now you want a PS5 You must pay 649.99 euros. And if you want the PS5 Pro, about 899.99 euros. The same thing has been happening with Xboxbut in the end it is something that makes less noise because Microsoft’s situation this generation of consoles is… complicated. We’ll see how things go with their new machine, a Project Helix whose CEO has just pointed out that it will be conditioned by the current market situation. It’s not going to be cheap, wow. Anomaly. Gone are the times when, by pure logic, consoles improved with the passing of the generation while they became cheaper. At first, the hardware is expensive and it costs companies more to manufacture it, but over the years these components become cheaper and improve in efficiency. Manufacturers were creating smaller consoles, with better features in some cases and, above all, more accessible. The current generation breaks with that logic because we are chaining component crises with market crises and, currently, both at the same time. That’s why it was logical to expect the price increase for Nintendo Switch 2: it was just a matter of time. The “good” news is that it seems that Nintendo will not give the order to retailers to increase the recommended price until September. The bad news is that the stock may not arrive until that date. By the way, in Japan they are also raising the price of Nintendo Switch Online… and there is no RAM crisis to justify it. In Xataka | In Xataka | The price of RAM has skyrocketed and the best example to see the debacle is a 100 euro PC: the Raspberry Pi

RAM aims to become even more expensive

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For years we have accepted that mobile phones were rising in price in exchange for better cameras, better screens, faster processors and, so to speak, increasingly refined designs. We have also begun to assume that on-device AI does not come free: it usually requires more power, more storage and more memory. The surprise is that one of the next blows may come precisely from there, from mobile RAM, a component that usually goes unnoticed, but is very present in the real cost of each smartphone that hits the market. The clearest signal comes from the LPDDR5Xone of the most relevant mobile memories on the current market and which was already coming from an unusual movement. According to TrendForce datathis type of report registered a quarter-on-quarter increase of between 58% and 63% in the first quarter of 2026. This is the largest quarterly increase in its history. What is striking is that this jump does not seem to have closed the cycle: the forecast for the second quarter points to an even more intense rise. If we focus on the forecast for the second quarter, the scale of the problem changes. A projection attributed to TrendForce, shared Jukan Choipoints out that mobile DRAM contract prices will grow between 93% and 98% in quarter-on-quarter terms during that period. In other words: we are not talking about one more increase in a stressed market, but rather a jump close to doubling the price in just three months. For the smartphone industry, a figure like this is not background noise. It should be noted that TrendForce works with paid reports aimed mainly at institutional investors, analysts and companies in the sector, so the full document is not openly available. The relevant part for this article has emerged through Choi, a semiconductor analyst at Citrini Research. The expert accumulates more than 100,000 followers on X and his comments have been cited by media such as The Economistwhich included them in an article about the impact of AI on consumer electronics. The impact on the price of RAM in mobile phones Here we are not talking about the price that a user sees when looking for memory in a store. Mobile DRAM is negotiated in another area: that of contracts between memory manufacturers, such as Samsung, SK Hynix or Micronand large customers who buy enormous volumes to integrate these chips into their products. This world is made up of mobile brands, server manufacturers and other OEMs. That is why the data matters: it does not describe a specific purchase, but rather the base cost with which the industry begins to manufacture its next devices. The rise doesn’t appear out of nowhere either. SemiAnalysis noted at the beginning of April 2026 that DRAM prices could more than double this year and record another double-digit increase in 2027. The same firm noted that the contract price of LPDDR5 had risen more than 3 times since the first quarter of 2025, and that it was likely to exceed $10/GB on the open market during the first quarter of 2026. That is, the second quarter does not inaugurate the tension: the accelerates. DRAM prices could more than double this year and see another double-digit increase in 2027. The backdrop is AI. HBM memory, key to powering the GPUs that power many artificial intelligence data centers, remains in a situation of structural scarcity and absorbs a good part of the sector’s investment. The consequence is easy to understand: if a good part of the money, productive capacity and attention of manufacturers is directed to that high-bandwidth memory, there is less margin to alleviate strain on other DRAM families. Among them is mobile memory, which now competes in a much more demanding supply chain. Added to this is another important detail: smartphone-class memory no longer lives only within the smartphone. NVIDIA uses LPDDR5X in its Grace and Vera processorsdesigned for AI-linked server systems. The reading for the mobile market is clear: a technology used in phones and compact devices is also part of architectures that compete for resources at the center of the race for artificial intelligence. The difference with the PC world helps to understand it better. If we build a computer, we can choose how much RAM to buy, look for an offer and install the module ourselves. It doesn’t work like that with cell phones: we buy a complete device, with the memory already integrated and no real margin to intervene later. That makes the rise of the LPDDR not seen directlybut it doesn’t mean it disappears. It is incorporated into the cost of manufacturing the phone and, from there, it can end up influencing the price we pay. Counterpoint helps convert that increase in price in a figure that is much easier to visualize. For a high-end configuration, with 16 GB of LPDDR5X HKMG and 512 GB of UFS 4.1 storage, the firm projected an increase in BOM between 100 and 150 dollars for the second quarter of 2026. We are talking about the cost of materials, not the sales price, so it is not advisable to mechanically transfer that figure to the consumer. Even so, it is a sign that does not go unnoticed. The bad news, therefore, is not that all mobile phones are going to increase in price automatically or in the same proportion. That will depend on each manufacturer.their contracts, their margins and how they configure each range. But the factor is there: if mobile memory becomes more expensive with this force, the cost of manufacturing a smartphone inevitably changes. And in a market that was already getting us used to increasingly demanding prices, RAM is emerging as another obstacle for those who expected a price drop in the short term. Images | PR MEDIA | Samsung In Xataka | Apple had been able to maintain prices despite the crazy rise in RAM. That’s over

Chrome has always liked to gobble up RAM. Now download a multi-gigabyte AI model without warning

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Chrome is part of the digital routine of millions of people to the point that we often stop wondering what exactly it does while we browse. We use it for almost everything, we trust it with sessions, extensions, passwords, searches and a good part of our life on the Internet. That is why it is so surprising to find a folder larger than 4 GB associated with an AI model downloaded by the browser itself. We are not talking about a minor update or a residual file, but rather a large component that many users probably did not expect to see there. The conversation began to take shape from a publication by Alexander Hanff in That Privacy Guy. Their finding, in essence, was simple to understand: according to its logs, Chrome had left a multi-gigabyte AI model on his computer without giving him a clear warning during the process. From that clue I did the checking on my own computer, used from Spain, and found the same folder that Hanff refers to: OptGuideOnDeviceModel, within Chrome’s internal files. In my case, macOS shows that folder as 4.27 GB in size, even though features like the Gemini sidebar are not yet available in this market. Gemini Nano downloaded to my computer Gemini Nano It does not work like a traditional download that we search for, accept and install manually. In the Chrome developer documentationthe company explains that the integrated AI capabilities are intended to be fluid and that model management is done automatically in the background. It also notes that the initial download can be triggered when an AI feature built into the browser needs to use the Gemini Nano for the first time. In other words: the model can reach the computer as part of Chrome’s internal workings, not necessarily through a clear and recognizable action for the user. An AI model that goes beyond an integrated chatbot The model is not limited to promoting a browser with a chatbot integrated within Chrome. Google has already described uses Gemini Nano on the device itself to detect technical support scams, a type of threat that often lasts a very short time online and can escape traditional tracking systems. In that scenario, Chrome can provide the model with content from the page the user is visiting to extract risk cues. AI, therefore, can also be part of the browser’s security layer. Gemini Nano also boosts security features in Chrome That’s where a good part of the discomfort lies. AI in the browser can have reasonable uses, from helping detect fraud to powering writing, translation or summarization functions, but the problem arises when the user does not fully understand what has been downloaded, why it is there and how they can manage it. Hanff sums it up with a very direct criticism: “Chrome didn’t ask. Chrome does not show it to the user. If the user deletes it, Chrome downloads it again.” There are also voices that reduce the seriousness of the case. On Reddit, a user defended that the model is only downloaded when someone tries to use an AI function that needs it and that it can also be disabled from the Chrome options. Hanff responded that his logs showed otherwise: the browser opened on schedule, stayed on a page for a few minutes without interaction, and still left a trace of the download. Beyond that specific discussion, Google’s own documentation points to a middle ground: the download can be triggered by built-in functions and continue in the background even if the tab that started it is closed. Chrome does offer controls to reduce the presence of some AI features, but it doesn’t concentrate everything in a single, easy-to-understand panel. From settings can be disabled or hide certain visible pieces, such as Gemini in the markets where it is available, typing assistance, search history or AI-powered search. To go deeper, however, We must enter more technical terrain, such as experimental options from chrome://flags. This jump changes the experience quite a bit: we are no longer talking about turning off a clear function, but rather touching internal parts that may also be linked to features that the user may want to keep. Firefox offers an easy way to disable AI features Firefox offers an interesting counterpoint because Mozilla has grouped its AI controls in its own section within the settings. Since Firefox 148, that section is now available as “AI controls” and allows you to block current and future improvements from a visible place, without having to chase options spread throughout the browser. It also separates specific sections, such as on-device AI, translations and chatbot providers in the sidebar. It is a more direct approach: the user not only sees that these functions exist, they also better understand what they can activate, block or leave available. The arrival of Gemini Nano to Chrome is part of a broader movement: browsers want to become more than just a window to the Internet and start executing AI tasks within the computer itself. That direction can have real advantages, especially if it serves to strengthen security or make some functions more agile. But the case also leaves a visible panorama. Some users won’t mind at all that Chrome downloads local models automatically; others, instead, they will want to knowunderstand what it is for and have room to decide. Images | Xataka with Grok | Screenshot In Xataka | It doesn’t speak, it doesn’t climb stairs and it doesn’t even always obey: this is the robot that the creator of the Roomba has been wanting to develop for 30 years

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