The prolific leaker who goes by the handle Digital Chat Station (DCS) on Weibo made a bold prediction today, and it’s in regard to the pricing of the upcoming OnePlus 16, iQOO 16, and Redmi K100 Pro Max. All of these devices are expected to arrive in the second half of this year and be powered by Qualcomm’s next top of the line chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
And all of them will be more expensive than their predecessors from 2025, DCS now claims. In fact, he says all three new devices will be priced at CNY 5,000 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That amount currently translates into roughly $725, which definitely doesn’t sound like much when you compare that to pricing outside of China, but remember that Chinese phones are always cheaper in China.
OnePlus 15
So the best comparison is with the past. The OnePlus 15 and Redmi K90 Pro Max both started at CNY 4,000, while the iQOO 15 started at CNY 4,100. So this will effectively be a roughly 20% price hike, if DCS is right. That’s definitely very substantial, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the global models of the OnePlus 16 and the iQOO 16 also receive a similar price increase.
If you’re wondering why this would happen, DCS hasn’t said anything specific, but it’s pretty easy to guess – the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite chip will be even more expensive than its already incredibly steeply priced predecessor, and the RAM pricing crisis definitely won’t be helping either.