The best part about pre-ordering a new Samsung smartphone has, for the past few years, been that you can get a ‘free’ storage upgrade. Pay for one storage tier, get the higher one for no additional cost.

However, a new report from Korea today claims Samsung will not be offering this perk for the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold8, Fold8 Ultra, and Flip8, which it will unveil on July 22.

Instead, the company will only cover 50% of the price difference between the 256GB option and the 512GB model. So basically, you’ll pay half of the difference to get the higher storage tier when you pre-order.

That’s obviously a less enticing deal than what we’ve been used to, but the reason for Samsung’s decision is – you guessed it – the memory price crisis. The company is offsetting some of the higher memory costs by offering a lower value freebie.

Samsung’s mobile division is now estimated to have reached an operating loss of KRW 1.5 trillion ($1 billion) in the second quarter of this year. It would be the first time in the mobile unit’s history that it recorded a quarterly loss. And that too is unfortunately all due to the rising memory prices.

A Samsung official has stated that the company can not confirm the change in the pre-order benefits at this time, so do take all of this with a grain of salt. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising if this pans out.

Source (in Korean) | Image source