Company official confirms Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered iQoo 13 will see a price hike

A good number of Snapdragon 8 Elite flagships are set to launch within this month, and the iQoo 13 is one of them. The company has shared a good number of details about the flagship phone ahead of the launch, but it hasn't shared any concrete pricing details yet.

Before the Snapdragon 8 Elite flagship smartphones were announced, reports hinted at them seeing a price hike. Recently, Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun confirmed that the recently announced Xiaomi 15 series will be more expensive than the last-gen lineup. Lei Jun says the increasing cost of components and the cost invested in R&D is the reason why.

Now, Galant V on Weibo, iQoo's product manager, says the price increase of iQoo 13 is "inevitable." The company official says that the production cost has risen by hundreds of yuans, making it impossible to keep the price the same as the predecessor. For reference, the last-gen flagship launched in China had a starting price of CNY 3,999 (about $561).

There's no official word on how much the price increase could be, but the new flagships are expected to start at around CNY 4,500 (around $632) in China. Of course, not all the Snapdragon 8 Elite flagships may see a price hike. A recent report from Digital Chat Station, a prominent Weibo tipster, suggested that at least one next-gen flagship phone will stick with the last-gen pricing (12/256 GB RedMagic 9s Pro curr. $749 on Amazon).

When Digital Chat Station reported that, many Weibo users believed it would be the iQoo 13. However, the Weibo tipster later clarified that it was a different phone.