Phone makers use recycled RAM to cut costs. A severe memory shortage forces brands to salvage used chips for budget devices.

Phone makers use recycled RAM to cut costs. A severe memory shortage forces brands to salvage used chips for budget devices. TrendForce, in research published on 6 November 2026, says reballed mobile memory is reaching about 3 to 4 percent of the smartphone market in 2026, and could reach 7 to 9 percent in 2027. The chips in question are mostly used 4GB LPDDR4X parts, going into 4G phones priced below CNY 1,299.

TrendForce does not name the brands. It also says the saving is real in the short term and the quality risk is real after that. As of 11 November 2026, no phone maker has published a list of models that use these chips.

Phone makers use recycled RAM to cut costs. A severe memory shortage forces brands to salvage used chips for budget devices.

TrendForce figure	What it means
About 3 to 4 percent in 2026	Penetration of reballed memory in the smartphone market this year.
7 to 9 percent in 2027	Where TrendForce thinks that share could go if high DRAM prices continue.
LPDDR4X, 4GB	The type that makes up most of the reballed supply.
4G phones below CNY 1,299	The phones those chips are going into. CNY 1,299 is about the budget line TrendForce names. It is a China price level, not an India MRP.
Share of total phone memory bits	Still modest, even if more phones use a reballed chip. TrendForce does not expect this to stop DRAM prices rising.
1Q27	The quarter when TrendForce expects DRAM price rises to pick up further, which could push the practice into dearer phones.

What reballing means

A memory chip in a phone is soldered on. To reuse it, a recycler heats the old solder balls, lifts the chip off a discarded board, puts new solder balls on, and solders it to a new board. That second step is the reball. The chip itself is not new. TrendForce’s 6 November note calls these parts reballed memory, and says high mobile DRAM contract prices are why budget brands are taking them.

The supply is mostly older LPDDR4X, in 4GB chips. Newer phones use LPDDR5 or LPDDR5X. The used 4GB parts fit entry 4G phones, where buyers are sensitive to price changes and a brand cannot easily pass the full memory increase on. TrendForce says the point is to hold the retail price down while the bill of materials goes up.

How widespread it is

Three to four percent of the smartphone market in 2026 is not a rounding error, and it is not most phones. Seven to nine percent in 2027 would still leave the large majority of phones on new memory. TrendForce adds a second limit. Even at those rates, reballed chips would remain a modest share of the total LPDRAM bits used in phones, because the affected phones are cheap and use small amounts of older memory. That is why the firm does not think recycling will reverse the rise in DRAM contract prices.

The same note says the practice could move up the price list. If DRAM prices climb again in the first quarter of 2027, brands may use lower-spec parts and reballed chips in phones that are not only the cheapest 4G models. It does not say that flagship phones are doing this now.

The price line, in three currencies

TrendForce’s own figure is phones priced below CNY 1,299. That is the number to keep. Other outlets restated the same research in their own currencies. heise described the affected phones as Chinese budget models under about 180 euros, still on 4G. Tom’s Hardware wrote the CNY 1,299 line as approximately $200. Those are the publications’ wordings, not a fresh rupee conversion, and they will drift as exchange rates move. No India rupee cutoff has been published.

heise also says the recycling is being done by Chinese manufacturers and that a careless job can raise failure rates. TrendForce does not print a failure percentage. It says sourcing is complicated, quality is less consistent, reliability can suffer, and a phone may not last as long. The later cost can show up as warranty repairs and a weaker brand, which is why the firm tells manufacturers to balance the saving against after-sales cost.

An earlier report, from a different firm

On 20 October 2026, Chosun Biz reported a separate Counterpoint Research note. That note said some Chinese phone makers had cut targets and staff after the second quarter, then raised production targets again late in the third quarter, with recycled DRAM as the reason. It described chips pulled from old phones, PCs, and servers, sold after cleaning in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei market, and cases of memory already used for five or six years being put back into service for another five or six. Counterpoint did not publish the 3 to 4 percent figure. Do not mix that story with TrendForce’s percentages. They are two firms, a month apart, describing the same shortage.

What a buyer can and cannot check

• A spec sheet that says 4GB of RAM does not say whether the chip is new or reballed. No brand has been named.
• The phones TrendForce points to are cheap 4G models under CNY 1,299, not current 5G phones with LPDDR5.
• If a budget phone is far cheaper than the rest of its segment, ask the seller about the warranty length. The risk TrendForce flags is a shorter life and more repairs, not a slower spec on paper.
• There is no published India price band for this practice. A low India MRP alone does not prove the RAM is used.

For phones that are sold new in India under Rs 25,000, with the chip and battery listed from current sources, see our phones under 25000 guide. More hardware coverage is in Technology.

Sources

• TrendForce, 6 November 2026, reballed memory in smartphones.
• heise, on used LPDDR4X in cheap Chinese 4G phones.
• Tom’s Hardware, on the reballing process and the CNY 1,299 line.
• Chosun Biz, 20 October 2026, Counterpoint on recycled DRAM in China.