The start of the new semester at mainland Chinese universities is approaching, and the prices of the digital “triple set” for college freshmen, including smartphones, laptops, and tablets, are generally on the rise. Some products are thousands of yuan more expensive than last year, with the market average transaction price of a popular laptop increasing by nearly 50%, leading many parents and students to either downgrade their configurations or postpone their purchases.
According to reports from mainland media, a college freshman in Anhui found that the gaming laptop he was eyeing is over 1,000 yuan more expensive than last year. After visiting multiple stores without finding any significant discounts, he had to settle for a lower configuration.
In Guangzhou, a parent spent nearly 18,000 yuan on high-performance laptops, mid-range smartphones, tablets, and other devices for their soon-to-be university student, which is about 5,000 yuan more than a similar configuration last year.
Another parent mentioned that last spring, a laptop with 32GB of memory and 1TB hard drive was priced at over 5,500 yuan, but it has now risen to over 7,000 yuan. She expressed regret for not purchasing it earlier, as she did not expect the prices to increase so rapidly.
On the e-commerce platform “Deewoo,” the price trend chart shows that the market average transaction price of a popular laptop has risen from 9,237 yuan to 13,834 yuan, an increase of 4,597 yuan, accounting for almost a 50% rise. The entry-level iPad 11 has increased from 2,628 yuan to 3,414 yuan, nearly a 30% increase.
In addition to computers, the prices of many smartphones have also gone up. The prices of mainstream mid-range phones have generally risen by 300 to 1,000 yuan. For example, the market average transaction price of the Xiaomi REDMI K90 has increased from 2,781 yuan to 3,015 yuan.
A computer merchant mentioned that the price increase during the summer did not bring the expected peak season sales. While they were able to sell their inventory at higher prices, the supply of low-priced products is decreasing, posing risks for restocking.
The widespread price increase for the digital “triple set” of college freshmen in mainland China has been largely attributed by the media to AI servers occupying storage capacity, leading to a tight supply of consumer-grade storage chips and substantial price hikes. These reports were concentrated in early to mid-August 2026, and the content was highly consistent.
According to reports, Li Xin, an associate researcher at the School of Electrical Engineering at Southeast University, stated that the rapid expansion of AI data centers has significantly increased the demand for processors and memory. Due to the higher profits from AI-related chips, manufacturers prioritize using their production capacity for AI products. He believes that it will take a long time to establish new factories to meet the capacity demand and that chip prices may continue to rise over the next year.
The related price hikes have sparked discussions among consumers. Some expressed that the laptop they bought in June increased by over 2,000 yuan for the same model in just over a month, saying, “If I had bought it a month earlier, I could have saved money for a new phone.” Another prospective university student originally planned to wait until “Double Eleven” (a popular online shopping event in China) to buy a computer but is now concerned about the prices continuing to rise.