Open Flipkart or any India-focused tech feed right now and you’ll notice something odd: four phones are launching inside a single week, and every single one of them is quietly more expensive than the model it replaces. That’s not a coincidence. A global memory chip shortage, driven largely by AI data centers hoarding DRAM and NAND supply, has been squeezing smartphone makers since late 2025, and this week is the first time you can watch it play out across four separate launches at once.
Samsung, POCO, Vivo, and Xiaomi’s Redmi brand all have phones landing between August 3 and August 9, 2026, and every one of them costs more than its predecessor did at the same price tier. If you followed last week’s roundup, you already know this is becoming a pattern, not a one-off week.
Here’s what’s actually launching, when, and whether any of it is worth your money before the shortage pushes prices even higher.
Upcoming Mobile Phones Launching August 3–9, 2026
| Phone | Launch Date | Expected Price (India) | Headline Spec |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy F70 Pro 5G | August 3 | ₹25,999–₹34,999 | Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, 6,000mAh battery, Gorilla Glass Victus+ |
| POCO M8 Power 5G | August 4 | Under ₹20,000 (unconfirmed) | 8,000mAh battery, Snapdragon 4 Gen 4, 45W charging |
| vivo S2 | August 6 | ₹38,000–₹45,000 (leaked) | Curved AMOLED display, design-first positioning |
| Redmi Note 17 5G / Note 17 Pro | August 6 | Around ₹30,000–₹33,000 (tipped) | 8,000mAh / 9,000mAh battery, HyperOS 3 |
1. Samsung Galaxy F70 Pro 5G
Samsung isn’t opening the week with anything flashy. The Galaxy F70 Pro 5G goes live on Flipkart on August 3 at three price points: Rs 25,999 for 6GB/128GB, Rs 29,999 for 8GB/128GB, and Rs 34,999 for the 8GB/256GB top variant. It’s a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 phone with a flat 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display running at 120Hz, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, and it comes in Alpha Black and Aura Green.
The camera setup is a 50MP primary sensor with optical image stabilization, backed by a 5MP ultra-wide and a 2MP macro, and it’ll shoot 4K video. Battery is a 6,000mAh cell with 45W wired charging. None of that reads as exciting on paper, and it isn’t meant to. Samsung is positioning this squarely against OnePlus, iQOO, and Motorola’s budget lineups, which is a segment Samsung has historically ceded ground in. Worth knowing: this launches just weeks after Samsung’s actual Unpacked event, where the real news, the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Flip8, got announced. The F70 Pro is the quiet follow-up nobody’s talking about, which is exactly why it’s easy to miss if you’re only watching for flagship news.
If you’re shopping under Rs 35,000 and want OIS on the main camera without paying flagship prices, this is worth a look. If you already own a Galaxy A-series phone from the last two years, there’s genuinely nothing here that justifies the switch.
2. POCO M8 Power 5G
A day later, POCO brings the M8 Power 5G to the same Flipkart storefront on August 4. This one leans entirely on one number: an 8,000mAh battery, which POCO is marketing as good for roughly three days of typical use. That’s paired with a Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 chip, a 7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display at 120Hz, 45W charging, and a 50MP primary camera with an 8MP front camera for selfies. RAM sits at 8GB with 256GB of storage, non-expandable.
Here’s the part that matters more than the spec sheet: multiple outlets have flagged this as effectively a rebadged Redmi Note 17 5G, built on the same Xiaomi hardware platform and released under the POCO badge for buyers who want the sub-brand’s software skin instead of stock HyperOS. That’s not a knock against the phone. It’s genuinely useful to know, because it means you’re choosing between two nearly identical phones on brand and software preference alone, not hardware. POCO hasn’t confirmed India pricing yet, though early reporting points to somewhere under Rs 20,000, positioning it directly against the Redmi Note 17 launching two days later.
Who actually benefits here: anyone whose biggest phone complaint is charging anxiety. An 8,000mAh cell at this price point is still rare enough to be a real differentiator, not a marketing footnote.
3. vivo S2
vivo’s S-series has been dormant in India for a while, and its return on August 6 comes with an unusually design-heavy pitch. The confirmed detail is a curved AMOLED panel and a phone vivo is explicitly marketing around aesthetics and offline retail appeal rather than raw benchmarks. Leaked specs, and it’s worth being upfront that these are leaks and not official confirmations, point to a MediaTek Dimensity 7360-series chip, a roughly 7,050mAh battery, 44W charging, a 50MP main camera paired with a secondary sensor, and IP68/IP69 water resistance. Tipster pricing puts it somewhere between Rs 38,000 and Rs 45,000, which is a meaningfully higher bracket than where the last S-series phone sat.
Why now? vivo has watched Redmi, POCO, and iQOO all compress the sub-Rs 25,000 segment into a battery-and-charging arms race. The S2 is vivo’s attempt to skip that fight entirely and sell on design and camera character instead, the same way OPPO’s Reno line has tried to differentiate from its own budget siblings. Whether that actually works depends entirely on the finished specs vivo confirms on launch day, so treat everything above the display and design claims as directional until then.
4. Redmi Note 17 5G and Redmi Note 17 Pro
On August 6, vivo launches the S2; Xiaomi will bring the Redmi Note 17 series to India, and this is genuinely the phone to watch this week if you care about value. The standard Note 17 5G runs a Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 chip with 8GB RAM, a 7-inch FHD+ OLED display at 120Hz, an 8,000mAh battery, 45W charging, and IP65 dust and splash resistance, all running Android 16 with HyperOS 3 out of the box. The Note 17 Pro steps the battery up to 9,000mAh. Both keep the 50MP main camera and 8MP selfie shooter that Xiaomi already shipped on the China version back in July.
Tipster pricing (via Abhishek Yadav, cited by multiple outlets) suggests Rs 30,000 for 6GB/128GB and Rs 33,000 for 8GB/128GB. That’s not officially confirmed, but if it holds, it’s a notable jump from the outgoing Redmi Note 15, which launched at Rs 22,999. That jump is the memory shortage story in miniature: the same silicon generation, the same battery-first formula that’s made Redmi Note phones a default recommendation for years, now costing roughly 30% more than it did one generation ago. If you’ve been waiting for this series specifically because a friend recommended the last one, budget for the higher price before you decide.
What Else Could Land This Week
iQOO has confirmed the Z11 is coming to India, teased through its CEO’s own social posts, but as of this week the company hasn’t locked a specific date, only that it’s “likely to take place soon.” Early tips point to a MediaTek Dimensity 7500 Turbo chip, 12GB RAM, and a curved AMOLED display, but there’s no confirmed date, price, or final spec sheet yet, so don’t hold your August 3–9 shopping plans around it landing in this exact window.
Looking further out, Google’s Pixel 11 series arrives August 12, just past this week’s cutoff. If you’re weighing whether to wait, the full Pixel 11 release date, pricing, and Pixel Glow feature breakdown is worth reading before you commit to any of the phones above, particularly if a Tensor chip and longer software support matter more to you than raw specs today. Honor’s so-called Robot Phone, with its motorized gimbal camera, is also expected sometime in Q3 2026, but it’s a China-exclusive launch with no confirmed India or global availability, so it’s more of a curiosity than a buying option for most readers here.
Wrapping Up
Four phones, one week, and a pattern that’s hard to ignore once you see it: every single launch this week costs more than the phone it’s replacing, and the memory shortage is the reason why, not shrinking margins or improved cameras. Samsung and POCO are playing it safe with familiar formulas at nudged-up prices. vivo is trying to sidestep the price war with the S2’s design pitch.
The Redmi Note 17 is still the most broadly useful phone of the four, if the leaked pricing holds. None of that changes what you should actually do this week: match the phone to what you’ll use daily, not the spec sheet, because in a shortage-driven market, this generation’s “upgrade” is mostly just last year’s phone at a higher price. Which of these four are you actually considering, and does the price jump change your answer?
All information above is current as of August 2, 2026. Prices marked as leaked or tipped are not official until confirmed at each brand’s launch event, and feature availability may vary by region.
