India’s Cheapest 5G Phones Are Disappearing. Here’s Why 4G Is Back | TechPulse

India’s cheapest 5G phones are quietly disappearing, and brands are bringing back 4G to fill the gap.Smartphone shipments fell 10% in Q2 2026, but the sub-₹15,000 segment crashed 45%. The biggest pressure point? Memory. Prices have risen nearly 4x since September 2025, pushing memory’s share of a budget phone’s bill of materials from under 20% to over 45%.At the ₹10,000 price point, the economics simply don’t work anymore. So brands are cutting 5G modems and shipping 4G phones instead.IDC says 4G phones now account for 11.1% of India’s smartphone shipments.India built one of the world’s largest 5G networks. But its cheapest smartphones are going backwards.*Sources: Counterpoint Research, IDC*