China Faces 'Most Expensive Build Season,' High-End Laptops Nearing 50,000 Yuan

Originally a peak season for college students upgrading devices for the new semester and professionals refreshing their gear, China’s summer PC market has become what many consumers are calling the "most expensive build season" due to soaring prices.

In major Chinese sales channels, budget-friendly models priced below 4,000 yuan (all figures in RMB unless otherwise noted) are becoming increasingly rare, significantly raising the barrier for average users to replace their computers. Even after applying various subsidies and discounts, the final purchase price of high-end laptops generally exceeds the 10,000-yuan mark (approximately NT$47,751).

According to a report by the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily on Thursday (6th), multiple industry insiders indicate that the average selling price (ASP) of PC products is expected to achieve double-digit year-on-year growth by 2026, with upstream supply chain cost pressures likely to persist at least until the end of 2026.

Industry sources say that price hike signals have already been issued across all segments of the PC supply chain—from memory and GPUs to driver ICs and power management chips—making terminal price increases an irreversible trend.

"The lightweight laptop I bought for 5,000 yuan in February now costs nearly 8,000 yuan for the same model. I should’ve just spent more upfront on a gaming laptop," lamented a consumer from Jiangsu province. Another consumer from Henan province noted that a certain brand’s high-end gaming laptop was priced around 9,000 yuan in 2025, but the same model now sells for 15,000 yuan.

Minsoo Kang, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, stated that the PC market is currently under strong inflationary pressure due to rising costs of key components such as memory. Entry-level products, which already operate on historically thin profit margins, now face threats to commercial sustainability amid continuous increases in bill-of-materials (BOM) costs.

The high-end market is equally unable to avoid cost pressures. Due to higher hardware specifications, rising component costs force substantial price hikes, testing consumers’ willingness to pay.

Multiple analysts say that high-end PCs have seen even steeper increases since the beginning of the year. Chen Yixin, Managing Director at CIC Insight, explained that this round of price hikes affects the entire PC industry but is not uniform. High-end gaming laptops and professional mobile workstations have experienced particularly sharp increases, while price rises for standard office laptops have been relatively moderate.

Chen Shuxin, Senior Research Manager at IDC China, also believes that since the start of the year, China’s overall PC market has shown a clear upward pricing trend, especially for high-end office and gaming laptops.

A laptop brand distributor revealed that recent price increases for mid-to-low-tier models in the 4,000–5,000 yuan range have also been very noticeable, typically rising by two to three thousand yuan. In contrast, price hikes for premium 10,000-yuan-class laptops have been kept to around one thousand yuan.

"High-end products have thicker profit margins, giving manufacturers more flexibility in pricing," the distributor assessed. They predict laptop prices may continue to rise this year, as core components such as memory, storage, CPUs, and other parts continue to climb in cost.