Tariffs Will Make Electronics More Expensive. If You Need a New Gadget, ‘Buy It Now’​ | WIRED

If there’s one word on your mind this week, it’s probably tariffs. Last week, President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on foreign goods imported into the US, setting the stage for a global trade war and stoking fears of a recession. A blanket 10 percent tariff on all imports kicked off on Saturday, April 5, with additional reciprocal tariffs on 60 countries to take effect by April 9.

It’s a wildly dynamic situation that’s changing by the day, but you might wonder how this affects you. The first thing to know is that tariffs are paid by the company importing a product into the country. In short, that fee affects their bottom line, so companies often pass those costs on to consumers by increasing the price of the goods.

Here’s an example from Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University: Let’s say a laptop costs $400 at import in the US. A retailer would then add an average gross margin rate of 30 percent—how much revenue the retailer retains after deducting the cost to produce or acquire the item—and that laptop will now cost $571. That’s the price you’ll pay at a big box store. China exports a lot of laptops to the US, and as of April 9, you now have to factor in the 54 percent tariff. Based on historical data that suggests 95 percent of the tariff is absorbed by the importer, the import price jumps by $205 to $605, and if the retailer passes those costs to you, the new total you’ll pay at the store is $776. That represents 36 percent inflation, and the retailer’s gross margin rate is lowered to 22 percent. Basically, you pay more, and the retailer earns less.

Every country has been affected by Trump’s tariff salvo. While many product categories will likely see prices rise, electronics is a big one. “There’s not any major electronics-producing nation that’s not substantially affected by tariffs,” Miller says, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and India. He believes tariffs will be negotiated for many countries, but expects the tariffs on China to stay.

That will heavily impact the prices of goods like smartphones, laptops, and video game consoles. Smartphones are the largest import from China, with laptops sitting in second. Miller says it’s important for consumers to understand that while there were tariffs on some goods from China before, there were zero tariffs on electronics like smartphones and laptops as of January 2025.

His advice? If you were planning on upgrading your laptop, tablet, or smartphone soon—maybe the battery is lackluster or it’s just too old—do it now. “Buy it now. Do not wait, it makes no sense to do that,” he says. You likely won’t see prices rise for a few months as companies have stocked up on goods ahead of the impending trade war, but if nothing changes in the coming weeks, Miller expects to see prices soar starting in June or July.

Miller rattled off various categories outside of electronics that would also be affected, specifically from China, which is the second largest source of imports to the US behind Mexico:

• Furniture
• Shoes and apparel
• Microwave ovens
• Silverware, plates
• Blinds, linens, and curtains
• Toys
• Solar panels
• Building materials, like vinyl flooring
• Cashews
• Candles
• Fans
• Air conditioner parts
• Golf clubs
• Exercise equipment
• Keyboards
• Auto parts
• Christmas ornaments and Home Decor
• Toilets
• Food blenders
• Seafood

Outside of higher prices, Miller says consumers should expect less product variety. “What importers are going to do is they’re only going to import their most profitable, best-selling items for which they know they can still make a profit under these tariff regimes.” Apple will still import its iPhones, but a smaller smartphone maker that doesn’t sell many units of a specific model may skip the US market entirely. It will also negatively impact any product where there’s already a lot of consumer sensitivity to price increases.

A few companies have already made tariff-related announcements on their products. Nintendo canceled the original April 9 preorder date for the Switch 2 video game console and has yet to provide a new date, though its June 5 launch window hasn’t changed.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive is pausing auto shipments to the US this month. And Framework, known for making repairable laptops, is also pausing sales on a few models of its base Framework Laptop 13. Fujifilm announced a new Instax 41 camera this week, but says it “has not yet determined the camera’s pricing for the US market.”

WIRED reached out to more than 70 companies, from electronics manufacturers to coffee companies, asking if they could share any details about potential price increases on imported products. The vast majority, like Garmin, Oura, Amazon, Logitech, OnePlus, and Steelcase, declined to comment, while others said it was too early to discuss pricing. Still, some companies responded.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Popular home office furniture brand, Branch, says it has been preparing for trade policy changes for some time, finding efficiencies in its supply chain to absorb the impact of tariffs with minimal increases to pricing. The company says there’s a lot of uncertainty: “Candidly, we may need to adjust some prices in the coming months, particularly for products sourced from countries where tariff rates came in significantly higher than we anticipated.” Branch says if there is a price change, it will be to protect margins rather than to expand them. It’s worth noting that Branch’s Ergonomic Chair, long recommended in WIRED’s Best Office Chairs guide, used to be $339 but is now $359, though Branch says the price was adjusted before tariffs were announced.

Drip coffee maker Moccamaster says it may absorb “some short-term pressures at the US level,” though it’s too early to confirm whether prices will increase. Portland-based coffee machine maker Ratio says it’s holding prices steady through April, but “tariffs this high will unequivocally compel higher retail prices—potentially much higher. We are a small business that was already struggling with increasing costs.”

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Supernote, a company that makes digital notebooks, pointed to a statement it made on Reddit. It’s implementing a price increase in the US by the end of April: “We are actively adjusting our supply chain to mitigate the long-term impact of these tariffs,” the company says on Reddit. ”These adjustments take time, especially with the new tariffs hitting everything from people to penguins, which makes the situation more complicated. It’s going to be a tough time.”

The company behind smart bird feeders from brands like Harymor and Sehmua, says it’s exploring strategies to absorb costs internally, with no price adjustments—”We are facing rising expenses that directly affect our profit margins. … We recognize the competitive nature of the market and the price sensitivity of our customers.”

Meanwhile, Samsung hasn’t responded to our request for comment yet, but the company told Reuters the tariffs don’t affect its TVs as much since most are produced in Mexico.

We’ll keep adding information from brands as we receive it. While it’s too early to make a definitive statement on an ever-evolving situation, we can probably expect higher prices on almost everything if the tariff situation remains unchanged. The last thing we want is for everyone to panic buy, but if you need a new phone, a mechanical keyboard, or an air purifier, you should probably start looking now.