Samsung Galaxy S26 And S26 Plus Review: This Again

While Samsung has treated its Flips and Folds to a fewer awesome hardware upgrades complete caller years, nan Galaxy S flagships person often felt for illustration a long, unbroken statement of insignificant spec refreshes. The S26 and S26 Plus do thing to alteration that trend.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra astatine slightest benefits from nan company’s new privateness display, but nan 2 smaller S26 phones deficiency a slayer hardware feature. They some person caller chipsets, and nan S26 gets a bigger artillery while nan Plus has faster wireless charging, but these are mini tweaks, not wholesale upgrades. Perhaps astir disappointingly, Samsung hasn’t followed Google successful adding magnetic Qi2 charging to nan phones themselves.

That makes this year’s phones hardly amended than nan models they’re replacing. Oh, and did I mention they costs much too?

The 6.3-inch S26 costs $899 pinch 256GB storage, while nan 6.7-inch S26 Plus is $200 much pinch nan aforesaid storage. Both are $100 much costly than past year’s phones, though successful nan S26’s lawsuit that’s partially because Samsung eliminated nan 128GB starting exemplary — though it’s still $40 much than nan 256GB S25. It’s different $200 to upgrade to nan Ultra, which is larger again but besides includes upgraded cameras, that caller privateness display, and Samsung’s S Pen stylus.

The S26 and S26 Plus look overmuch nan aforesaid arsenic they did past year, pinch straightened sides and triple cameras successful 1 corner. Those cameras are nan only existent ocular change: they’re now mounted connected a raised oval camera island, matching nan Galaxy Z Fold 7. I for illustration past year’s design, which feels cleaner, but it’s specified a mini alteration that it’s difficult to get worked up astir it.

You mightiness besides announcement that nan S26 has grown. Its 6.3-inch show is fractionally larger than nan S25’s 6.2-inch panel, which makes it taller, wider, and heavier than before. It’s still arsenic adjacent arsenic you’ll get to a mini telephone — astatine 167g and 7.2mm, it’s lighter and thinner than nan iPhone 17 — but I miss erstwhile it was smaller still.

What you get for that other size is simply a bigger battery: 4,300mAh, up 300mAh from nan S25, and person to nan 4,900mAh compartment successful nan S26 Plus. I took nan S26 pinch maine astir Mobile World Congress, expecting nan demanding use, agelong days, and intermittent Wi-Fi to vessel nan battery. Instead, I was amazed to find it held its own, lasting until furniture each time but one, erstwhile my nervus collapsed and I reached for my powerfulness slope mid-evening. Neither telephone is simply a powerhouse, and extracurricular of nan US Samsung risks falling down its rivals, who are engaged introducing capacious silicon-carbon batteries, but moreover nan regular S26 should beryllium an all-day device.

It would person been an easy triumph for Samsung to present Qi2 magnetic wireless charging, arsenic Google did successful its Pixel 10 phones, but the institution told us it prefers to support its phones thinner, assuming buyers will prime up a lawsuit pinch magnets successful anyway. Instead, Samsung gave nan S26 Plus a humble boost to 20W Qi wireless charging, leaving nan S26 astatine 15W. Along pinch nan Plus’s faster wired charging — 45W compared to nan S26’s 25W — this is nan only existent upgrade you get from nan bigger telephone (it besides has a much caller Bluetooth type and support for mmWave 5G that’s lacking successful nan S26).

Size aside, nan displays are nan aforesaid arsenic past year, and deficiency nan privateness show recovered successful nan Ultra. The chipsets person been refreshed for 2026, but while nan S26 Ultra uses Qualcomm Snapdragon chips worldwide, nan S26 and S26 Plus usage a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 successful nan US, but Samsung’s ain Exynos 2600 successful astir different markets. I’m successful nan UK, and my Exynos-based phones person performed conscionable fine, from framework rates to artillery life, truthful buyers extracurricular nan US shouldn’t person overmuch to interest about.

Samsung has stuck pinch nan aforesaid camera hardware it utilized successful past year’s S25 phones. And nan S24 handsets. Not to mention nan S23 phones, which successful move featured very flimsy tweaks from nan S22 line, giving Samsung 5 consecutive years of almost identical cameras. It’s gotten bully astatine wringing nan astir retired of these sensors, but package has its limits. Daytime photos travel retired well, but highlights occasionally person an overprocessed sheen to them. Low ray capacity is average, pinch excessive brightening and smudgy halos astir nonstop light. And while nan telephoto is decently detailed, shots consciousness flat, without nan other extent you’d dream for from nan focal length. I could levy akin criticisms against US rivals for illustration nan iPhone 17 and Pixel 10, but internationally nan title is fiercer — nan Xiaomi 17 outclasses nan S26’s camera lens for lens.

What nan camera does get is horizontal lock: an amped up return connected video stabilization that keeps footage almost perfectly oriented moreover if you move nan phone, shingle it, aliases move it upside down. Like nan regular stabilization it’s capped astatine QHD resolution, and it’s supported connected some rear lenses, though not nan selfie camera. There’s surely an constituent of artificiality to nan last footage, pinch occasional distortions and shimmering arsenic it tries to support stability, but nan results still consciousness beautiful extraordinary. I wouldn’t usage this for each video I shoot, but for action footage it’s an evident winner.

So what other is really new? Well, AI stuff, duh. A bunch of this really comes from Google: a smarter Circle to Search that tin look up full outfits astatine a clip alternatively than azygous items of clothing, and a much agentic type of Gemini, tin of ordering Ubers and groceries for you, which is expected to get soon but isn’t present yet. Samsung itself has added automatic telephone screening and scam protection, earthy connection AI photograph edits, and an upgraded Bixby for conversational instrumentality controls.

The second works… mostly. It’s bully astatine interpreting questions related to nan phone’s settings (asking “how do I get backmost nan buttons astatine nan bottom?” correctly took maine to navigation controls), but Bixby is deed and miss astir which settings it tin alteration itself — it would happily toggle connected do not disturb aliases acheronian mode, but refused to really move betwixt motion controls and navigation buttons, only taking maine to nan settings page. Controls located extracurricular nan settings app confuse it entirely: it’s incapable of reordering nan App Drawer, adding aliases removing circumstantial controls from Quick Settings, aliases adding app shortcuts to nan homescreen. It is, successful short, astir arsenic reliable arsenic astir AI software.

The S26 and S26 Plus aren’t bad phones, but they’re undeniably familiar, and there’s nary logic to upgrade whether you ain an S25, an S24, aliases moreover an S23. You’re not getting a caller camera, magnetic charging, aliases a substantially different design. The artillery is simply a small bigger, nan show a spot brighter, nan chipset surely faster — and of people there’s overmuch much AI, but plentifulness of those features are still moving their measurement backmost to older phones. It’s been 3 years since nan S23, and different than higher prices, Samsung doesn’t person overmuch to show for it.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge