5 changes the Galaxy S26 needs to win over frustrated fans

If you’re a Samsung fan, chances are you weren’t thrilled with this year’s Galaxy S25 series. It’s not that Samsung’s S25 phones are bad, but they’re some of the most tepid year-over-year upgrades we’ve ever seen.

Samsung’s hardware designs? Unchanged. Cameras? The same. Battery capacities and charging speeds? You already know the answer.

Samsung has its work cut out for it with the Galaxy S26 series, and if the company wants to win over frustrated fans, there are five key changes next year’s phones need to make.

Let’s start with one of the most obvious changes: new designs. Despite some minor tweaks here and there, Samsung’s Galaxy S phones haven’t undergone a meaningful design change since the Galaxy S23. Every year it’s the same thing over again with only the smallest of refinements.

With the Galaxy S26 series, Samsung needs to step up its design game and show us something new. Visually, we’re long overdue for a new camera housing. It’s also high time Samsung upped its color game, as the fifty shades of gray approach for the Galaxy S25 series wasn’t exactly the most inspired choice.

And from a usability standpoint, I’m begging Samsung to find a way to make its Ultra phone more comfortable and less unwieldy to hold. Phones like the OnePlus 13 prove it’s possible to create a large yet ergonomic phone, and I hope Samsung learns that lesson with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Thankfully, it looks like we’re (mostly) getting what I’m asking for here. Renders of the Galaxy S26 Pro (now likely launching without the Pro name) and S26 Ultra show a slightly updated camera bump, while the Ultra appears to be getting a much more rounded and less boxy frame. We still don’t know what the color selection will look like, but this is all headed in the right direction.

Even more important than design, Samsung also needs to focus on its camera systems for the entire Galaxy S26 family. Similar to design, this is another aspect of the Galaxy S lineup that’s repeatedly been ignored year after year. The base Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus have virtually identical camera sensors to those used on the S22 and S22 Plus, while the S25 Ultra’s cameras have a lot in common with the S23 Ultra.

I don’t think anyone would describe any of the Galaxy S25 phones as having bad cameras, but it’s also apparent that Samsung is overdue for upgrades here. This is especially true for the S25 and S25 Plus, whose camera systems don’t feel worthy of the $800 and $1,000 starting prices, respectively. And while the S25 Ultra still has a very capable camera system, phones like the vivo X300 Pro and OPPO Find X9 Pro show just how far Samsung has fallen behind.

While the rumor mill has suggested that the Galaxy S26 series would be another year of no camera changes, Samsung itself recently teased the opposite, saying that the Galaxy S26 lineup will include “new camera sensors.” The specifics of those sensors are still a mystery, but just the fact that new sensors are coming is a big deal — and exactly what Samsung needed to do.

Like its design and camera efforts, Samsung also hasn’t done much in the way of battery innovation over the last few years. The Galaxy S25 and S25 Ultra have the exact same battery capacities as the S20 and S20 Ultra — phones that are over five years old. And it’s not like there hasn’t been any big battery innovation since then. The OnePlus 15 is one of many phones to utilize silicon-carbon battery technology, allowing it to cram in a massive 7,300mAh battery— a truly enormous number compared to the 5,000mAh battery in the S25 Ultra.

And it’s not just late-2025 flagships that are putting Samsung’s battery game to shame. The Google Pixel 9a — a $500 mid-range phone — has a larger battery than the S25, S25 Plus, and the S25 Ultra. In what world does that make sense? Samsung fans have deserved bigger batteries for years, and the S26 series needs to finally address this.

While it’s including larger batteries, Samsung also needs to ramp up its charging speeds. This is another area the company has left untouched since 2020, and it shows. When Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, HONOR, vivo, and others are offering charging speeds of 60W, 80W, and even 120W, Samsung’s paltry speeds of 45W for the Ultra and 25W for its base Galaxy S are embarrassing by comparison.

We live in a world where most Android phones still don’t have built-in magnets for Qi2 charging, but it feels like we’re on the cusp of that changing. Google’s Pixel 10 series is the first batch of mainstream Android phones with integrated magnets, and as we head into 2026, it’s easy to imagine other brands will follow suit.

One of those brands needs to be Samsung. The company’s decision to label the S25 series “Qi2 Ready” initially suggested that the phones would have built-in magnets, but that obviously wasn’t the case. Samsung also recently launched its very own Qi2 magnetic chargers, despite still not having a phone in its portfolio that can use them without a magnetic case.

This repeated flirtation around magnetic Qi2, without yet delivering a phone that supports the standard, has been frustrating. The good news is that the S26 series is believed to change this, and we can only hope it actually does.

One of the most disappointing and controversial changes Samsung made to the Galaxy S25 Ultra was downgrading its S Pen. The decision to remove Bluetooth/remote functionality, while not a big deal for everyone, was still a boneheaded move.

Bluetooth S Pen connectivity has existed since the Galaxy Note 9, a smartphone released in 2018. Using the S Pen as a remote camera shutter was one of my favorite features of the Galaxy Note and later the Galaxy S Ultra. Additional controls, such as unlocking your phone or controlling music playback with the S Pen, made it all the more magical.

As such, for Samsung to come out of nowhere and remove those remote controls with the Galaxy S25 Ultra was a punch to the gut. Samsung says it did so because so few people used the Bluetooth features, but that really shouldn’t matter. For a phone that costs $1,300, Samsung should be adding functionality, not removing it — especially for something as inexpensive as a Bluetooth Low Energy chip. There’s no indication that Samsung is bringing back remote controls to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but if the company wants to do right by its fans, it should absolutely do so.

Those are the changes I think Samsung should focus on with the Galaxy S26 series, but there’s plenty more the company could do — whether that’s new software features, a decreased emphasis on AI, or anything else. Whatever you want to see changed with the Galaxy S26 series, let’s talk about it in the comments.