The new generation of Samsung Galaxy is guaranteed to be near the top of every Android fan’s upcoming phones list. An Unpacked event in the coming weeks will see the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus and Galaxy S26 Ultra all make their debut, but with plenty of leaks having appeared online ahead of the reveal, we’ve got a clear picture of what to expect.
Samsung will face off against one of Apple’s strongest showings in years with the iPhone 17. The firm has also been beaten to the punch by several big names, with OnePlus and Honor introducing top-tier models in November 2025 and January 2026. Xiaomi was also ahead of the curve, at least in China. Raw specs haven’t exactly been a Galaxy selling point for a while now, though, with the firm’s software (and AI force-feeding) doing more to turn heads.
Here’s everything expected from the new Galaxy S26 line-up, plus a wish list of features we’d love to see make the cut – however unlikely.
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Expected release date and price
The Galaxy S26 range will be revealed at an Unpacked event. Though Samsung has yet to make it official, rumours point to the big day being February 25. The location of choice? San Francisco, according to reliable tipster EVleaks. Based on previous years, I’d expect the event to kick off at at 10am Pacific (6PM GMT) and be live streamed on Samsung.com, Samsung Newsroom and Samsung’s YouTube channel.
Apparently the new devices will then be available to buy two weeks later, on March 11. Pre-orders should open right after the official announcement.
These are later dates than we’ve gotten used to lately, with Samsung having announced the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24 generations much earlier in January. The reason for the change is an unknown, though it aligns with Samsung’s “go-it-alone” approach. The firm hasn’t piggybacked off trade shows like CES (in January) or Mobile World Congress (early March) for years at this point.
A look at previous Galaxy phone launches shows the pattern:
- Galaxy S25: launched 22nd January 2025
- Galaxy S24: launched 17th January 2024
- Galaxy S23: launched 1st February 2023
- Galaxy S22: launched 25th February 2022
- Galaxy S21: launched 29th January 2021
Pricing is a total mystery right now. While the Galaxy S25 arrived at £799/$800, the S25 Plus at £999/$1000, and the S25 Ultra at £1249/$1299 – essentially unchanged from the previous generation – the tech world is currently suffering through a rapid increase in the cost of RAM and SSD storage. Samsung will almost certainly have to pass those higher costs onto consumers.
Hardware and design rumours
The biggest Galaxy S26 talking point to date has been the “will-they-won’t-they” surrounding a sequel to the Galaxy S25 Edge. Samsung’s super-skinny smartphone apparently undersold so significantly the firm has pulled the plug on a replacement – which was widely expected to replace the Plus model in the trio – and will be bringing back the Galaxy S26 Plus instead.
That means the lineup will include the relatively compact Galaxy S26, larger Galaxy S26 Plus, and photography/productivity-focused Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Design-wise don’t expect much to change at all from the Galaxy S25 generation. The rear camera module might grow to be a closer match to the Galaxy Z Fold 7‘s, and Samsung may be able to shave another millimetre off the thickness of each model, but the rounded corners, metal frame and fingerprint-free glass back panels should all make a comeback. Some new colours might help shake things up a bit, though none have been leaked to date.
On the performance front, Samsung is reportedly fitting its own Exynos 2600 chipsets to some Galaxy S26 models – though South Korean outlet ITHome has hinted this will only be for the firm’s home market. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will surely appear everywhere else, possibly with some “For Galaxy” customisations. Expect 12GB of RAM to be the norm, and 128GB of storage as the starting point.
Battery capacities may finally increase, though not to the extent many were hoping for. Rumours suggest the Galaxy S26 will see a 300mAh boost and the Galaxy S26 is in line for an extra 200mAh, bringing the pair to 4300mAh and 5200mAh respectively. That would mean a huge gulf between Samsung’s flagship and rivals like the OnePlus 15, which has a huge 7200mAh capacity.
Photography talk is largely focused on Samsung’s computational photography and image processing, meaning camera sensor upgrades are unlikely. Whispers of a 50MP ultrawide appearing on all three phones have gone quiet, so don’t expect big jumps in quality from the previous generation.
Samsung Galaxy S25 software details
Every Galaxy S26 variant will arrive running Android 16 and the latest version of Samsung’s OneUI software. It’s likely to get a small visual refresh, having settled into a cohesive design over the past few years, and will surely bring a bunch of new features across productivity, gaming and photography.
Samsung will almost certainly take plenty of time during its reveal event to show off Galaxy AI in all its forms. Expect new additions as well as updates to existing ones like the Now Hub and Now Bar.
What we’d like to see
While the Galaxy S25 lineup largely impressed me in 2025, only the regular S25 earned a full five star score. Samsung’s flagships have been increasingly hard to recommend to anyone other than those already invested in the firm’s ecosystem, with rivals eclipsing them for photography, battery life, and overall value. That means the Galaxy S26 had plenty of room for improvement. Here are some of the areas I’d like to see Samsung focus on for 2026:
Silicon-carbon battery tech, faster charging, and Qi2
Ever since the Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco, Samsung has understandably been cautious when it comes to battery improvements. The firm has been now been properly left behind by rivals, who are using newer silicon-carbon chemistry to pack in huge capacity batteries into phones without a weight or thickness penalty. Being able to last a single day per charge just won’t cut it in 2026 – especially if charging speeds don’t also improve.
25W refuelling for the vanilla Galaxy S25 would be a real stumble now that the iPhone 17 can manage 45W, regardless of what the Android competition coming out of China can manage. Samsung really needs to get on board with Qi2 magnetic charging too, now that Google has made it mainstream with the Pixel 10.
New camera hardware
While Samsung’s image processing is undoubtedly very good, the resulting snaps go heavy on HDR and lack the filmic look recent rivals have earned praise for. Its sensors are rarely ever the largest or most technically capable any more, with the ultrawide usually at the bottom of the pile and the telephoto not enough of a step up. With several years of only minor changes, it’s time a Galaxy S flagship was able to compete with the Pros and Ultras of the Android world for sensor size and light-gathering ability.
Give Galaxy AI a rest
I get it, Samsung must’ve invested millions in making its suite of artificial intelligence features – and will surely keep banging the drum until users can be convinced to pay for access. But there wasn’t a great deal worth shouting about with last year’s round up Galaxy AI upgrades, and I’m expecting 2026 to be a similar story. The computing world has realised customers don’t care enough about AI to buy laptops and desktops specifically for things like Microsoft Copilot, so why should phones be any different? Add a few new features, sure, but make them a footnote of the launch presentation, not the crux of it.
- Related: The entire history of Samsung Galaxy smartphones
