Don’t make the mistake of pre-ordering a Galaxy S26 today

It’s only a few hours until Galaxy Unpacked starts and Samsung officially announces everything we’ve known for months about its latest Galaxy S26 line-up. The three phones should be immediately available for pre-order right after the announcement and while you’re ready to take your credit card out and plump down a hefty sum on Samsung’s latest and greatest, I urge you to take a deep breath and… don’t.

You should not pre-order the Galaxy S26 Ultra, let alone the Galaxy S26 or S26 Plus, and I have three big reasons to convince you of that.

Samsung’s pre-order incentives for Galaxy S and Z phones have been dwindling and becoming less and less attractive over the years. Things were good with the Galaxy S21 series; you typically received up to $200 Samsung credit and a free SmartTag tracker. Then, with the S22 series, this shot up to include a free storage upgrade, say from 128GB to 256GB, for example, as well as heavy discounts on Galaxy Buds or Watches. Over the years, Samsung started offering a choice between improved trade-in deals or store credit to be used immediately on another Samsung product. That was a good marketing spin to pretend it’s giving you a good deal when, in reality, it’s either paying you the real value of the phone it’s taking back or forcing you to buy more of its products.

On top of this, Samsung has been cutting down on every perk, too. Reservation credits — you know, the ones you get when you sign up early, before pre-orders are even live — have gone down from $50 to $30 this year. It’s such a pointless discount for being first in line before the line even opens. Instant store credit is now $150 instead of the $200 we saw a few years ago, but good news: trade-in benefits seem to be capped at the same $900.

However, all things point to the perk of free double storage going away this year for some of you. It’s nowhere to be seen on Samsung’s Unpacked page in the US, though it’s mentioned in other countries’ pages (UK, France, India, to name a few). So, in the US, the only incentive left could be the higher trade-in value for your existing phone, and at that point, is it really a perk? You can always sell your current phone at a second-hand marketplace for the same amount — or even more — that Samsung is willing to give you for it, without being tied to any trade-in requirements.

If those rumors end up being true and the incentives are all but gone, then what’s the point of pre-ordering the phone today? Being first and…?! There really is nothing to justify it from a financial point of view. Especially not when we’ve seen all the heavy discounts that Galaxy S phones experience in the months following their launch. I bet you that the three Galaxy S26 phones will see better deals and offers after a couple of months than anything in the pre-order perks. So, unless your current phone is dying and you need a replacement right away, my best advice is to wait. You’ll also have the benefit of seeing how good the S26 is from reviews and other users’ feedback.

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but everything we’ve heard about the Galaxy S26 series points out to pretty barebones upgrades — specifically for the base Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus. Earlier, we were hoping that Samsung was going to completely overhaul the series with a new Pro model and, potentially, a better Edge variant, but pricing woes and tougher competition forced the company to do a U-turn from those plans and stick to the original three-tier choice with an S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra.

Of course, nothing is certain yet, and these all may end up being false rumors. But the fact that many sources from many countries have all pointed to some price increase is worrying, especially when there’s little on the hardware side to justify asking for this much more for what is practically the same phone. Samsung’s explanation will likely be that both the S26 and S26 Plus models start at 256GB of storage instead of 128GB, so you’re effectively paying the same thing as you did last year for the higher storage variant, but we all know it’s the RAM shortage driving these prices up more than any extra storage ever should.

Whatever the reason, though, you’ll likely have to pay a higher entry fee to own what is essentially the same phone as last year. Of course, things are a bit different for the Ultra, which can at least justify a price hike with its new privacy display hardware.

We know about the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s privacy display as well as some small battery improvements and charging speed upgrades, but the reality of the matter, when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, is that Samsung is skipping any significant upgrades on its phones this year.

For one, Qi2 magnets aren’t built into the phones, but will only be provided through additional cases. That’s a blow to everyone who likes to carry their phone caseless and will, for sure, influence the availability of third-party Magsafe-compatible cases and accessories that are specifically designed for the S26 series. When magnets aren’t built in, accessory makers tend to forget you exist, and most users won’t know they can add them with a simple case; it’s nothing new.

I’ve seen this with previous Galaxy phones and Pixels, right until the Pixel 10 added built-in magnets. Samsung used to be at the forefront of hardware innovation, always adding features before anyone else, and somehow, Google, of all companies, has managed to one-up it on a hardware addition. Disappointing.

On top of this, there’s no sign of the huge Silicon Carbon battery upgrades that Xiaomi, HONOR, and other companies have adopted, and worse yet, Samsung seems to have demoted the cycle durability of its Lithium-ion battery from 2,000 cycles at 80% to 1,200 cycles. The one perk of Lithium-ion is sustained durability, and it’s getting a downgrade? Double the disappointment.

I wanted Samsung to lead the way, but it’s just drudging along this year, pretending a few AI features justify the lack of better hardware. They don’t. So if you want to vote with your wallet, skip the pre-order. Wait until this phone goes on sale in a few months or, better yet, check out last year’s Galaxy S25. It’ll sure receive some hefty discounts pretty soon.