There used to be countless companies making flagship Android phones, but a combination of factors over time have limited the field. Today, Samsung is the undisputed king of the Android device ecosystem with its Galaxy S line. So we can safely assume that today’s Unpacked has revealed the most popular Android phones for next year – the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26.
Samsung didn’t swing for the fences this time, producing a phone with some cosmetic tweaks and upgraded internals. Meanwhile, Samsung is investing even more in AI, saying the S26 series includes the first “agentic AI phones.” Despite limited hardware upgrades, the realities of component prices in the age of AI mean the prices of the two cheapest models have risen by $100 this year. The Ultra already sits at a staggering $1,300.
Faster and more private
Looking at the Galaxy S26 family, you’ll be hard-pressed to tell them apart from last year’s phones. Camera coverage is different, and the smallest and largest phones have slightly different measurements. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking, but the S26 Ultra has switched from titanium back to aluminum, a reversal Apple has also made with its latest high-end phones. The phone also retains its S Pen stylus.
| Specifications at a glance: Samsung Galaxy S26 series | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S26 ($900) | Galaxy S26+ ($1,100) | Galaxy S26 Ultra ($1,300) | |
| Society | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) |
| Memory | 12gb | 12gb | 12gb, 16gb |
| storage | 256 GB, 512 GB | 256 GB, 512 GB | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
| Display | 6.3-inch OLED, 10-bit color, 2340×1080, 1-120Hz | 6.7-inch OLED, 10-bit color, 3120×1440, 1-120Hz | 6.9-inch OLED, 10-bit color, 3120×1440, 1-120Hz, S Pen support |
| camera | 50MP primary, f/1.8, 1.0 μm; 12MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 1.4 μm, 10MP 3x telephoto, f/2.4, 1.0 μm; 12MP selfie, f/2.2, 1.12 μm | 50MP primary, f/1.8, 1.0 μm; 12MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 1.4 μm, 10MP 3x telephoto, f/2.4, 1.0 μm; 12MP selfie, f/2.2, 1.12 μm | 200MP primary, f/1.4, 0.6 μm; 50MP ultrawide, f/1.9, 0.7 μm; 10MP 3x telephoto, f/2.4, 1.12 μm; 50MP 5x telephoto, f/2.9, 0.7 μm; 12MP selfie, f/2.2, 1.12 μm |
| software | android 16 | android 16 | android 16 |
| Battery | 4,300 mAh | 4,900 mAh | 5,000 mAh |
| connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C 3.2, Sub6 5G | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C 3.2, Sub6 and mmWave 5G | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C 3.2, Sub6 and mmWave 5G |
| measurement | 71.7×149.6×7.2 mm, 167 grams | 75.8×158.4×7.3 mm, 190 grams | 78.1×163.6×7.9 mm, 214 grams |
These phones will again have the latest Snapdragon flagship processors (in North America, Japan and China) with special optimizations for Samsung. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 for the Galaxy is a 3nm chip with third-generation Orion CPU cores, an Adreno 840 GPU, and a powerful Hexagon NPU for on-device AI processing. Samsung promises double-digit performance gains across the board, as we hear every year.
Samsung’s flagship phones have extremely fast hardware, so they benchmark well. However, they quickly overheat and deform during continuous use. Perhaps this won’t be as big of a problem with the S26 series. Samsung says it has implemented its largest vapor chamber ever to better control temperatures.
<a href