Samsung Galaxy S26 hands-on: A lot more of the same for a little more money

As we prepare to leave the winter months, Samsung announced another family of Galaxy S flagships for those looking to upgrade. As usual, the company put its best components and features into the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it also added more to the base S26 and S26+. The company has hit its groove with its smaller (and cheaper) flagships, delivering solid devices with increasingly better cameras, occasionally even offering feature parity with its most expensive smartphone.

In 2026, that’s what we’re getting, with the 6.3-inch S26 ($899) and 6.7-inch S26+ ($1,099). Both phones are more expensive than last year, and it’s often a game of spot-the-difference when it comes to showing what’s new.

Fortunately, the best parts have been retained, too. Samsung has unified the design style across the entire S26 series, with the same corner ratios, curved edges and other design touches. While I tested both phones, I’ll focus on the S26. Barring screen differences and battery size, they’re identically specced.

This year’s S26 color selection has a premium Samsung ‘mood’ to it that I can’t quite explain. Does purple mean Samsung to my brain? Maybe. Cobalt Violet is the particular shade I’m talking about, but there are also blue, black and white colors. Additional silver and pink-gold options will be available as online exclusives. There’s not much else to say about the design: it’s another Galaxy S flagship, and if it ain’t broke…

Mat Smith for Engadget

Samsung has increased the battery capacity to 4,300 mAh on the S26, while somehow maintaining the same thickness as last year’s S25. However, the S26+ has the same 4,900mAH battery as its predecessor. All S26 devices will launch with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, with bigger storage options available. With the S26, Samsung has slightly increased the screen size to 6.3 inches, up from last year's 6.2-inch S25.

The S26 comes with a familiar camera trio: a 50-megapixel main sensor, 12MP ultrawide, and 10MP telephoto with up to 3x optical zoom. On paper, that’s identical to last year’s base S25. However, Samsung has improved performance with its ProScaler technology for upscaling images and an MDNIe chip, which the company says provides four times the color precision compared to previous devices.

There are software improvements too, with video features being the most tangible upgrade, among more AI-assisted photo editing tools. Super Steady video has been upgraded to a 360-degree horizontal lock. This camera mode uses the S26’s gyroscopes to maintain a consistent horizon even as you rush to chase a pet or family member while recording, or to capture snowboarding buddies. (There’s always a snowboarding example when a company mentions horizontal lock.) It’s nice to see a feature we’re used to finding on gimbals and action cams built into an unashamedly mainstream phone like the S26.

Auto Framing is another new feature coming to both 4K and 8K video capture. It uses AI to lock onto subjects and automatically tighten framing to what you want to capture. Even during brief testing, I was intrigued and liked the dramatic punch-in effect as I recorded nearby people. It creates a faux-panning effect as it tracks moving subjects, something you might have experienced with Center Stage on Apple devices.

Samsung has also upgraded image processing on its front-facing cameras with a new Object Aware Engine for improved portrait mode shots, hair textures and more accurate skin tones. Based on my early testing, images seemed sharper than on my older Samsung devices, even though this is (again) largely the same 12MP camera as last year.

With processors, it's getting a little more complicated. In the US, Samsung's entire S26 series will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, but in Europe, both the S26 and S26+ will be powered by the company’s own Exynos 2600, apparently the world’s first 2nm chipset. Comparing it to Snapdragon’s top mobile processor, however, will have to wait until review time.

With more power for AI functions, Samsung has continued to evolve and expand its AI software, although it seems less of a priority this year. Only one AI feature stood out during my briefing: Audio Eraser. While this launched on the S25, it only worked on audio and video you captured yourself. Now, Samsung expanded it to most major video platforms, including Netflix, Instagram and YouTube, adding the ability to strip out noise and distractions and amplify the volume of voices. It was especially effective with a rowdy replay of an Arsenal football soccer match, and sounded like I was listening to a dedicated commentary channel. Interestingly, unlike many sound editing apps and features, it will work on downloaded videos on those platforms without an internet connection.

Elsewhere, Now Nudge will attempt to suggest actions based on what’s happening onscreen, such as sharing contact numbers with someone or suggesting calendar times while dealing with work emails. Samsung’s Now Brief can pull information and notifications from a wider array of apps and sources to deliver in its daily briefings. However, again, that’s hard to assess at this early stage.

There are several more quality–of-life software updates, too, like the ability to sift through all those screenshots after they’ve been automatically categorized into sections like barcodes, events and more. If you can’t get enough AI image generation, you can now use Photo Assist to edit your photos using descriptive prompts. Elsewhere, Circle-to-Search now supports multiple, well, circles, if you’re looking to tag and search for multiple objects at once.

Mat Smith for Engadget

It’s not the most exciting year for Samsung’s smaller flagship phones. While the S26 Ultra can boast a new Privacy Display that’s the first of its kind, the rest of the S26 family have a little too much in common with their predecessors. The new video features seem useful and intuitive, so there’s more to explore there. We’ll have more to say in our full reviews soon.

Both the Galaxy S26 and S26+ launch on March 11th and are available to preorder now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s26-hands-on-launch-date-price-180005654.html?src=rss