Samsung will unveil its Galaxy S26 series on February 25 in San Francisco, and thanks to leaked press renders from Evan Blass, we already know what to expect. Spoiler: not much has changed.
Samsung Galaxy S26
The standard Galaxy S26 gets a slightly larger 6.3-inch screen and a bigger 4,300 mAh battery, but dimensions barely shift. The real story is the processor swap. Samsung is dropping Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips for its own Exynos 2600 in the base and Plus models. That’s a risky move, given the mixed reception Exynos chips have received in the past.
Samsung Galaxy S26+
The Galaxy S26 Plus is even less ambitious. It’s nearly identical to last year’s model, with the same size, weight, and battery. The only notable addition is Qi2.2 support for 25W magnetic wireless charging. Otherwise, it’s a carbon copy with the same Exynos processor and camera setup.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
The Ultra model is where Samsung shows at least some effort. It features rounder corners, a thinner profile, and slightly lighter build. More importantly, it’s the only variant getting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 globally, which should ease performance concerns. Camera tweaks include a smaller 3x zoom sensor and adjusted apertures, plus faster 60W wired charging.
All three phones will ship with One UI 8.5 based on Android 16 and feature anti-reflective displays, a practical upgrade that’s overdue on the standard models.
Samsung seems comfortable playing it safe this year. The S26 lineup won’t excite anyone looking for bold innovation, but it refines what already works. Whether that’s enough to justify an upgrade depends entirely on pricing, which remains the biggest unknown.
