Samsung Galaxy S26: Your ultimate guide

Slightly later than usual, Samsung has unveiled its latest series of flagship Galaxy phones for the year, bringing with them a handful of changes that, if we’re being honest, weren’t much of a surprise. Nevertheless, the Galaxy S26 range is official and we can bring you all the final details in this ultimate guide.

Although they were hardly the most innovative phones compared to their immediate predecessors, the Galaxy S25, the S25+ and the S25 Ultra were all great phones in their own right, and with Samsung’s promise of seven years of software updates, not to mention the various improvements to OneUI that we’ve seen as of late, the handsets provided quite a compelling case to new adopters.

Due to initial rumours about the S26 being replaced by an all-new ‘S26 Pro’, and the Plus model getting dumped entirely for the now canned S26 Edge, we had hoped that this generation of Samsung flagships would bring a ton of change along with it, and although that clearly hasn’t come to fruition with a more ‘business as usual’ approach, there are still some upgrades that are well worth knowing about.

After all, if you’re upgrading from a much older device, like the Samsung Galaxy S23 or below, then you might be tempted to pick up one of these newer phones, or see if you can save some cash by opting for the Galaxy S25 range, as it’ll now be available for much less. With that in mind, we’ve put together this guide to highlight the key changes in the S26 range, how much these phones cost and when you can expect to buy them.

Read our full S26 reviews:

• Samsung Galaxy S26+ review
• Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

Samsung Galaxy S26: What’s new?

Samsung’s all-new Privacy Display

Here’s a feature that drummed up so much interest via leaks and rumours that Samsung pretty much confirmed its existence long before the Galaxy S26 phones were unveiled. The company has developed an ingenious bit of display tech which can block out segments of the screen to those who might be viewing it from a side-on perspective.

The idea behind Privacy Display is that it can be used to stop people around you from seeing sensitive information, whether that be a notification about a payment that’s just been sent to your account, or you’re simply reading a saucy novel. What’s impressive is that the feature can be customised to block out certain sections of the display whilst leaving the rest of it as is.

Given just how much we rely on our smartphones for our finances, this is a huge win for on the go security and we won’t be too surprised if other manufacturers start to implement their own version of the feature in the near future, but there’s one big caveat with Samsung’s implementation that needs to be understood: it’s only available on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This unfortunately means that you won’t be getting the same level of display security with the standard Galaxy S26 or the S26+, which is a bummer for those who don’t have the budget to cover the S26 Ultra’s fairly lofty price tag.

Read our Galaxy S26 Ultra hands-on

Sporadic changes to battery life and charging

Although Samsung’s flagship phones typically have smaller batteries than most of the competition, they’re able to rely on highly optimised software to go further than you’d expect during everyday use, making them great options for most people.

However, we were hoping that Samsung might look to invest more in battery tech given the leaps we’ve seen recently from the OnePlus 15 and the Oppo Find X9 Pro. There are some changes this time around, but it seems as if Samsung only got half of the memo.

Of all the phones coming out, only the entry-level S26 has seen any sort of change to battery capacity, jumping from 4000mAh to 4300mAh. Although that’s hardly a major leap, because of Samsung’s ability to make its batteries go the distance, it should offer more flexibility to those who like to enjoy a spot of mobile gaming when the mood strikes.

In terms of charging speeds, there are some upgrades but mostly for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Instead of capping out at 45W, users can now top up the phone at 60W over a wired connection which should mean less time spent waiting around for a full charge. Wireless also jumps from 15- to 25W, which also applies to the S26+.

What’s arguably most surprising here is the lack of magnetic Qi2 wireless charging. It’s a glaring omission, as it’s readily available on the Pixel 10 range and the iPhone range for years, known as MagSafe.

Slightly better cameras for just one phone

When it comes to camera tech, the upgrades here are even more sparse than on the battery front. A bit like with the new secure display feature, it’s only the S26 Ultra that sees any type of attention here.

Megapixel counts are completely unchanged as the S25 Ultra has almost the exact same quad-camera set-up as its predecessor, but what has changed are the aperture counts on the 200Mp wide-angle lens and the 50Mp telephoto sensor, moving to f/1.4 and f/2.9, respectively.

What this change should amount to is better low-light performance when using either of those lenses, so if you’re the type of person who loves to document a night out then this could be right up your street.

Faster chipsets and a return to Exynos

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone given that it’s the one change that can always be counted on with each new generation of Samsung phones, but there’s a new array of chipsets in town that should pave the way for more efficient performance.

What is slightly surprising is that Samsung has moved back to using its in-house Exynos CPUs on some phones after having Snapdragon chips on every S25 handset around the world.

This time around the Galaxy S26 and the S26+ will have the new Exynos 2600 chipset in certain regions like the UK, whilst the S26 Ultra will have the slightly tweaked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy CPU.

Although this might be cause for concern to some regarding the power of the S26 and S26+, everything we’ve heard so far points towards a major breakthrough in performance for Exynos that should help to close the gap.

Of course, we won’t know exactly how powerful the chipset is until we get the phones in for testing, but the fact that it’s been built on a far more efficient 2nm process speaks volumes over what we can expect.

An ever-so slight design tweak

Here’s something that you might miss if your eyes only glance over the new S26 phones – there is a minor change in the design to help you identify these phones from the pack.

Aside from the new colourways that are available, like Cobalt Violet, each of these devices now has a raised camera bar on the back, not too dissimilar to the camera plateau that Apple has made use of on the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone Air.

Goodbye 128GB

Another area where Samsung has sought to mirror Apple’s strategy – the brand has now completely moved away from offering 128GB models for any of its mainline phones with the S26 now available with a starting configuration of 256GB.

There is a trade-off with that as you’ll discover further down in our pricing section, but it is interesting to see the industry at large recognising that in 2026, 128GB just isn’t enough for storing apps, videos and more.

OneUI 8.5 is here in earnest

While a few beta testers have been able to access an ‘in progress’ version of Samsung’s new Android overlay, OneUI 8.5 makes its full debut, right out of the box on the Galaxy S26 range.

OneUI 8.5 already stands on the outstanding aesthetic changes brought about with OneUI 7 but this time around there are a few helpful features to improve everyday usability. For example, Bixby is getting a big AI-infused update that allows it to more seamlessly respond to typical conversations, and it can even be used to tweak the settings of the new phones via voice commands.

Elsewhere, you can have it set so that calls go straight to voicemail over a certain period of time, so if you need to lock in and be productive, you won’t have to worry about being distracted by incoming calls.

Here is the full table of specs for the S26 range:

Model	Galaxy S26	Galaxy S26+	Galaxy S26 Ultra
Display	6.3-inch, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 2340 x 1080 pixels, 120 Hz, Corning Gorilla Armor 2	6.7-inch, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 3120 x 1440 pixels, 120 Hz, Corning Gorilla Armor 2	6.9-inch, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 3120 x 1440 pixels, 120 Hz, Corning Gorilla Armor 2
Software	One UI 8.5 / Android 16	One UI 8.5 / Android 16	One UI 8.5 / Android 16
Chipset	Exynos 2600 Deca-Core CPU; 1x C1-Ultra 3.9 GHz, 3x C1-Prox 3.25 GHz, 6x C1-Prox 2.75 GHz	Exynos 2600 Deca-Core CPU; 1x C1-Ultra 3.9 GHz, 3x C1-Prox 3.25 GHz, 6x C1-Prox 2.75 GHz	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Octa-Core CPU; 2x 4.74 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6x 3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M
Memory and storage	12 GB; 256/512 GB	12 GB; 256/512 GB	12/16 GB; 256/512/1024 GB
Rear cameras	1st Camera 50 MP main, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56″, 1.0μm, Dual-Pixel PDAF, OIS 2nd Camera 10 MP telephoto, f/2.4, 67mm, 1/3.94″, 1.0μm, PDAF, OIS, 3x Optical Zoom 3rd Camera 12 MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 13mm, 120°, 1/2.55″, 1.4μm, Super Steady Video	1st Camera 50 MP main, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56″, 1.0μm, Dual-Pixel PDAF, OIS 2nd Camera 10 MP telephoto, f/2.4, 67mm, 1/3.94″, 1.0μm, PDAF, OIS, 3x Optical Zoom 3rd Camera 12 MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 13mm, 120°, 1/2.55″, 1.4μm, Super Steady Video	1st Camera 200 MP main, f/1.4, 24mm (wide), 1/1.3″, 0.6μm, Multidirectional PDAF, OIS 2nd Camera 50 MP periscope telephoto, f/2.8, 111mm, 1/2.52″, 0.7μm, PDAF, OIS, 5× optical zoom 3rd Camera 50 MP ultrawide, f/1.9, 120°, 1/2.5″, 0.7μm, Dual-Pixel PDAF, Super Steady Video 4th Camera 10 MP telephoto, 1/3.94″, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
Features	Panorama, Portrait, 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, HDR10+, Stereo Sound, Gyro-EIS	Panorama, Portrait, 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, HDR10+, Stereo Sound, Gyro-EIS	Panorama, Portrait, 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, HDR10+, Stereo Sound, Gyro-EIS
Front camera	12 MP wide-angle, f/2.2, 26mm, 1/3.2″, 1.12μm, dual-pixel PDAF, HDR, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps	12 MP wide-angle, f/2.2, 26mm, 1/3.2″, 1.12μm, dual-pixel PDAF, HDR, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps	12 MP wide-angle, f/2.2, 26mm, 1/3.2″, 1.12μm, dual-pixel PDAF, HDR, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps
Sensors	Gyroscope, E-compass, Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Proximity Sensor	Gyroscope, E-compass, Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Proximity Sensor	Gyroscope, E-compass, Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Proximity Sensor
Satellite	GLONASS, GPS, Galileo, QZSS, BDS	GLONASS, GPS, Galileo, QZSS, BDS	GLONASS, GPS, Galileo, QZSS, BDS
Dual SIM	Nano/eSIM	Nano/eSIM	Nano/eSIM
Features	5G, USB-C, NFC, Wi-Fi 7 (be), Bluetooth 5.4, Face ID, Stereo	5G, USB-C, NFC, Wi-Fi 7 (be), Bluetooth 5.4, Face ID, Stereo	5G, USB-C, NFC, Wi-Fi 7 (be), Bluetooth 5.4, Face ID, Stereo
Battery	4300 mAh Li-ion, wireless charging, 25W wired charging	4900 mAh Li-ion, wireless charging, 45W wired charging	5000 mAh Li-ion, wireless charging, 60W wired charging
Dimensions	149.6 x 71.7 x 7.2 mm	158.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm	163.6 x 78.1 x 7.9 mm
Weight	167g	~ 190g	214g
Colours	Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, White, Silver Shadow, Pink Gold	Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, White, Silver Shadow, Pink Gold	Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, White, Silver Shadow, Pink Gold

When is the Samsung Galaxy S26 release date?

You can now order a Samsung Galaxy S26 with an official release date of 11 March, though Amazon went early in some markets, shipping devices from 6 March.

This March release date pretty much corresponds to all that we heard in the run-up to this event, and it also marks a slightly later date than usual as the last few Galaxy refreshes have come to market in either January or February.

How much does the Samsung Galaxy S26 cost?

Given that Samsung has mostly stuck to its guns in terms of pricing over the last couple of years, we had hoped that the brand might look to absorb any uptick in production cost amidst a fairly turbulent time for the global economy, but that’s not the case.

For the first time in a while, the mainline Samsung Galaxy phones are getting a price increase.

At the entry level, the standard Galaxy S26 will now set you back £879 and upwards. This is for 256GB of storage, as there’s no longer a 128GB model, but it’s still £20 more than the same S25 model.

The S26+ and the S26 Ultra now start at the higher costs of £1,099 and £1,279 respectively, so you’ll be paying more no matter which model you get.

To help mitigate the new prices, Samsung is offering its usual pre-order deal, where you can get double the storage at no extra cost, and there are trade-in offers available alongside it for a limited time.

Samsung Galaxy S26 prices

• 256GB – £879/$879.99
• 512GB – £1,049/$TBC

Samsung Galaxy S26+ prices

• 256GB – £1,099/$1,099.99
• 512GB -£1,269/$TBC

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra prices

• 256GB – £1,279/$1,299.99
• 512GB – £1,449/$TBC
• 1TB – £1,699/$TBC