{"id":431326,"date":"2026-05-17T01:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431326\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:05:13","slug":"weekly-deals-the-galaxy-s26-series-is-on-sale-motorola-razr-2026-series-goes-on-pre-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431326\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly deals: the Galaxy S26 series is on sale, Motorola Razr 2026 series goes on pre-order"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Samsung Galaxy S26+ (256GB) is currently $890 on Amazon \u2013 that\u2019s a bit lower than we\u2019ve seen it at for the past few weeks<\/a> and $200+ off on a phone that\u2019s less than three months old is a solid discount.<\/p>\n

That said, the 2026 model doesn\u2019t bring many updates<\/a> over its predecessor \u2013 there\u2019s the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the slightly faster wireless charging (20W vs. 15W, though still without magnets). Meanwhile, many flagship features are still missing, things like a high resolution sensor in the telephoto camera, 10-bit colors for the display or an IP69 rating (though that last one is mostly for bragging rights).<\/p>\n


\n \"Samsung
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

So, you could consider last year\u2019s Samsung Galaxy S25+, which offers a largely similar experience at $700 \u2013 that\u2019s $190 less than the S26+ for 256GB storage and the gap is a bit bigger if you look at 512GB phones. The S26+ does offer longer battery life (16:25h Active Use Score vs. 14:26h), the new chipset has more oomph, the speakers are nicer and there are a few small camera upgrades. You can read about these things in detail in our Galaxy S25+ vs. Galaxy S26+ article<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n \"Samsung
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

There are two reasons to buy the vanilla Galaxy S phone \u2013 one is because you want the small Galaxy S model, the other is because you want the cheap Galaxy S model. The former is still true, even after Samsung bumped the display up to a 6.3\u201d diagonal. The latter is true too, though only barely \u2013 there is only $65 separating the 512GB versions of the S26 and S26+.<\/p>\n


\n \"Samsung
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. This one got most of the upgrades this generation, including the unique Privacy Display. You can see how the S26 Ultra compares with the S26+ here<\/a>. The $200 discount is solid (again, it has been less than three months since launch), but the S26 Ultra is still one of the pricier models on the US market.<\/p>\n


\n \"Samsung
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Last week<\/a>, the Samsung Galaxy A37 got its first real discount \u2013 $50 off. It wasn\u2019t huge, but it was a start and the price keeps trending down. This week the base 6\/128GB model is $75 off. However, the 8\/256GB upgrade hasn\u2019t really budged. That\u2019s the one you want unless you are willing to compromise \u2013 the extra RAM and storage will make a big difference over the six-year life of this phone. Or you could wait for a deal on the Galaxy A57.<\/p>\n


\n \"Samsung
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Motorola Razr 2026 trio is available for pre-order \u2013 they will start shipping on May 21 (Thursday). We\u2019ll give a brief overview of each, but we\u2019ll save the best for last.<\/p>\n

Not much has changed with the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 since last year \u2013 not even the chipset, it\u2019s still a Snapdragon 8 Elite. The battery is a bit larger at 5,000mAh (+300mAh) and the screen a bit brighter at 5,000 nits (+500 nits), but it\u2019s a fairly minor upgrade overall.<\/p>\n


\n \"Motorola
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The Motorola Razr+ 2026 is in a weird spot \u2013 it\u2019s a minor improvement<\/a> over the Razr+ 2024 from two years ago. It has a bigger battery (4,500mAh vs. 4,000mAh) and a new 50MP ultra-wide camera (which is arguably more useful than the 2x\/47mm telephoto of the older model), but that\u2019s about it. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset is great for a flagship killer, but not for a $1,100 phone.<\/p>\n


\n \"Motorola
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The Motorola Razr 2026 doesn\u2019t break from the pack and is an iterative upgrade<\/a> at best. It brings a 300mAh bump to the battery (4,800mAh total) and its ultra-wide camera now has a 50MP sensor (up from 13MP). However, the Dimensity 7450X<\/a> only offers a small modem upgrade over the 7400X and the Dimensity 7400X<\/a> itself wasn\u2019t all that different from the 7300X.<\/p>\n


\n \"Motorola
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

As promised, here\u2019s the best option among the current flock of Razr phones \u2013 last year\u2019s flagship, the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. It is cheaper than the three models above, even the vanilla one, which only has half of the RAM and storage. It has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip as the Ultra 2026 while costing less than half. While there are Ultra 2025 units available at this price, the 2026 Ultra would be a tough sell.<\/p>\n


\n \"Motorola
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

We may get a commission from qualifying sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Samsung Galaxy S26+ (256GB) is currently $890 on Amazon \u2013 that\u2019s a bit lower than we\u2019ve seen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-431326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}