{"id":469672,"date":"2026-03-11T13:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469672\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:24:16","slug":"samsung-galaxy-s26-and-s26-plus-review-this-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469672\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus review: This again"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Samsung has treated its Flips<\/a> and Folds<\/a> to a few major hardware upgrades over recent years, the Galaxy S flagships have often felt like a long, unbroken line of minor spec refreshes. The S26 and S26 Plus do nothing to change that trend.<\/p>\n

The Galaxy S26 Ultra at least benefits from the company\u2019s new privacy display<\/a>, but the two smaller S26 phones lack a killer hardware feature. They both have new chipsets, and the S26 gets a bigger battery while the Plus has faster wireless charging, but these are tiny tweaks, not wholesale upgrades. Perhaps most disappointingly, Samsung hasn\u2019t followed Google in adding magnetic Qi2 charging to the phones themselves.<\/p>\n

That makes this year\u2019s phones barely better than the models they\u2019re replacing. Oh, and did I mention they cost more too?<\/p>\n

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

$900<\/p>\n

The GoodRelatively compact sizeBigger battery than last year\u2019sSeven years of software updatesThe BadBasic cameras for a flagshipNot much has changed in a few yearsNo Qi2 magnets in the phone\"Photo<\/a>\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

$1100<\/p>\n

The GoodBig screen if you like that sort of thingBigger battery and faster charging than the S26Seven years of software updatesThe BadBasic cameras for a flagshipNot much has changed in a few yearsNo Qi2 magnets in the phone<\/p>\n

The 6.3-inch S26 costs $899 with 256GB storage, while the 6.7-inch S26 Plus is $200 more with the same storage. Both are $100 more expensive than last year\u2019s phones, though in the S26\u2019s case that\u2019s partly because Samsung eliminated the 128GB starting model \u2014 though it\u2019s still $40 more than the 256GB S25. It\u2019s another $200 to upgrade to the Ultra, which is larger again but also includes upgraded cameras, that new privacy display, and Samsung\u2019s S Pen stylus.<\/p>\n

The S26 and S26 Plus look much the same as they did last year, with straightened sides and triple cameras in one corner. Those cameras are the only real visual change: they\u2019re now mounted on a raised oval camera island, matching the Galaxy Z Fold 7<\/a>. I prefer last year\u2019s design, which feels cleaner, but it\u2019s such a small change that it\u2019s hard to get worked up about it.<\/p>\n

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

The S26 cameras are now mounted on an oval island, which is the biggest change to the phones\u2019 designs.<\/p>\n

You might also notice that the S26 has grown. Its 6.3-inch display is fractionally larger than the S25<\/a>\u2019s 6.2-inch panel, which makes it taller, wider, and heavier than before. It\u2019s still as close as you\u2019ll get to a small phone \u2014 at 167g and 7.2mm, it\u2019s lighter and thinner than the iPhone 17<\/a> \u2014 but I miss when it was smaller still.<\/p>\n

What you get for that extra size is a bigger battery: 4,300mAh, up 300mAh from the S25, and closer to the 4,900mAh cell in the S26 Plus. I took the S26 with me around Mobile World Congress<\/a>, expecting the demanding use, long days, and intermittent Wi-Fi to tank the battery. Instead, I was surprised to find it held its own, lasting until bed every day but one, when my nerve broke and I reached for my power bank mid-evening. Neither phone is a powerhouse, and outside of the US Samsung risks falling behind its rivals, who are busy introducing capacious silicon-carbon batteries<\/a>, but even the regular S26 should be an all-day device.<\/p>\n

It would have been an easy win for Samsung to introduce Qi2 magnetic wireless charging, as Google did in its Pixel 10 phones<\/a>, but the company told us<\/a> it prefers to keep its phones thinner, assuming buyers will pick up a case with magnets in it anyway. Instead, Samsung gave the S26 Plus a modest boost to 20W Qi wireless charging, leaving the S26 at 15W. Along with the Plus\u2019s faster wired charging \u2014 45W compared to the S26\u2019s 25W \u2014 this is the only real upgrade you get from the bigger phone (it also has a more recent Bluetooth version and support for mmWave 5G that\u2019s lacking in the S26).<\/p>\n

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

The straight sides and rounded corners make the two phones comfortable to hold.<\/p>\n

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

Both phones have identical cameras this year.<\/p>\n

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

Samsung\u2019s daily Now Brief returns, and is still only sporadically helpful.<\/p>\n

Size aside, the displays are the same as last year, and lack the privacy display found in the Ultra. The chipsets have been refreshed for 2026, but while the S26 Ultra uses Qualcomm Snapdragon chips worldwide, the S26 and S26 Plus use a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5<\/a> in the US, but Samsung\u2019s own Exynos 2600 in most other markets. I\u2019m in the UK, and my Exynos-based phones have performed just fine, from frame rates to battery life, so buyers outside the US shouldn\u2019t have much to worry about.<\/p>\n

Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus camera specs<\/p>\n

Main: 50-megapixel f\/1.8 with OISTelephoto: 10-megapixel f\/2.4 3x zoom with OISUltrawide: 12-megapixel f\/2.2Selfie: 12-megapixel f\/2.2 with autofocus<\/p>\n

Samsung has stuck with the same camera hardware it used in last year\u2019s S25 phones. And the S24 handsets. Not to mention the S23 phones, which in turn featured very slight tweaks from the S22 line, giving Samsung five straight years of almost identical cameras. It\u2019s gotten good at wringing the most out of these sensors, but software has its limits. Daytime photos come out well, but highlights occasionally have an overprocessed sheen to them. Low light performance is average, with excessive brightening and smudgy halos around direct light. And while the telephoto is decently detailed, shots feel flat, without the extra depth you\u2019d hope for from the focal length. I could levy similar criticisms against US rivals like the iPhone 17 and Pixel 10, but internationally the competition is fiercer \u2014 the Xiaomi 17<\/a> outclasses the S26\u2019s camera lens for lens.<\/p>\n

1\/18Simple shots like this tend to look great.<\/p>\n

What the camera does get is horizontal lock: an amped up take on video stabilization that keeps footage almost perfectly oriented even if you move the phone, shake it, or turn it upside down. Like the regular stabilization it\u2019s capped at QHD resolution, and it\u2019s supported on both rear lenses, though not the selfie camera. There\u2019s certainly an element of artificiality to the final footage, with occasional distortions and shimmering as it tries to maintain stability, but the results still feel pretty extraordinary. I wouldn\u2019t use this for every video I shoot, but for action footage it\u2019s an obvious winner.<\/p>\n

So what else is actually new? Well, AI stuff, duh. A bunch of this really comes from Google: a smarter Circle to Search that can look up whole outfits at a time rather than single items of clothing, and a more agentic version of Gemini, capable of ordering Ubers and groceries for you, which is expected to arrive soon but isn\u2019t here yet. Samsung itself has added automatic call screening and scam protection, natural language AI photo edits, and an upgraded Bixby for conversational device controls.<\/p>\n

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

Circle to Search now lets you look up whole outfits at once.<\/p>\n

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

I used voice controls to add a lovely golden retriever to this photo of Xiaomi\u2019s MWC press conference, among other edits.<\/p>\n

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

Sometimes Bixby changes settings for you, sometimes it takes you to the page in the settings app, and sometimes it just dumps a big list of instructions.<\/p>\n

The latter works\u2026 mostly. It\u2019s good at interpreting questions related to the phone\u2019s settings (asking \u201chow do I get back the buttons at the bottom?\u201d correctly took me to navigation controls), but Bixby is hit and miss about which settings it can change itself \u2014 it would happily toggle on do not disturb or dark mode, but refused to actually switch between gesture controls and navigation buttons, only taking me to the settings page. Controls located outside the settings app confuse it entirely: it\u2019s incapable of reordering the App Drawer, adding or removing specific controls from Quick Settings, or adding app shortcuts to the homescreen. It is, in short, about as reliable as most AI software.<\/p>\n

The S26 and S26 Plus aren\u2019t bad phones, but they\u2019re undeniably familiar, and there\u2019s no reason to upgrade whether you own an S25, an S24, or even an S23. You\u2019re not getting a new camera, magnetic charging, or a substantially different design. The battery is a little bigger, the display a bit brighter, the chipset certainly faster \u2014 and of course there\u2019s much more AI, but plenty of those features are still working their way back to older phones. It\u2019s been three years since the S23, and other than higher prices, Samsung doesn\u2019t have much to show for it.<\/p>\n

Photography by Dominic Preston \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

Agree to Continue: Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus<\/p>\n

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it \u2014 contracts that no one actually reads. It\u2019s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit \u201cagree\u201d to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don\u2019t read and definitely can\u2019t negotiate.<\/p>\n

To use the Galaxy S26 or S26 Plus, you must agree to:<\/p>\n

Google Terms of Service<\/a>Google Play Terms of Service<\/a>Google Privacy Policy (included in ToS<\/a>)Install apps and updates: \u201cYou agree this device may also automatically download and install updates and apps from Google, your carrier, and your device\u2019s manufacturer, possibly using cellular data.\u201dSamsung End User Licence AgreementSamsung Privacy PolicySamsung Terms and Conditions<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a variety of optional agreements, including:<\/p>\n

Provide anonymous location data for Google\u2019s services\u201cAllow apps and services to scan for Wi-Fi networks and nearby devices at any time, even when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is off.\u201dSend usage and diagnostic data to GoogleGoogle Gemini Apps Privacy Notice if you opt in to using Gemini AssistantSend diagnostic data to SamsungSamsung personalized advertisingBixby personal data intelligence<\/p>\n

Other features, like Google Wallet, may require additional agreements.<\/p>\n

Final tally: seven mandatory agreements and more than seven optional agreements.<\/p>\n

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