Samsung Galaxy S26+ review

Display

Samsung did not change a thing about the display of the Galaxy S26+. It is the same exact 6.7-inch size as last year's model with a 120Hz refresh rate, LTPO tech, HDR10+ support and an advertised peak brightness of 2,800 nits.

That said, it's not like we are complaining. Samsung's displays remain one of the best in the industry, and the panel in question is very competent indeed.

One advantage the plus model maintains over the vanilla is display resolution: 1440 x 3120 pixels (QHD+) on the S26+, compared to 1080 x 2340 (FullHD+) on the vanilla S26.

We did our standardized array of tests and measured around 755 nits of max brightness by maxing out the slider. That's with the "Extra brightness" toggle enabled. Without it, we got around 510 nits. Neither is particularly great for outdoor use, so we recommend using the automatic brightness adjustment. With it, we measured a very respectable 1,498 nits in a 75% window and 2,596 nits in a 10% window. Both figures are more than plenty to be usable and even pleasant in bright sunlight, and also plenty for a good HDR experience.

The minimum brightness at point white was just 1 nit.

The Galaxy S26+ offers two refresh rate modes - Adaptive and Standard. Despite the naming, both modes are actually dynamic and will adjust the refresh rate depending on the content on screen. The difference is that Adaptive can scale all the way up to 120Hz, while Standard tops out at 60Hz. Naturally, compatible games can take advantage of the full 120Hz when Adaptive mode is enabled. There are some additional settings for games in the Game Booster menu, and you can force 60Hz on your games if that is what you want. Also, despite all of the settings, some games still refused to push past the 60fps mark, so high refresh rate gaming is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.

Adaptive mode is also more aggressive in matching the refresh rate to the frame rate of video content for smoother playback. Standard mode, on the other hand, tends to stick to fixed values and will usually lock video playback to either 30Hz or 60Hz instead of dynamically adapting.

The screen will drop to a minimum of 1Hz for static content, regardless of the mode.

Samsung has also added a couple of software tricks aimed at improving the visual experience. One of them is ProScaler, which enhances perceived sharpness and contrast for both images and text, even when the content itself isn't rendered at the display's native resolution. The feature works across images and videos alike, helping lower-resolution content appear a bit crisper.

Then there is mDNIe, Samsung's display processing engine that dates back at least to the S25 generation. In this implementation, it focuses on smoothing out color gradients to produce more pleasing transitions and softer shades. Of course, one could argue that opting for a native 10-bit or even 12-bit panel would have been a more straightforward way to achieve smoother gradients in the first place.

Finally, the Galaxy S26+ supports HDR10 and HDR10+, with no Dolby Vision on board, which is par for the course for Samsung devices. Both YouTube and Netflix served HDR streams without issue during our testing, with Netflix also delivering FullHD playback thanks to the phone's Widevine L1 certification.

The phone also supports the Android Ultra HDR standard. This allows compatible photos with embedded metadata to display brighter highlights and improved dynamic range. The feature works not only within Samsung's own Gallery app, but also in Google Photos and even in the Chrome browser when viewing supported images.

Battery life

The Galaxy S26 Plus has the same 4,900 mAh battery capacity as last year's S25+. It is almost identical to the 5,000 mAh that the Ultra has at its disposal. For one reason or another, Samsung is still refusing to use modern chemistry in its batteries, and we are stuck with Li-Ion for yet another generation.

Even so, the Korean giant has managed to achieve better battery life through optimizations elsewhere. In our standardized testing, the S26+ managed about 16:25 hours of Active Use Score, which is notably better than the 14:26 hours of the S25+. It is also practically identical to the 16:23 hours of Active Use Score on the S26 Ultra, though with a slightly different number distribution. Bottom line, though, if you are a heavy user, the S26+ will comfortably get you through the day with a bit of battery to spare, and if you don't reach for your phone too often, you can realistically push two days on a single charge.

Charging speed

Samsung finally upgraded the charging speed this year, but unfortunately, it limited said upgrade to the S26 Ultra. The S26+ still gets 45W charging, which is still faster (though not by much) than the 25W charging on the vanilla S26.

The 45W charging tech Samsung is using is based on PD+PPS, and since last year, it can reach those watts with a 3A cable/charger. If you are getting a third-party charging adapter, make sure it supports the needed PPS profile.

As for actual charging speeds, it hardly comes as a surprise that the S26 Plus still charges in almost exactly an hour on the dot. It's a far cry from the charging rates some competitors are pushing, but it's also not abysmally slow in absolute terms. Plus, there is a case to be made about battery longevity and slower charging.

In terms of battery protection features, Samsung has its long-standing charging limiters. There is a Basic one that lets the phone charge to 100% but then cuts off charging until the battery level drops to 95%. You can also go for Maximum protection mode and set a charge limiter to a specific level below 100%. There is also an optional smart charging toggle that charges the phone from zero to 80% and then waits while you are asleep, and only tops off the phone before you wake up, so it will spend less time at 100% charge. Nothing spectacular, but all the bases are covered.

Speakers - loudness and quality

The Galaxy S26+ features a stereo speaker setup of the hybrid kind. There is a primary speaker at the bottom of the phone, while the earpiece doubles as the second channel. As is typical for this arrangement, the earpiece is the quieter of the two and mainly handles higher frequencies and mid-tones, while the bottom-firing speaker delivers most of the volume along with the bass and fuller vocals.

The Galaxy S26+ also supports Dolby Atmos with Movie, Music, Voice and Auto presets. There is also a specific Dolby Atmos for Games option.

While the speaker system hasn't really changed drastically from the S25+ or the S24+ before that, in an interesting twist, the S26+ has become a tad quieter. It's not particularly noticeable in real life, even if you have the devices side by side.

The audio quality is still solid through and through. Vocals and speech sound great, and highs are well-preserved even at higher volume levels. We also see an improvement over last year's model. The vocals and highs are not overpowering, but presented in a more balanced manner along with the bass, which in turn makes tracks sound warmer and fuller than before. We definitely liked the new tuning better.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Connectivity

The Galaxy S26 Plus is, of course, a 5G device. It has simultaneous SA/NSA Sub-6 connectivity on both of its Nano SIM slots. That's true for the international version, which has two slots. The US one only has a single slot. Both versions come with eSIM support, but you can still only have two cards active at a time. The S26 series also offers satellite connectivity, but things are a bit messy on that front. In the US, Verizon offers eSOS and messaging on the S25 and S26 series, and AT&T is hopping on board, too. In Europe, there is a pilot program in Spain through MasOrange, and Vodafone is a future partner for the tech but beyond those carriers, you don't get the feature supported.

The S26+ has GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO and QZSS for location services. There is tri-band Wi-Fi 7, which means access to the still largely unutilized 6GHz spectrum. Bluetooth is version 6 with LE support. There is also NFC on board and Ultra Wideband (UWB) support. No IR blaster or FM radio either.

The Type-C port is backed up by a USB SuperSpeed (USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1/3.2 Gen 1) connection, which means a theoretical maximum data throughput of 5 Gbps. There is also DisplayPort 1.2 video output over USB Alt mode and the Samsung DeX desktop environment to go along - arguably the industry's most mature offering. There is OTG/Host support, of course, as well.

The S26+ has a full set of onboard sensors. There is an STM LSM6DSVTR accelerometer and gyroscope combo, an Asahi AK09920C magnetometer and compass combo, a Sitronic STK33F11 light sensor, a Bosch BMP580 barometer and a Samsung-branded Palm proximity sensor 2. The latter functions more like a virtual proximity than a hardware one since it can not be read by third-party applications, just in case that matters to you.