Samsung Galaxy S26 review

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Introduction and specs

With the Galaxy S26 Ultra review and the Galaxy S26 Plus review out of the way, it's now time to turn our attention to the regular Galaxy S26, which is one of the few compact flagship phones out there, especially in some markets like the US.

However, for yet another year, the Galaxy S series gets a modest upgrade, so we don't foresee any surprises with the vanilla S26.

On the other hand, the vanilla Galaxy S26 proper arguably gets a couple of extra upgrades compared to the Galaxy S26 Plus. Besides the yearly chipset upgrade, we also get a larger 4,300 mAh battery, which might be a modest jump from the 4,000 mAh last year, but it's still more than what the S26 Plus got from Santa.

Speaking of chipset upgrades, Samsung returns to its dual-chip strategy after pausing for the Galaxy S25 family last year. In markets outside of the USA, China and Japan, the regular S26 and the Galaxy S26+ (like our review units) use the latest Exynos 2600 SoC. We are about to see how it stacks against last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon and against the S26 Ultra's SD 8 Elite Gen 5.

And finally, another minute change in the Galaxy S26 is the display size, which has now grown to 6.3", up from 6.2" last year. However, fancy features like the anti-reflective DX coating and the Privacy Display remain an Ultra-exclusive.

Samsung Galaxy S26 specs at a glance:

• Body: 149.6x71.7x7.2mm, 167g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), aluminum frame; IP68 dust-tight and water resistant (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min), Armor aluminum 2 frame.
• Display: 6.30" Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 2600 nits (peak), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 411ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3 nm) - US/CN, Exynos 2600 (2 nm) - Rest of World (and our review unit): Octa-core (2x4.74 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6x3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M) - US/CN, 10-core (1x3.80GHz C1-Ultra & 3x3.25GHz C1-Pro & 6x2.75GHz C1-Pro) - ROW; Adreno 840 - US/CN, Xclipse 960 - ROW.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.X.
• OS/Software: Android 16, up to 7 major Android upgrades, One UI 8.5.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 10 MP, f/2.4, 67mm, 1/3.94", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55" 1.4µm, Super Steady video.
• Front camera: 12 MP, f/2.2, 23mm (wide), 1/3.2", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 4300mAh; 25W wired, PD3.0, 55% in 30 min, 15W wireless (Qi2 Ready), 4.5W reverse wireless.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4; NFC.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); stereo speakers; Samsung DeX, Samsung Wireless DeX (desktop experience support).

As for the rest of the hardware, it's largely the same. The main camera is still 50MP, joined by a 10MP 3x telephoto unit and a 12MP ultrawide one. The device also relies on the same 25W wired and 15W wireless charging as before.

To make up for the lack of hardware upgrades, Samsung is directing its effort toward Galaxy AI and improving the software experience as a whole.

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy S26

The Galaxy S26 ships in a standard retail box, containing only the quick start guide as well as a USB-C to USB-C cable for data transfer and charging.

There is no charger in the box, and since this phone is rated to charge at a maximum of 25W, practically any USB-PD charger would do the job just fine.