Samsung Galaxy S26 review

6.3-inch LTPO OLED screen

The Galaxy S26 uses an almost identical display to the Galaxy S25's. It's now 6.3" in diagonal, up from 6.2", but offers mostly the same features and specs. Resolution is FHD+ (1080 x 2340px), refresh rate is 120Hz and HDR support caps at HDR10+.

There's no Dolby Vision or PWM dimming for users with sensitive eyes. There's also no Privacy Display on the vanilla or the Plus models, so if you are drawn by the said novelty, this year's Ultra is your only option.

There are two new additions to the feature set, though. Thanks to the powerful Exynos 2600 on board, Samsung developed a custom AP (Application Processing) that allows display features such as ProScaler and mDNIe.

ProScaler should enhance 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.

Galaxy S26

As expected, we don't see any changes to the display max brightness. With a 75% white patch on screen, the display reaches a maximum of 751 nits in manual mode and almost 1,400 nits in auto mode. With a 10% white patch, though, this shoots up to 2,552 nits. Both values are perfectly fine for excellent outdoor use and when playing HDR-capable content. Whereas minimum brightness was 0.9 nits, which is really low and some users who use their phone in a pitch-black room will appreciate.

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.

Refresh rate

The Galaxy S26 offers two refresh rate modes - Adaptive and Standard. Do not let these descriptions fool you, as, in fact, both modes are adaptive and will continuously switch refresh rates, but only the Adaptive one maxes out at 120Hz, while Standard is limited to 60Hz.

And even though the Standard mode exhibits very similar behavior to the Adaptive one, the latter is doing a better job at matching videos with different frame rates of 30 or 60 fps, for instance, the display will match videos on YouTube at 24Hz in the Adaptive mode.

When the screen is idle, the system will dial down to 1Hz no matter the mode.

Battery life

This year's Galaxy S26 proper is the only one in the family that gets a battery capacity boost. The device is now equipped with a larger 4,300 mAh battery, which results in better battery endurance than last year, according to our tests.

Interestingly enough, the improvement is more significant than one would expect from such a modest battery capacity increase. And judging by the battery life improvements we observed in the Galaxy S26+ and S26 Ultra without touching the battery capacity, it's safe to assume that Samsung worked on optimizing the software here as well.

The new Galaxy S26 earned a 15:20h Active Use Score, which is significantly higher than its predecessor's, but it still falls behind its direct rivals like the Xiaomi 17 and the vivo X300, as both devices have larger batteries.

On the other hand, the device matches the iPhone 17 Pro and outpaces the Google Pixel 10 Pro - two of the Galaxy S26's biggest rivals.

Charging speed

The Galaxy S26's charging capabilities are no different from last year's Galaxy S25. The handset supports 25W wired charging over Power Delivery with the appropriate PPS profile. Wireless charging is still capped at 15W, while reverse wireless charging is rated at 4.5W.

The S26 complies with the Qi2 wireless charging standard, but it doesn't have any magnets built in, so to use the maximum charging power offered by the protocol, you will have to get a case with magnets for the phone.

In our wired charging speed test, the Galaxy S26 turned in faster charging times than its predecessor, contrary to our initial expectations. Maybe Samsung worked on a more aggressive charging curve because we see improvements at the 15-minute and 30-minute marks, as well as in the total charging time. According to our tests, the new S26 charged to full 13 minutes faster than before, but more importantly, got up to 62% in the first 30 minutes.

But while these improvements in charging times are more than welcome, it's still not enough to compete with most phones in the same price segment. Even the iPhone 17 Pro is faster in some cases.

Additionally, Samsung offers a few Battery Protection options if you feel that extra care is needed. You can choose between Basic (stops at 100% and starts again after a 5% drop), Adaptive (adjusts by your charging and sleep patterns), or Maximum (you can choose a custom limit 80%/85%/90%/95%).

Speakers

The Galaxy S25 features a hybrid stereo speaker setup, with one speaker positioned at the bottom and the earpiece serving as the second. In typical fashion for hybrid pairs, the earpiece's output is quieter.

The Galaxy S26's loudspeakers have a different tuning this time around. They are a tad quieter, earning a "Good" -26.7 LUFS loudness score, but with better sound output in our opinion.

The new vanilla S26's speakers are somewhat more balanced, bringing out a bit more warmth in music tracks, although the bass isn't boosted. It's just that vocals sound more balanced and less squeaky.

Compared to rivals, the S26 is one of the best in its class, outperformed only by the iPhone 17 Pro.

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.