Samsung Galaxy S26 release date, price, specs, and must-know features

Galaxy S26: up to $380 off at the official store

$519 ⁹⁹

$899 ⁹⁹

$380 off (42%)

The Galaxy S26 is currently available at the Samsung Store with an exciting trade-in discount. Right now, you can buy the model with a $380 maximum price cut. Samsung also gives you 15% off the Galaxy Buds 4 or the Buds 4 Pro with your smartphone purchase.

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Galaxy S26+: save up to $480 at Samsung

$619 ⁹⁹

$1099 ⁹⁹

$480 off (44%)

The Galaxy S26+ is here, bringing improved software and a more powerful processor. The device can now be yours for up to $480 off with eligible device trade-ins. Users also get 15% off the Buds 4 series with their purchase. The official store gives you a $150 credit for add-ons without trade-ins.

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The trio was officially announced on February 25. The phones have hit the shelves on March 11, 2026.

The cameras on both the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus are not getting upgraded this time around, at least not at the hardware level. 

Despite that, we're getting plenty of nice Galaxy AI features on the phones, including improvements to Photo Assist and a new Creative Studio. The Super Steady Film is available on the S26 and S26 Plus as well. The feature allows your phone to take steady videos by locking the horizon. 

The phones are also getting the new Nightography Video feature, powered by AI. The feature brightens scenes filmed in low-light environments and reduces noise.

Samsung has ditched the 128 GB storage version from the S26, and now the starting storage is 256 GB.

It's about time for Samsung to grace Galaxy fans with some more battery. Well, unfortunately, that didn't happen this time around. Despite competitors from Chinese makers betting on new battery tech, including silicon carbon batteries, and sticking huge battery cells in their models without compromising on slimness or style (for example, the OnePlus 13, the Honor Magic 6 Pro, and others), Samsung is not hopping on this train just yet.

Well, the South Korean giant still gave some upgrade love to the base Galaxy S26, and its battery cell has now grown to 4,300 mAh from 4,000 mAh.

The Galaxy S26 Plus keeps the same 4,900 mAh battery as its predecessor.

The two phones are also not getting an upgrade in the charging department, unlike their bigger sibling, the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

The Galaxy S26 series comes with One UI 8.5, which is based on Android 16, out of the box.

Galaxy AI is the star of the show when it comes to the new phones and their software. We’re getting a new AI-powered screenshot analyzer, which will categorize your screenshots so you can find them easier.

Samsung also has updated Now Brief and Now Bar. Now Brief is now getting a deeper integration with the personal data engine (which includes notifications and messages) so it can better highlight what’s coming in your data. The Now Bar is getting adaptive recommendations.

Bixby is also getting upgraded and now offers natural language support and real-time web search. You can also choose another assistant, including Gemini and Perplexity, if you wish that.

Features like Call Screening are also present, and the spam filter protection is getting expanded to more countries.

Circle to Search is also getting enhanced on the S26. The feature now supports multi-object recognition, so you can search for more than one object in a photo at a time.

Meanwhile, there is a new Private Album feature in the Galaxy S26’s Gallery. Thanks to this new album, you can hide photos and videos without having to create a separate album.

This Samsung video shows how you can create AI-powered stickers on Galaxy: 

The Galaxy S26 phones come with either the Exynos 2600 or the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The Snapdragon chip is reserved for buyers in the U.S., China, and Japan, while Europe gets the Exynos 2600 version. 

The Exynos 2600 is manufactured on a 2nm process, while the Snapdragon chip is still on a 3nm one. Samsung says that the new customized processor offers blazing speed and powers the customized image enhancer for the display of the two phones.

With the new chip, the Galaxy S26 Plus offers 38% faster AI performance, 23% improved graphics performance, and 7% faster processing (CPU speeds) in comparison to the Galaxy S25 Plus. 

When it comes to performance, since these are Samsung's flagship models, you can expect them to be smooth and fast. They'll likely handle everything with ease, be it simple tasks like browsing social media or heavier ones like gaming and generative AI. Samsung is also bringing a redesigned Vapor Chamber for cooling, which should noticeably improve the heat dissipation. 

As for RAM, we are not seeing an upgrade this time around. Competitors from other companies are starting to offer 16GB as a default, but Samsung has not followed them and is still offering the two phones with only 12 GB of RAM. For storage, you have 256 or 512 GB.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm announced the X85 modem during MWC that handles connectivity on the Galaxy S26 series. The new modem will be more power efficient but able to deliver higher 5G speeds.