Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Lacks Punchy Upgrades but Boasts New AI Tools

At Galaxy Unpacked in San Francisco, Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S26 series, launching on March 11. Comprised of the base Galaxy S26 model, the array of devices also comes with the Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 Ultra. As far as the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ are concerned, Samsung is making minimal upgrades while focusing on AI and refinements.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 now features an 8.3-inch AMOLED display, a minor yet welcomed increase from the 8.2-inch screen of its predecessor. Samsung is also refining the design of the S26. This year’s model features a rounder design, mimicking the look and feel of Samsung’s foldables. The Galaxy S26 series also adopts and armor aluminum chassis. This results in the new devices being a bit heavier, with a weight of 167g compared to the S25, which weighs 162g.

Under the hood, Samsung is leveraging a 2nd Gen Customized Advanced Processor. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 powers the S26 series, offering improved performance and faster AI processing speeds. When compared to the S25, the CPU is up 19%, while GPU results are up 24%, and the NPU sees 39% increases. Battery is also seeing a respectable increase. Rather than continuing to lean on the 4,000mAh battery, the S26 offers a 4,300mAh battery. What this means for all-day use is still up in the air, but it’s a long-overdue upgrade.

As for the camera, Samsung is playing it very safe across the S26 and S26+. This year, Galaxy S26 offers the same camera array as last year’s model. This includes the 12-megapixel main ultra wide shooter, a 50-megapixel wide lens and the 10-megapixel 3x telephoto camera. Sadly, for those hoping for nominal lens improvements and pre-processing power, Samsung is underdelivering from a pure numbers perspective. However, there are some camera software and feature sets that make up for it.

The S26 series introduces the Horizontal Lock feature. Applied via the Camera app, Horizontal Lock is used for cinematic and landscape stability. This feature reduces shakiness and can help keep things in frame and level. If you’re in the middle of filming and tilt the device from a landscape orientation, S26 can maintain that same horizontal orientation. In practice, it’s a novel feature that should speak to many users, including creators.

Samsung is focusing on AI tools and software more than it has in the past. Positioned as an ‘AI phone’, the Galaxy S26 series supports the Now Nudge feature key AI tool across all S26 devices. Now Nudge is embedded in the keyboard when using messaging apps. It pulls contextual information from a message to suggest actions like creating a calendar event. If, for instance, you’re suggesting a restaurant to go to for dinner, Now Nidge will bring up a pop-up to explore the restaurant. This AI assistant is available across Samsung Messages, Google Messages, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, and more.

Now Bar and Now Brief Widget contextually change based on the next events. The Now Bar searches for relevant info and apps like Calendar and Uber. Samsung claims these perform better under user patterns. With better automation, Now Bar pushes suggestions of when to leave depending on travel time.

Samsung is working with third-party apps like Uber. Agentic AI tools allow users to interact with the agent to book an Uber and automate the process. The agent will go through the workflow, understand your destination, up to the point of completing the purchase. Here, the agent notifies the user to complete the purchase. The company states that it is working with other third-party app makers like Instacart, DoorDash and more to bring integrations into its Agentic AI systems.

One of the more interesting AI tools is Circle to search 3.0. The next evolutionary step in the long-running Circle to Search feature can now scan the entirety of the Galaxy S26’s screen and register each element separately to run individual searches based on the user’s needs. Out of most AI tools Samsung is focusing on, this is likely one that most users adopt into their everyday lives. If you stumble across an outfit that catches your eye in an Instagram Reel, you can use Circle to Search 3.0 to find relevant purchasing links to the jacket, pants, and shoes.

Samsung is adopting a Call Screening feature, similar to Apple’s Call Screening, which was introduced in iOS 26. When an unknown number calls, an AI assistant answers the phone and asks the caller to identify themselves and the reason for the call. This response is then translated to an on-screen message for the user so they can determine whether or not they’d like to answer or reject the call.

Adding to the growing number of AI assistants, the Galaxy S26 series integrates Perplexity voice assistance for fact-checking. Users can activate the assistant by saying “Hey, Plex.” Perplexity access joins Galaxy AI and Bixby. Depending on the AI tool or workflow, Galaxy S26 will leverage either Perplexity, Galaxy AI or Bixby. From a top-level,

At launch, the Galaxy S26 is launching in Clay, Violet, Sky Blue and Black. The base Galaxy S26 launches March 11 in Canada, starting at $1,249 for the 256GB model, the same pricing as last year. The 512GB model of the S26 is, however, more expensive, priced at $1,529. Preorders are available now. The Galaxy S26+ is also available for preorder, starting at $1,529 for the base 256GB model.