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Introduction
It’s that time of year again, and we have Samsung’s latest flagships. We again have a familiar crop – a vanilla S26, an S26+ and an S26 Ultra. Today, we’re looking at the S26 Plus. It resides in this off-liminal space between the S26 and S26 Ultra.
As always, this is neither the cheapest nor the smallest option – these features go over vanilla and are both viable reasons to make a purchasing decision in that direction. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Ultra. Unlike the Plus, it has the best camera setup, the biggest display, a special privacy feature this year, and of course, the S Pen. Overall, the Plus is a larger version of the vanilla and is priced at a premium with a larger display and battery. That’s it.
It’s no surprise that the Plus consistently gets the lowest sales numbers of the three year after year. And, to be perfectly clear, it’s not like Samsung has delivered any major upgrades over the S25+, so we don’t expect things to be any different this year.
Samsung Galaxy S26+ specs at a glance:
- Body: 158.4×75.8×7.3mm, 190g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), aluminum frame; IP68 dust resistant and water resistant (submersible up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes), armor aluminum 2 frame.
- Display: 6.70″ Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 2600 nits (peak), 1440x3120px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 516ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8850-AC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 (3 nm) – US/CN, Exynos 2600 (2 nm) – ROW: octa-core (2×4.74 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix L + 6×3.62 GHz Oryon V3 Phoenix M) – US/CN, 10-core (1×3.80 GHz C1-Ultra and 3×3.25GHz C1-Pro and 6×2.75GHz C1-Pro) – row; Adreno 840 – US/CN, Xclipse 960 – Line.
- Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB 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-degree, 1/2.55″ 1.4µm, Super Steady Video.
- Front Camera: 12 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (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: 4900mAh; 45W wired, PD3.0, 69% in 30 minutes, 20W wireless (Qi2.2), 4.5W reverse wireless.
- Connectivity: 5G; é SIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 6.0; NFC.
- various: Fingerprint reader (under the display, ultrasonic); stereo speakers; Samsung DX, Samsung Wireless DX (Desktop Experience Support), Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.
So, what’s changed from last year’s model? Well, as expected, you will get an annual chipset upgrade. That said, however, Samsung is returning to the dual-chip strategy, and offering the S26 and S26+ with its Exynos 2600 chip in most regions. The US and China get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for the Galaxy. Make of that what you will.
Apart from that, you get the same display, battery and cameras. So they’re basically re-releasing last year’s phone with a refreshed chipset at full price. Of course, you get 20W Qi 2.2 wireless charging instead of the old 15W and, also, a slightly modified camera island design. Oh, and an extra year of software support. Although a total of seven major OS updates are promised for both the S25+ and S26+, arguably a year more won’t make much of a difference in real terms.
Now that we’re all properly excited, let’s dig in, starting with the retail box.
unbox
If you’ve seen a Samsung box recently, you already know what the S26+ retail package looks like. The phone comes in a two-piece cardboard box. The material is very thick and protective. There is a cradle on the inside for the unit, which is made of cardboard. It’s no surprise, Samsung has been making this eco-friendly effort for quite some time now. The packaging is actually recycled, and the printing is done in soy ink. That’s more than enough justification to explain the plain monochromatic look in our book.
There are almost no accessories in the bundle. You get a basic EP-DN-980 3A USB Type-C to Type-C cable, and that’s it.