{"id":231931,"date":"2026-04-06T17:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review-bigger-screen-smaller-upgrades\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:40:28","slug":"samsung-galaxy-s26-review-bigger-screen-smaller-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review-bigger-screen-smaller-upgrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Bigger screen, smaller upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/phones\/samsung-galaxy\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review\">Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Bigger screen, smaller upgrades<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/phones\/samsung-galaxy\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review\">https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/phones\/samsung-galaxy\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-04-06 17:40:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.androidcentral.com\">www.androidcentral.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"how-we-test\">\n<span class=\"font-bold text-primary-500\">Why you can trust Android Central<\/p>\n<p><\/span><br \/>\n<span>Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3f2d850f-8473-4d94-94f3-ca4f627d06bf\">For years, base model Samsung Galaxy S phones had two things going for them \u2014 they were the smallest flagships on the market and were relatively affordable. With the Samsung Galaxy S26 bumping the price by $100 and growing the screen to 6.3 inches, it&#8217;s time for a new identity. After using it for two weeks, the Galaxy S26 is as confusing a device as ever.<\/p>\n<p>On one hand, the Galaxy S26 offers a premium design with unparalleled performance powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. I preferred the smaller form factor of the Galaxy S25, but it&#8217;s clear that most consumers want larger phones. The real concern is the price hike combined with a lack of major upgrades. Sure, we got a new processor, but where are the upgraded cameras, Qi2 magnets, or connectivity boosts? They&#8217;re nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-3f2d850f-8473-4d94-94f3-ca4f627d06bf-2\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">The base Galaxy S26 received more upgrades than the Galaxy S26 Plus, but they hardly address the areas that really needed them. It&#8217;s a very solid phone, but when you consider the room for improvement, it becomes a tough sell.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s best Samsung Galaxy S26 deals<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-6e6b7de9-46f6-4bb3-b3b7-6147bd55559c\">The Galaxy S26 is available now, starting at $899.99 for the 256GB model, with the optional 512GB upgrade costing a whopping $1,099. This is $100 more expensive than the Galaxy S25 at launch. Although you get more base storage, the Galaxy S26 still costs more than the comparable 256GB model of the Galaxy S25 cost last year.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind that the Galaxy S26 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor in North America, China, and Japan. All other global markets will get the Samsung Exynos 2600 version.<\/p>\n<p>Swipe to scroll horizontally<\/p>\n<table tabindex=\"0\" class=\"table__wrapper table__wrapper--inbodyContent table__wrapper--sticky table__wrapper--divider\">\n<tr class=\"table__head__row\">\n<th class=\"table__head__heading table__head__heading--left\" colspan=\"1\">\n<p>Category<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<th class=\"table__head__heading table__head__heading--left\" colspan=\"1\">\n<p>Samsung Galaxy S26<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"table__body__row\">\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Display<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>6.3-inch FHD+\u202fDynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"table__body__row\">\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Processor<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"table__body__row\">\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Memory<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>12GB<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"table__body__row\">\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Storage<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>256GB, 512GB<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"table__body__row\">\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Front Camera<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>12MP, f\/2.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"table__body__row\">\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"text-align:left\">\n<p>Rear Camera 1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td class=\"table_body__data\" colspan=\"1\"...<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/phones\/samsung-galaxy\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Bigger screen, smaller upgrades https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/phones\/samsung-galaxy\/samsung-galaxy-s26-review Publish Date: 2026-04-06 17:40:00 Source Domain:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/7Hq4fiCZEAXy4raGZ432VV-2100-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-231931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","tag-samsung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231933,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231931\/revisions\/231933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}