Introduction

It’s that time of the year again, and we have Samsung’s latest flagships. We have a familiar crop yet again – a vanilla S26, an S26+ and an S26 Ultra. Today, we are looking at the S26 Plus. It remains in this off-liminal space, sandwiched between the S26 and the S26 Ultra.

As per usual, it is not the cheapest nor the smallest option – those traits go to the vanilla and are both viable reasons to nudge a purchase decision in that direction. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Ultra. Unlike the Plus, it has the best camera setup, the biggest display, this year with an exclusive privacy feature and, of course, the S Pen. All the while, the Plus is, well, just a bigger version of the vanilla and with a price premium to go along with the bigger display and battery. That’s it.

It’s no wonder the Plus consistently gets the lowest sales numbers out of the trio year after year. And, to be perfectly frank, it’s not like Samsung delivered any major upgrades compared to the S25+, so we don’t expect a different situation 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 tight and water resistant (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min), 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 Gen 5 (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 (1×3.80GHz C1-Ultra & 3×3.25GHz C1-Pro & 6×2.75GHz C1-Pro) – ROW; Adreno 840 – US/CN, Xclipse 960 – ROW.
• 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 min, 20W wireless (Qi2.2), 4.5W reverse wireless.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Wi-Fi 7; BT 6.0; NFC.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); stereo speakers; Samsung DeX, Samsung Wireless DeX (desktop experience support), Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.

So, what has changed since last year’s model? Well, as expected, you get the yearly chipset upgrade. Though that said, Samsung is returning to the dual-chip strategy, and is offering the S26 and S26+ with its own Exynos 2600 chip in most regions. The US and China get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. Make of that what you will.

Other than that, you get the same display, battery, and cameras. So they are basically re-releasing last year’s phone with a refreshed chipset at full price. Sure, you get 20W Qi 2.2 wireless charging instead of the old 15W and well, a slightly tweaked camera island design. Oh, and an extra year of software support. Though with a total of seven major OS updates promised for both the S25+ and S26+, arguably a year more doesn’t realistically make much of a difference.

Now that we’re all properly excited, let’s dig in, starting with the retail box.

Unboxing

If you’ve seen a Samsung box recently, then you already know what the S26+ retail package looks like. The phone ships 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 also made of cardboard. No surprise there, Samsung has been doing this eco-friendly push for a while now. The packaging is actually recycled, and the printing is done in soy ink. That’s more than enough justification in our book to explain the rather plain monochromatic look.

There are almost no accessories bundled. You get a basic EP-DN-980 3A USB Type-C to Type-C cable, and that’s about it.