Earlier than you even take into consideration going there, no, I haven’t got a crystal ball or a modern-day Nostradamus whispering particulars on unreleased smartphones in my ear, and regardless of
rumors of an early launch, Samsung has but to formally announce any related
Galaxy S26 sequence info.
Why so many compromises?
Aside from inexplicably leaving a significant element of its Android super-flagship unchanged for seven (!!!) consecutive generations, the world’s prime handset vendor would path behind the newest vital upgrades in that discipline by key rivals like OnePlus, Xiaomi, Honor, Oppo, Vivo, and even Motorola.
When you had a selection, would you go for a much bigger S26 Extremely battery or a thinner profile than the S26 Extremely? | Picture Credit score — PhoneArena
It is going to be mighty laborious for a “common” shopper and informal cellular trade watcher to grasp how one thing just like the
OnePlus 13T can pair a gargantuan 6,260mAh battery with a compact 6.32-inch display screen whereas the 6.9-inch or so
S26 Extremely has to accept 5,000 or at most 5,400mAh cell capability.
Sure, there’s apparently an opportunity of a small bump from 5,000mAh to “underneath” 5,400mAh, which might positively be higher than nothing. However a sub-5,500mAh battery will nonetheless be thought-about a disappointment and a compromise in comparison with what one can think about the
OnePlus 14 will convey to the desk after the already spectacular 6,000mAh-packing
OnePlus 13.
The frustration will likely be made even higher if the
Galaxy S26 Extremely removes the S Pen slot and fails to get its charging help over the 50W mark. Fortuitously, all of those are nonetheless huge ifs, however there’s not often this a lot smoke with out hearth within the rumor mill, even with seven or eight months forward of a cellphone’s business launch. The
stylus help elimination hypothesis makes me particularly indignant now that the battery dimension is predicted to go (largely) unchanged.
And sure, I understand the S Pen isn’t that incessantly utilized by the overwhelming majority of S25 Extremely or S24 Extremely homeowners, however that does not change the actual fact it is a good characteristic to have at your disposal, in addition to kind of a luxurious assertion for the
greatest Android telephones on the market. To lose that and solely acquire (perhaps) 400mAh battery capability, in addition to (perhaps) 20 grams in weight and half a millimeter in thickness, could be shockingly ill-advised… if we did not all bear in mind Samsung’s huge Galaxy Be aware-killing mistake from only a few years in the past.
The silver linings
Sure, there’s optimistic information to be discovered within the rumor mill of late relating to a
Galaxy S26 Extremely that is in any other case beginning to sound like a fairly miserable improve over the strong however largely unremarkable
Galaxy S25 Extremely.
No, I am not speaking in regards to the
potential discount of Samsung’s reliance on Google, which additionally looks like a silly choice to me… that I do not assume will finally materialize (a minimum of not in 2026). As a substitute, what’s certainly thrilling in regards to the
S26 Extremely is that it may very well be the one member of its household to
use a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Whether or not that will likely be true around the globe or not, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 SoC would give the 2026 Android hero an opportunity to maintain up with the undoubtedly staggering uncooked energy of Apple’s fast-approaching
iPhone 17 Professional Max.
Sure, the S26 Extremely’s front-facing digicam will in all probability be as seen because the one on the S25 Extremely. | Picture Credit score — PhoneArena
In fact, I might a lot somewhat see the complete Galaxy S26 lineup undertake a world single-chip Snapdragon technique as a substitute of splitting the world in Snapdragon and Exynos territories, and even worse, depend on Samsung-made Exynos silicon all over the place for non-Extremely fashions, however hey, we won’t have all of it.
Let’s benefit from the little wins in that case, together with Samsung’s rumored choice to go away the S26 sequence with out under-display digicam know-how. There’s clearly nothing improper with making a cellphone’s selfie snapper as discreet as attainable, however in the intervening time, that looks like a waste of valuable assets that takes money and time to get excellent whereas negatively impacting the efficiency of the particular imaging sensor. Let’s simply hope Samsung will discover a higher use of its assets than merely making the S26 Extremely as skinny as it may.
