Samsung Galaxy S26: How It's Different from Galaxy S25

After loads of teasing, the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is now official, and it consists of Galaxy S26, S26+ and the S26 Ultra. While the Galaxy S26 Ultra is a much more premium offering, even more so with its increased pricing, people looking for a more compact option might want to stick to the Galaxy S26. While the smartphone brings a handful of improvements over its predecessors, let's find out if it's worth spending the extra money on or sticking with the Galaxy S25.

The Galaxy S26 gets a bigger battery

One of the major changes in this year's standard Galaxy S26 is the battery. While Samsung has still not adopted Silicon Carbon batteries, the phone gets a welcome battery bump to 4,300mAh from 4,000mAh on the Galaxy S25. Unfortunately, the charging speeds remain disappointingly stagnant; the capacity boost alone should make the phone last a bit longer.

Image Credit: Samsung

Paired with a 2nm Exynos 2600 (in India and Europe), which uses Heat Path Block technology to maintain its cool, the phone should last a fair bit longer than the S25. The Snapdragon variant in the US should also be able to squeeze in more screen-on time by the end of the day.

• Capacity jump: The S26 packs a 4,300mAh battery, an increase of 300mAh over the Galaxy S25.
• Efficiency: With Exynos 2600 (2nm) and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) being more efficient, this could translate to screen-on time gains.
• The downside: Wired charging is stuck at 25W, meaning top-ups will feel even slower than the Galaxy S25

The Galaxy S26 gets a new design and colours

You'd be hard-pressed to find the difference between Galaxy S26 and S25 when they're placed side by side. However, the approach to aesthetics has shifted with the Galaxy S26 using a unified colour palette rather than S25's pastel approach. The Galaxy S26 colours include Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black and White, with the former being the hero colour.

Image Credit: Samsung

The design has changed a little too. Instead of having lenses that are independently spaced out at the back, the cameras on the Galaxy S26 have been positioned on an island. This is to maintain consistency with the Galaxy S26+ and S26 Ultra, which have their own camera islands. Besides, the display is slightly larger on the Galaxy S26 at 6.3 inches versus 6.2 inches on the Galaxy S25.

• New colours: Cobalt Violet, White, Black and Sky Blue
• Design change: Camera island at the rear and slightly more rounded edges.
• Display size: The Galaxy S26 has a slightly larger 6.3-inch display

Samsung reduces its reliance on Qualcomm

The Samsung Foundry has been struggling with processor yield, which led to Samsung using Snapdragon processors for the standard Galaxy smartphones. The S25 got the Exynos 2500 in India, and it was nowhere near the performance of its Qualcomm counterpart, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Galaxy S26 gets the Exynos 2600, which is in the league of the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. On paper, at least.

Image Credit: Beebom Gadgets

Exynos 2600 uses a 2nm GAA process with Heat Path Block technology, which Samsung claims helps significantly reduce overheating. It's a deca-core processor which uses ARM's latest ARMv9.3 cores for maximum performance and great power and thermal efficiency. The Exynos 2600 has appeared on Geekbench numerous times, and we will test it once we get our hands on a Galaxy S26 unit.

Should you consider the Galaxy S26 over the Galaxy S25?

Before our verdict, here's a glance at the specifications of the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S25.

The Galaxy S26 is a minor upgrade. If you already have a Galaxy S25, the processor upgrade could be enticing, but the hardware similarities make it hard to justify the price. However, if you're coming from Galaxy S23 or older, you get the same perfect form factor you love, but finally with the battery life you deserve.