Samsung Galaxy S26+ Review

Every year the Plus is the hardest Galaxy to explain, and 2026 did nothing to help. Against the S26 it offers a larger 6.7-inch screen at QHD+ rather than FHD+, a 4900 mAh battery instead of 4300 and 45W charging instead of 25W, for two hundred dollars. Against the S26 Ultra it gives up the 200-megapixel camera, the 5x periscope, the S Pen and the Privacy Display to save four hundred. Neither comparison lands cleanly, which is close to what its reviews concluded.

Taken on its own it is a good phone. The panel is the best thing about it, bright and sharp and the only one in the pair running at full resolution. The frame is 7.3 millimetres and 190 grams, light for a screen that size. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy in the American model is as quick as anything on Android and the Exynos 2600 elsewhere is close behind, and One UI 8.5 on Android 16 carries seven years of updates.

The cameras are the problem the whole S26 line shares below the Ultra: a 50-megapixel main that is merely fine, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto Samsung has not touched since 2022. At $1,099 that is the part that will date first.