The Galaxy S26 series that could have been. | Image Credit – Sonny DicksonThe Galaxy S series has featured a base, Plus, and Ultra model since 2020, and 2026 will be no different. Samsung is also eager to reintroduce its in-house Exynos chip into the lineup, despite the perception that it’s decidedly inferior to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. The new phones will probably still be well received, and Samsung’s ambitious sales target of 35 million units reflects its confidence in what it has been cooking up. While that’s all nice and good, it could have been better.
Elevating the standard model
Samsung was rumored to replace the standard model with a Pro variant, but it gave up on the idea. Not much was known about the changes Samsung would make to elevate the Pro model beyond the standard model’s current standing, but the idea sounded nice in theory. For far too long, standard models have been an afterthought, despite being premium devices. A Galaxy S26 Pro could have changed that and shown other smartphone makers that a standard flagship model doesn’t have to play second fiddle to higher-price variants and could instead forge its own identity.
Doing away with a redundant model
Leaked screen protectors indicate that the standard and Plus model are very much a part of the Galaxy S26 series. | Image Credit – Ice Universe
The Plus model occupies an awkward place in the line. It does little more than offer a bigger version of the standard model, which might explain its consistently soft sales. After all, someone willing to splurge a bit more than an entry-level flagship might as well go all out and opt for the Ultra.Samsung came very close to doing away with the Plus and replacing it with an Edge model. It was expected to be slimmer than the Galaxy S25 Edge and sport a horizontal camera bar, which is currently on-trend.
The Galaxy S25 Edge and Apple’s iPhone Air aren’t selling well, causing Samsung to abandon the idea and stick with the Plus model.
Making sacrifices
Rumors suggest that the Exynos 2600 is not only comparable in performance to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 but also runs cooler than previous Exynos chips. Those are the chief complaints Galaxy S22 owners had.Samsung must be commended for resisting the urge to bring back Exynos for three generations. After all, if customers are paying top dollar for Samsung’s phones, they must get top-tier performance.
We have said for a number of years, a number of reasons, and this has been true in the past, I think, several years, that what used to be a normal relationship at a 50% share, the new baseline is about 75% share. That is always going to be our financial assumption. When we out-execute, sometimes we get more than 75%. On Galaxy S25, we got 100%. Our assumption for any new Galaxy is always going to be 75%. That is our assumption for Galaxy S26.
Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm, November 2025
This year, at least 25 percent of Galaxy S26 models will be powered by the Exynos 2600. However, Samsung’s safe bet undermines confidence in the Exynos 2600 to some extent. If the chip doesn’t perform as well as Samsung hopes and falls behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, it might anger customers for having been saddled with a Samsung-made chip.
Using its own chip allows Samsung to cut down costs, though the savings might not be enough to prevent a price hike. This is only going to disappoint customers further, making customers question Samsung’s decision to equip a fourth of the Galaxy S26 models with its own chip.
The iPhone 17 series and the Pixel 10 have both been selling well, presumably because they capitalized on their respective strengths to stand out. Samsung, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have a clear strategy and is too afraid to bet on bold ideas. This predictability may help it avoid nasty surprises, but a safety net is never a good strategy to make it big.
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