7.0
Score

There’s a good chance most of you aren’t checking this phone out, and that’s fair because not much has changed. Asking for a pretty high price for a device we know is a little too much, but we share if you should get the Samsung Galaxy S26+ in this review.

Samsung Galaxy S26+ Review

Honestly, everything is exactly the Same for a few years now

If you were to do a quick search and find out what’s been the same and what’s different from all the predecessors, you’ll realise that a lot of things have not changed for a very long time.

  • The rear camera setup is the same since the S20 Series, and that phone came out in 2020.
  • The S26+ Battery capacity has not changed since the S20+
  • The Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 120Hz has been the same since the S21
  • And the 12GB RAM configuration has not changed since S24+

So, it is a rather vanilla phone if you ask me. The thing is, just because it has the same hardware doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. In fact, it still shoots good photos, though the colours may be a bit of a personal preference. Here’s a quick comparison of the photos from the iPhone 16 put side by side. But the cameras on the Samsung are not going to blow your mind. The only ultra feature trickled down to the Plus is the Log Video mode.

Samsung has been doing displays so well that they are the industry standard now. But they really could have added the privacy display experience onto the Plus, which would have made a difference. In fact, not everyone requires an Ultra smartphone. It’s a shame that it could have truly been a Samsung phone.

The battery capacity, well, stuck at 4900mAh only proves that Samsung is scared of making mistakes and having another traumatising consumer experience. But they need to get out of that funk because a lot of the brands have moved to either Silicon Carbon or are trying out Solid State Batteries.

The RAM is 12GB. Well, okay, this one I get it, it doesn’t have to change. It can stay the same. You know it’s a good phone, it is going to work, it is going to really perform, but not being able to see some of the ultra features trickle down to the non-ultra is a little sad.

The Focus is on the Software, but not in the way you think…

The AI marketing from Samsung this year is pretty strong, and if you think that isn’t going to affect the non-ultras, boy, you are so wrong. Before I talk about that, I need to address OneUI 8.5, it does bring some quality of life improvements which I have not seen on Android in a long time. Because they do work with Google closely, they have the first dibs on Airdropping via Quick Share without the need for an additional app, which will eventually make its way to other Android devices.

And then there are some other features like customising your control drop-down, and then some design elements that feel more Apple-like than Android or Samsung, which is a bit odd. But, credit where it’s due, these are features that do improve the User Experience for the better, and I am all in for that. What I am not so fond of is the AI features.

Some are useful, and we have seen them before, like the Voice Recorder Transcription, Agentic AI thing, which works at times and doesn’t most of the time because we are not in the USA, and we do miss out on a lot of features, the keyboard text suggestions and such, and then some useful features in the gallery, like the removing shadow for instance.

But I don’t like the creative studio, it’s the fake it till you make it app, where if something is really not up to your liking, it really does give you that. Samsung’s marketing was: if you want to have a photo with your celebrity, you can; if your friend ate half your cake, and you don’t want to take a picture of a half-eaten cake, and you want it uneaten, you can do that.

As a creator, and with friends of creators who put in their blood, sweat and tears, I cannot, with the right conscience, get behind this.

Exynos 2600 is a Force to be Reckoned with

But forget about the AI slop, behind this phone is a very powerful processor that puts the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to shame because this is a thermal manager champ and puts out performance that really makes you go, “Did we really get a great experience out of an Exynos?” You see, Exynos is not a bad processor, but it gets hate from its older days. But ever since AMD stepped in to make the Xclipse GPU, things have been a whole lot better.

The RDNA flavour in their processor is like umami, and you cannot get enough of it. For this, we would recommend that you watch our YouTube video because we did some gaming performance tests to show how capable the phone is and how it handles it very well.

All in all, it’s a great phone but…

I don’t like what Samsung is doing with its devices. To offer the same experience in most aspects and then proceed to slap the “AI” terminology and expect consumers to pay more for a phone that practically does the same as the last one, the one before that and the one before the one before that is diabolical. We get it, RAM-ageddon is a thing, and it has single-handedly affected the pricing for every tech device out there.

But if I have to be very honest, skipping the S26 and the S26+ for 2026 entirely would have been a much better move and coming back with a better device with Ultra hardware trickled down to these devices would have been amazing. To add insult to injury, the S26, their tiny flagship, still does not offer UWB support, which is again, not so much of a flagship trait.

As a phone, it’s a great phone. If you buy it, you will love using it. Heck, I don’t mind switching to this from my iPhone as a daily driver, but it’s a shame that Samsung isn’t giving the non-ultras the justice they deserve. As much as I don’t want to say this, this is where Apple is winning the race with their non-pros, and in the Android space, the Xiaomi 17 has done far greater things to outshine these non-ultra S Smartphones.

Samsung, I love you, but RM 5,399 is a lot of money for a phone that does the same as the last one. Something needs to change, and it needs to happen now.

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