Here’s the major upgrades that have leaked ahead of launch, and some of them make the Galaxy S26 a phone truly worth looking forward to.
A superb Exynos processor
All Galaxy S25 phones had to use Snapdragon chips. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Hearing the word “Exynos” makes many tech enthusiasts shiver, but Samsung has made excellent progress on its super capable 2 nm Exynos 2600. According to the most recent reports, the Exynos 2600 is ready, and will debut with the Galaxy S26 series next year.
This chip, thanks to its 2 nm architecture, is so powerful that it beats the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, as well as Apple’s A19 Pro. Performance under sustained use remains to be seen, however.
A privacy display
Samsung is apparently adding a privacy display in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Evidence from multiple sources points to the Galaxy S26 Ultra being able to hide the contents on its display from prying eyes.Perhaps even more fascinatingly, this doesn’t seem to be a manual process. The phone will reportedly be able to monitor your surroundings and automatically hide the display if someone walks by or glances at the screen. You’ll even be able to choose what content gets hidden, if a recent leak is to be believed.Whether you’re comfortable with your phone scanning your room all the time, however, is a different can of worms.
Better photography in low light
Say goodbye to cameras sitting flush with the chassis. | Image credit — PhoneArena
The cameras on the S-series flagships have remained mostly similar in their ability to capture pictures for the last few generations. Samsung is apparently aiming to improve that next year with wider apertures on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Leaked Galaxy S26 Ultra designs show a protruding camera island on the rear of the phone. This, according to some sources, is so that the phone can include larger apertures. While the sensors will likely remain the same, they will be able to capture more light, hence improving photography in challenging lighting conditions.
However, Samsung’s Vice President of the Mobile eXperience (MX) division — Daniel Araujo — claimed that the Galaxy S26 would have “new camera sensors” during the Q3 earnings call. Which of the sensors might be seeing an upgrade isn’t confirmed just yet.
Faster charging at last!
According to earlier leaks, the charging speeds on the Galaxy S26 Ultra are finally seeing an improvement next year. Chinese smartphones have been hitting charging speeds of over 100W consistently, and Samsung and Apple have been lagging far, far behind.
But Samsung is reportedly ditching its current 45W of wired charging speeds in favor of 60W of wired charging speeds. While not nearly as impressive as some of the phones coming out of China, it’s still a very positive sign that the company is moving in the right direction. Fingers crossed for silicon carbon batteries next.
A better AI experience
Not many consumers care about AI on their smartphones at the moment, but for those who do, the Galaxy S26 will “revolutionize the user experience” according to the aforementioned Daniel Araujo.AI on the Galaxy S26 will apparently be “user-centric”. In simpler terms, this hopefully means that the AI will be proactive in suggesting actions and tasks, instead of waiting for the user’s input. There might also be more cool AI features exclusive to the Galaxy flagships coming next year.
Return of the Plus model
Galaxy S25 Edge has not sold well. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Whether the Galaxy S26 Edge has been cancelled or not isn’t clear yet — there are many conflicting reports — it seems that the canceled Galaxy S26 Plus is coming back.
Battery life concerns, especially for the price, have meant that the Galaxy S25 Edge didn’t perform well. The Galaxy S26 Edge was apparently going to see an improvement in battery capacity, but Samsung seems to be backpedalling hard.
Maybe the Edge will return a few years down the road, when Samsung has finally adopted silicon carbon batteries for its phones. For now, it seems like the Galaxy S26 Plus might be making a heroic return.
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