Samsung launched its Galaxy S26 lineup, including the S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra, alongside the Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro at the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event in San Francisco on February 25. The new phones feature enhanced AI capabilities and start at $900, with preorders available immediately and shipping set for March 11. The event highlighted integrations with Perplexity AI and Google Gemini for more proactive assistance.
The Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event took place at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, marking Samsung's first major launch there since 2020. Samsung President and Head of Mobile Experience TM Roh opened the presentation, describing the S26 series as an "agentic AI phone" powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor in North America, China, and Japan.
The base Galaxy S26 has a 6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, up from 6.2 inches on the S25, with a 4,300mAh battery, 12GB RAM, and 256GB storage starting at $900—a $100 increase from the S25. The S26 Plus features a 6.7-inch screen, 4,900mAh battery, and starts at $1,100, also up $100. Both share a triple-camera setup: 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, and 10MP 3x telephoto, with AI enhancements like Object Aware Engine for better selfies and Super Steady with 360-degree Horizontal Lock for stable video.
The S26 Ultra, priced at $1,300, includes a 6.9-inch QHD+ display with the world's first Privacy Display, using narrow pixels to limit side viewing angles. It has a 200MP main camera with wider f/1.4 aperture, 50MP ultrawide, dual telephotos (10MP 3x and 50MP 5x), and a redesigned vapor chamber for better cooling. The 5,000mAh battery supports 60W wired charging, reaching 75% in 30 minutes.
Galaxy AI updates include Now Nudge for contextual suggestions, Call Screening for unknown callers, and Perplexity integration via "Hey Plex." Google executive Sameer Samat announced Gemini's agentic features for tasks like ordering from Grubhub. The Galaxy Buds 4 ($180) and Buds 4 Pro ($250) feature refined designs, dual drivers for improved sound, and adaptive ANC.
Samsung emphasized seven years of updates. Colors include cobalt violet, sky blue, black, and white, with silver shadow and pink gold online exclusives.
