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Commentary: Samsung needed to give us a reason to be excited about its latest flagship. It delivered.
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During its Unpacked event today, Samsung announced three new Galaxy S-series phones as well as the latest generation of its earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. Pre-orders are now open and the new devices are set to ship March 11. As expected, this year's models aren't drastically different from last year's, but all the phones are equipped to better handle the Galaxy AI experiences such as Now Nudge that offers suggestions based on your activities and a more conversational assitant in Bixby (or Gemini or Perplexity depending on your preferance).
Engadget's own Sam Rutherford is on-site in San Francisco for the new hardware launch and will have hands-on impressions. We'll follow that up with official reviews in the next week. But if you can't wait for our final verdict, here's how to pre-order Samsung's Galaxy S26 phones and the Galaxy Buds 4 today.
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 Samsung today announced its newest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S26, S26 , and S26 Ultra. Samsung's latest devices are focused on AI, and Samsung says they have the most "intuitive, proactive, and adaptive Galaxy AI features" to date.
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 As we prepare to leave the winter months, Samsung announced another family of Galaxy S flagships for those looking to upgrade. As usual, the company put its best components and features into the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it also added more to the base S26 and S26 . The company has hit its groove with its smaller (and cheaper) flagships, delivering solid devices with increasingly better cameras, occasionally even offering feature parity with its most expensive smartphone.
In 2026, that's what we're getting, with the 6.3-inch S26 ($899) and 6.7-inch S26 ($1,099). Both phones are more expensive than last year, and it's often a game of spot-the-difference when it comes to showing what's new.
Fortunately, the best parts have been retained, too. Samsung has unified the design style across the entire S26 series, with the same corner ratios, curved edges and other design touches. While I tested both phones, I'll focus on the S26. Barring screen differences and battery size, they're identically specced.
This year's S26 color selection has a premium Samsung ‘mood' to it that I can't quite explain. Does purple mean Samsung to my brain? Maybe. Cobalt Violet is the particular shade I'm talking about, but there are also blue, black and white colors. Additional silver and pink-gold options will be available as online exclusives. There's not much else to say about the design: it's another Galaxy S flagship, and if it ain't broke…
Mat Smith for Engadget
Samsung has increased the battery capacity to 4,300 mAh on
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 Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, but Samsung got out ahead of many rivals that will be showing off new handsets at that event by running the latest edition of Unpacked on Wednesday. The company took the opportunity to reveal the Galaxy S26 lineup, which includes the base S26, the S26 and the S26 Ultra. We've got some hands-on impressions of all three handsets as well.
In addition to those, Samsung announced the Galaxy Buds 4 along with (you guessed it) some AI updates. Here's a look at everything Samsung announced at the latest Unpacked:
Galaxy S26 and S26 Sam Rutherford for Engadget
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 The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will have a smaller Dynamic Island, according to Bloomberg. Over the past year, there have been mixed rumors about whether the ?iPhone 18? Pro models will continue to feature a ?Dynamic Island? or have a hole punch camera with under screen Face ID and no ?Dynamic Island?, but the latest information suggests we're not getting rid of the ?Dynamic Island? just yet.
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