- Samsung Galaxy S26 series could be announced in late January and ship mid-February
- We also hear that only the Galaxy S26 Ultra could have a Snapdragon chipset
- Additionally, slight improvements could be made to cameras and batteries on some models.
The launch date for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series seems to be getting closer and closer, as we first heard that these phones might not land until March, then a date of February 25 was proposed, and now it looks like they could be revealed as early as late January.
That’s according to a report from Chosun (via Android Police), which claims to have learned from a Samsung insider that these phones will ship in mid-February, making a late January announcement possible.
For reference, the Samsung Galaxy S25 series shipped about two weeks after its announcement, so assuming a similar gap here, an announcement in late January or very early February would actually make sense for a mid-February launch.
That said, given that previous leaks suggested we might not see these phones until late February or even March, we’d take that with a pinch of salt.
That’s not the only information in Chosun’s report, as the publication also claims that only the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, with the base model and Galaxy S26 Plus using Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2600 chipset instead.
This isn’t terribly surprising news since Samsung often uses a mix of Exynos and Snapdragon chipsets, but it’s worth noting that this is a South Korean site, so it’s unclear if the same split would apply everywhere. For example, we think the US will likely still get a Snapdragon chipset in all models, as is typically the case with Samsung flagship launches.
In any case, Exynos versions of Samsung phones are generally slightly less powerful, but that may not be the case this year, with reports suggesting that the Exynos 2600 could rival or even beat the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, so if you live in a place that has Exynos chipsets in some of these phones, that may not be such a bad thing.
New cameras and a bigger battery
In today’s latest Samsung Galaxy S26 series news, we also heard details about possible camera and battery specifications for the base and Plus models.
This comes from SmartPrix, which claims to have obtained the information through “detailed software analysis.”
According to the site, the Samsung Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus will both feature new 50 MP main sensors: that’s the same number of megapixels as their predecessors, so we’re looking at a larger sensor for any major photography improvements.
They are also said to feature new 12 MP telephoto lenses, up from their 10 MP predecessors, but stick to the same 12 MP ultra-wide cameras as the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus.
For the battery, we could see a 4,300 mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy S26 and a 4,900 mAh one in the Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus. The latter would have the same capacity as the current model, but it would be a slight boost for the former, compared to the 4,000 mAh offered in the Galaxy S25.
As always, we’re taking all of this with a pinch of salt, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that these phones could feature 12MP telephoto lenses.
We should know all the confirmed specs in early 2026, and if this new rumored release date is accurate, we’ll have all the official information even sooner than expected.
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