Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S26 series and confirmed that the standard S26 and S26+ variants will start at a higher price point due to new changes.

The standard model now starts at $899, while the Plus variant starts at $1099. The standard S25 has seen this new price update due to the removal of the 128GB version, which was priced at $799 for the S25. The S25+ is still listed at $999 to begin with, but the new phone starts at $1,099.

That’s not it, the difference between the 256GB and 512GB versions is now hiked to $200. That’s a massive price gap between these storage. Here is the price breakdown.

S26

• 256GB = $899
• 512GB = $1,099

S26+

• 256GB = $1,099
• 512GB = $1,299

Galaxy S26 and S26+ Price

Galaxy S26 Ultra

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,299 for the 256GB version, which is the same as the S25 Ultra. It appears Samsung decided not to change the consumer opinion by increasing the device’s starting price. However, 512GB and 1TB variants are getting up to a $130 price bump.

Samsung’s price speculation has been in the news for months. The key reason for the price increase is primarily driven by the memory supply market, which is seeing a massive shortage due to low volume production.

Samsung has been taking supplies at higher prices from its in-house foundry and suppliers like Micron. The company will be taking the price hit and will divert some of that to the consumers. Still, keeping the Galaxy S26 Ultra at the same starting price point was a good strategy.

Pre-orders of these devices are open today onwards, with official sales starting on March 11, 2026.

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At Unpacked February 2026, Samsung launched One UI 8.5 software with the Galaxy S26 series, bringing new features and optimizations that sit right on top of the One UI 8.0.

With this announcement, Samsung has once again returned to those biannual software improvements. The phone maker used to showcase its new software updates at its special developer conference. That tradition changed last year, when the One UI 7.0 (Android 15) debuted with the S25 series.

In mid-2025, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 devices, featuring Android 16-based One UI 8.0. So, these are two major OS updates in the same year. Since we’re past that cycle, One UI 8.5 brings balance to the Galaxy smartphone ecosystem. The software still has Android 16 in base but improved with a lot of new features.

One of the most notable upgrades is new UI elements, which appear rounder and softer. The quick panel has a lot of customizations, and fresh UI controls are added throughout the system apps.

In the latest flagship, the phone has a dedicated privacy display feature, allowing users to hide the on-screen controls when viewed from the sides. Besides, One UI 8.5 is launched with extra customizations to improve privacy display use cases.

It has new generative AI features that are part of the Galaxy AI features that further enhance the user experience. On top of that, Gemini is no longer enjoying the lone wolf AI agent status because Samsung has partnered with Perplexity to offer it as a second AI agent for Galaxy S26 series users.

Returning to the schedule

With these additions and improvements, One UI 8.5 has earned the right to debut as the first release of the year with the S-series. Next, Samsung will drop the One UI 9 (Android 17) update with new Z Fold and Flip foldables in the second half of 2026.

This schedule makes sense to keep the users hooked with new device improvements in both halves of the year.

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Samsung is revealing the Galaxy S26 series in two days, but the phone is no longer a mystery due to the weak links in its supply chain, which have been severe this time. Usually, we see promo and product image leaks before the launch. This time, someone has unpacked the Galaxy S26 Ultra device, and it’s a retail unit that we’re talking about.

The Korean phone maker has been preparing this phone since early 2025. Early design leaks of the device appeared somewhere around December. However, those schematics were limited to the CAD renders. Later on, we’ve seen minor inputs about the camera and hardware.

The pace of leaks increased in February, as expected, but a few days before the event, we now have a clear picture of the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event.

This situation appeared after a tech YouTuber, Sahil Karoul, purchased a Galaxy S26 Ultra unit from a Samsung retailer in Dubai. He explored the device from all sides and showcased new features online on his channel and social media accounts. As of today, his content has garnered massive attention on these platforms.

More information revealed that the Samsung store in Dubai sold him Africa bound S26 Ultra. You should know that the unit that he received was 12000 AED, and he paid about 3200 US dollars to a person, who was supposedly working at the Samsung store in an undisclosed locality.

It comes to the money, the seller is handing over these units without worrying about any consequences. In fact, Sahil later confirmed that the newer storage versions have now arrived and they’re being sold across the market. On a further note, he mentioned that the price has already dropped in one day by up to 1,000 US dollars.

Dire Situation

Revelation of a device from a big company as Samsung, should not be considered normal. The phone maker should have put some strict contraints over its supply chain and shipments.

It appears that the Korean company didn’t pay attention to sellers, who could slip out units without punishment. Look at Apple, for example, none of its iPhone release leaks even before a day of official unveiling, but things are turning really bad for its competitor.

Now that the Galaxy S26 Ultra has been unpacked before the launch. Samsung should monitor this situation up close, find the weak links, and fix them before the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Flip 8 release.

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Samsung has ended the bad luck of Bixby AI assistant by turning its dumb behaviour into an intelligent service that you could compare to Google’s Gemini.

The Korean phone maker has announced that its home-grown AI assistant is making a big jump with the One UI 8.5 software update, which will make an official debut with the Galaxy S26 series.

The new Bixby is now able to process natural language and reply in the same manner, just like Gemini. On the other hand, its UI upgrade aligns with Samsung’s new design language. Early access to the new Bixby is distributed with the 4th One UI 8.5 beta, and first impressions of its features are better than expected.

You can ask anything to Bixby, and it will come up with an answer. On top of that, it can generate text content and share a detailed analysis or answers. It has deepened integration into the system apps with intuitive options, and some serious work has been done on how it will display on the screen.

Bixby can now draft an email on your behalf; you just need to tell it the email address, subject, and body. From a user perspective, this is a brand new experience and entirely different from what Bixby used to be. I’ve been using the AI assistant since the Galaxy S9 era, and its initial launch gave the world a Google Assistant competitor.

Samsung did the same by expanding its access across the entire ecosystem, such as smart TVs, speakers, and home appliances. However, the arrival of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) has turned things worse for this old-age Bixby.

Thereafter, Samsung chose Google’s Gemini as the show runner, which was a good decision, given the requirement for a competitive edge over Apple. Behind the scenes, Samsung was making gradual progress and refining its AI solution with Perplexity with a more reasonable answer.

Partnership with Perplexity

The latest One UI 8.5 beta reveals Perplexity has a major role in this advancement. Bixby now has two modes: the first processes requests on-device, and the second on the Perplexity server.

Basic features, such as changing phone settings, creating emails, and options, are still handled on-device, and big queries, including content writing and information search, are now handled by Perplexity servers.

This development comes as Samsung has promised to increase its Gemini-powered device share through 2026. The phone maker has officially confirmed that it wants to offer more AI agents for a diverse range of options rather than relying only on a single tool.

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Samsung will launch the Galaxy S26 series on Wednesday, but someone has already bought the S26 Ultra and revealed its biggest feature that the phone maker wanted to keep secret until the unveiling event.

A YouTuber Sahil Karoul managed to buy a Galaxy S26 Ultra unit early in Dubai. And it’s not a stolen phone, Sahil was handed over the S26 Ultra by a person from a Samsung shop. He then revealed the phone from all angles and compared it to other devices, including its predecessor.

Among his pre-launch revelations was the new privacy display. Samsung has been teasing this new feature since the day one of the Unpacked event announcement, but it’s no longer a secret.

According to the video, the feature dims the view from all sides. That said, the on-screen content becomes less or almost darkened and hard to see for a person who’s looking from the side. However, that depends on the angle of the sideview.

Source – @KaroulSahil/X

This feature will be a part of the display settings, and a live demonstration has showcased how effective it is in real-world scenarios. This flagship offers a new display privacy without disturbing the user experience.

Besides this secret feature, the Galaxy S26 Ultra also has a larger corner radius than the last generation, which enhances its overall look and makes it more rounded.

This is a major pre-launch leak that Samsung may not have been expecting to come out days before the Unpacked event. Now that the cat is out of the bag, we’re waiting for some other interesting features that Samsung will bring to the stage at the Unpacked event.

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Samsung has been a leader in mobile display for over a decade, and the Galaxy S26 series will renew this leadership with a new technology. The company will introduce this new smartphone lineup on February 25 with a feature called privacy display.

This tech will make the user experience more secure thanks to its pixel-level privacy. Once enabled, the display can hide pixels from the side view. It is designed for users who want to use their phones in public without worrying about someone peaking into their screen.

However, the privacy display won’t be limited to simple on-off switches. Samsung will allow you to customize its user experience, such as enabling privacy display on certain apps, such as the Gallery or a chat app.

According to the information, you can hide the notifications area and the picture-in-picture as well. This approach makes the feature more personalized and user-centric.

This tech will revolutionize the way users use their phones. For example, if you prioritize your privacy, you don’t need to tilt your phone in either direction. Instead, you just need to switch it on, and it will do the job. While we are yet to test the real-life experience, this will be the first time that a smartphone will bring such advanced technology.

For the past five years, Samsung has been criticised for not innovating with its smartphones, but the company said it has been preparing this tech during that void of innovation. Based on the official details, Privacy Display uses a combination of hardware and software to hide on-screen content from side views.

Besides, we’ll see a full-blown demo and the key behind this tech development at Unpacked February 2026, when Samsung will unleash the Galaxy S26 series and start a new era of mobile display.

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Last year, Samsung introduced its latest flagships, including the Galaxy S25 Edge, featuring a slim form factor that awed and disappointed at the same time.

Over the past decade, smartphones have emphasized the display size, especially the flagship phones such as the Galaxy Ultra. The two things that remain consistent in these flagships are their sheer width and heavy weight.

After launching the screen sizes for different hand sizes, Samsung started focusing on reducing the width and the thickness. That’s where the Galaxy S25 Edge device kicks in. At the first Unpacked event of 2025, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S25 series, including the Standard, Plus, and Ultra. By the end of the event, a new phone teaser appeared out of nowhere for the Galaxy S25 Edge.

The phone debuted in May with only a 5.8mm thin design, and weighs only 163 grams, taking the slim form factor to the next level. It offered high-end features such as a 200MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera alongside a 12MP selfie camera.

Source – Samsung

The display was 6.7-inch, it equipped a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, a titanium design, and was protected with an IP68 rating. However, its biggest flaw was the 3,900mAh battery, which goes below the standard S25, offering a 4000mAh battery with an extra camera.

Many of the industry observers noted the low-battery capacity, which may not be a big issue, but the price tag of $1,099 raised eyebrows due to the most noteworthy sacrifices.

The initial response to the device was commendable; customers were buying the phones in Korea, but its sales in the global market remained mild. This short-lived fame turned into major despair as Korean media flagged the sales as “underwhelming”.

The arrival of S25 Edge was seen as a possible candidate to replace the Plus and make a place in the S26 series. However, the poor sales performance has made the company stay away from such thoughts.

Stock is running out

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S26 Edge is nearing out of stock on the official website in the U.S. Only one color from the 256GB and 512Gb version is available to order. You may still similar situation on carier locked models, and Amazon is no longer shipping this phone anywhere in the U.S. either.

As we approach the next-gen S-series, the Galaxy S25 Edge is finally seeing Samsung’s back turn against it, and it’s for the good. Maybe Samsung has plans to introduce a successor in May or June this year, just like last year. We’ll keep you posted.

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The existing Galaxy S25 series phones are running out of stock one by one. So, you’d better hurry if you want to grab one unit for yourself, especially the standard Galaxy S25.

The development comes as Samsung is about introduce the Galaxy S26 series, which will represent its flagship segment until the next S-series launch. So, the phone maker is farewelling the existing stock in the usual way, by not restocking any at all.

The out-of-stock trend is hitting the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus. Among these, the standard S25 is seeing a heavy interest right before Unpacked February 2026. The unlocked model is no longer available in certain U.S. states on Amazon, while some states only have used models.

So, the only place left to buy the standard S25 is the Samsung shop, but that place also requires people to rush. As of the time of sharing this information, Samsung is selling the unlocked Galaxy S25 in only three colors: Coralred, Pinkgold, and Navy for the 256GB version. On the other hand, you can only fetch two online-exclusive colors of the 512GB version.

Standard Galaxy S25 on Samsung Shop

On the other hand, the stock remains active for the Galaxy S25+ and the S25 Ultra. To be mentioned, the company hasn’t discounted the standard model from $799. Its outgoing might be the result of the upcoming price increase rumors; nothing is certain for the time being.

Unlike the U.S., this might not be the situation with other key markets such as Germany and India.

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Today, Samsung officially announced a partnership with Perplexity, one of the leading AI companies, to feature it as a second AI agent for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series.

This AI service will be a part of the feature expansion for the next-gen lineup, allowing users to get a personalized user experience, such as waking up Perplexxity with a dedicated phrase, “Hey Plexy”. It is confirmed that Perplexity is coming to the side button access. For example, pressing and holding the power button will launch Perplexity just like Gemini.

It suggests that the Perplexity app might come pre-installed with the Galaxy S26 series. Therafter, phones will be able to access their additional features out of the box. The recent rollout of One UI 8.5 beta 5 shows that Perplexity is now powering the Bixby AI assistant. On top of that, the company has made a big overhaul to this home-grown AI assistant’s UI and intelligence.

Hands-on experience reveals that the answers now show results curated by Perplexity. So, there’s a possibility that the phone maker may not directly launch Perplexity voice agent; instead, it will have to be redirected through Bixby, as we’ve seen in the latest One UI beta. Users can now assign Bixby to the power button and launch it with a press-and-hold action.

Bixby with Device Control

On a further note, Perplexity will have app-level access for all system aps including Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder, Calendar, as well as third-party apps. For example, it can now draft an email, which is ready to be sent. You can find the nearby restaurant and more.

What will happen to Gemini?

No, Samsung said that Gemini will still be the frontrunner of the show, and it will pursue a partnership with Google to offer more features with the upcoming devices. The explanation behind this dual partnership is that the company wants to offer multiple AI agents to the users to improve their experience.

More information about the Samsung and Perplexity AI partnership will be revealed at the Unpacked event on February 25.

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