The American Customer Satisfaction Index dropped its 2026 Telecommunications, Mobile Phones, and Smartwatch Study this week, and the headline is simple: Samsung scored 81, while Apple scored 80.

The battle was tied last year, but Samsung has scored a victory over Apple this year. One point doesn’t sound like much until you remember Apple has treated that top spot as its personal property for years.

Samsung’s Galaxy S series buyers handed their phones an 84-point satisfaction score, the highest of any flagship group in the survey. New iPhones landed at 82, while Google flagships came in at 80. The average across all flagships sat at 82, far clear of conventional smartphones at 76.

Foldables are the ugly number here. The whole category averaged 72 points, and foldable owners complained at three times the rate of regular users. Still, within that struggling category, Samsung dominated anyway, scoring 80 against Google’s 72 and Motorola’s 70.

Meanwhile, ACSI highlighted that market dynamics in foldables could shift once Apple enters the segment. Apple is reportedly targeting a launch later this year, a device with a price tag of around $2000 in the US.

Smartwatches ended in a dead heat, both companies scoring 80. The industry overall climbed one point year-over-year to 79, recovering from what ACSI called the lowest score in a decade.

Samsung is winning the satisfaction war right now. But Apple hasn’t lost a lead this quietly in years, and quiet is exactly when they’re most dangerous.

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