The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus are more of the same for more money

"You can apply Audio Eraser to third-party apps to make voices easier to hear and filter out background noise. Google's Gemini AI will start doing agentic things - like booking an Uber for you - which is a step toward fulfilling the promise of an assistant that actually assists."

"In the US, the S26 and S26 Plus will come with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, as does the S26 Ultra, but in other regions, only the Ultra comes with the Qualcomm chipset. The S26 Plus gets slightly faster wireless charging - up to 20W versus 15W."

"The S26 now starts at 256GB of storage. But even factoring that in, this year's model is $899 - still $40 more expensive than the S25's 256GB option. The S26 Plus continues to offer 256GB of storage in its base configuration and now costs $1,099, up from $999 for the S25 Plus."

Samsung's new Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus models debut with software-focused updates rather than significant hardware innovations. The base models feature AI-powered features like Audio Eraser for voice clarity, agentic Gemini AI capabilities, and Pixel-inspired features such as scam detection and contextual keyboard information. Hardware improvements are modest: a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset in the US, increased wireless charging speed on the Plus model, and a battery capacity boost on the base S26. The S26 starts at $899 with 256GB storage, a $40 increase from the previous generation, while the S26 Plus rises to $1,099 from $999. Design remains largely unchanged from predecessors, with both models featuring 12GB RAM and compact form factors.

Read at The Verge