Samsung unveils Galaxy S26 series with AI features

Samsung Electronics launched its Galaxy S26 series on February 26, with some models priced higher in the US and South Korea amid rising memory chip costs.

The new lineup features AI capabilities from Perplexity and Google’s Gemini, as well as an upgraded Bixby, following Samsung’s loss of smartphone leadership last year to Apple.

The company increased the base Galaxy S26 price in the US by 4.7% to US$899 and the S26 Plus by 10% to US$1,099, while maintaining the same price for the Ultra model.

In South Korea, prices for the base model rose by 8.6%. Samsung introduced some models with its in-house Exynos processors, replacing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips used in the previous model.

Analysts say this could support Samsung’s chip design business and mobile margins.

The company plans to begin rolling out the series on March 11.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The S26 chip plan splits the lineup into two tiers

Samsung plans to ship the Galaxy S26 Ultra with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip in every region worldwide 1.
In most markets, the cheaper Galaxy S26 and S26+ models are expected to run Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2600 processor 1.
In the United States, China, and Japan, the base and Plus versions will still get the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 1.
This goes beyond naming, since the chips use different central processing unit (CPU) designs. Qualcomm uses custom Oryon cores, while the Exynos 2600 relies on Arm’s Lumex C1-Ultra and C1-Pro cores 2.

Chip variety could lead to uneven Android performance

AI features may run differently across models because the Exynos and Snapdragon chips use different neural processing units (NPUs) and come with different performance claims 2.
The CPUs also handle on-device AI instruction sets in different ways, so some tasks may finish faster on Exynos without using the NPU 2.
App makers may face extra tuning work, since one phone family can ship with two chip platforms that behave differently.
The rollout also turns into a head-to-head on manufacturing, with Samsung’s 2-nanometer (2nm) process up against the TSMC 3-nanometer (3nm) process used for Qualcomm chips 2.