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Galaxy Unpacked 2026 Live Updates: Samsung's S26 Reveal Is Imminent

We're live from Samsung's Unpacked event in San Francisco, where the company's expected to reveal the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra.

David Lumb

Abrar Al-Heeti

Andrew Lanxon

Patrick Holland

Jeff Carlson

Prakhar Khanna

Mike Sorrentino

Nelson Aguilar

Vanessa Hand Orellana

Meara Isenberg

Feb. 25, 2026 9:31 a.m. PT

CNET senior technology reporter Abrar Al-Heeti and social producer Faith Chihil are on site so far, ahead of the 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET start.

In addition to CNET's live blog coverage of today's Samsung Unpacked, which will be running right here, our sibling websites in the CNET Group are also running their own live blogs covering these Galaxy reveals.

You can check out Galaxy Unpacked live blogs from PCMag, Mashable and ZDNET, and editors from throughout the group will be joining us for our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked watch party starting at 9 a.m. PT. Hosts Iyaz Akhtar and Bridget Carey will go over the final rumors and what we hope to see from Samsung, and then our watch party will move right into Samsung's press conference. Following the Galaxy reveals, our postshow will bring you instant reactions to all of the new products and announcements.

Like other S26 models, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to feature the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip in the US and China. A rumor from PhoneArena suggests the phone will revert to an aluminum frame from its titanium predecessors, much like Apple did with the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. Other rumors about this phone so far coalesce on these specs:

• Storage: Up to 1TB
• Charging: Support for 60-watt wired and 25-watt wireless charging
• Processor and RAM: Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip in the US and China, and 16GB of RAM
• Battery: 5,000-mAh battery

Samsung was said to be debating whether to outright replace its larger S26 Plus with the super-slim S26 Edge, but reportedly poorer sales of last year's Galaxy S25 Edge suggest the pendulum could swing the other way: We may just get an S26 Plus this year, as 9to5Google suggests. Rumors about this phone so far claim these specs:

• Screen: 6.7-inch display
• Cameras: Ultrawide camera could get an upgraded 50-megapixel sensor
• Processor and RAM: Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip in the US and China and 12GB of RAM
• Design: It will be 7.35mm thick

Despite early rumors from Android Authority suggesting Samsung might ditch its baseline phone for a pricier, more powerful Pro model, the latest leaks suggest Samsung will keep its standard Galaxy S26 model. We don't expect too many changes to the model's design, though it could see a return of a raised camera bump after the Galaxy S25 kept them flush with the rear cover. Rumors we've seeen about this phone so far agree on these specs:

• Screen: 6.3-inch display (the Galaxy S25 has a 6.2-inch display)
• Cameras: Ultrawide camera could get an upgraded 50-megapixel sensor
• Processor and RAM: Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip in the US and China, and 12GB of RAM
• Battery: 4,300-mAh battery

Today's Galaxy Unpacked event will be held at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The last time Samsung held an event at the Palace of Fine Arts was in February 2020, when it launched the original Galaxy Z Flip. A couple of weeks later, the US was locked down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's wild to think that was so long ago. 

Ahead of tomorrow's Galaxy Unpacked event, I felt nostalgic and pondered which of Samsung's Ultra phones is my favorite.

It's the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which looked like someone had melted a domino on the back of a phone, but cool. When Samsung launched the phone, it showed a nearly 3-minute video about how it developed the phantom black color. No other phone looked like it at the time or since. I know there are a lot of rumors about the Galaxy S26 Ultra. But it's hard to imagine it being half as cool as the S21 Ultra.

Hours before Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, a new leak reveals that the batteries in the unreleased Galaxy S26 series could have a shorter lifespan. The blog YTeche got a look at EU battery and charging labels for the rumored Samsung phones, which show that the number of battery cycles will be lower than on the Galaxy S25 line, as reported by Mashable. The label shows that the battery health is good (80% capacity) up to 1,200 cycles for the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra. A cycle is when you use all of the battery's power, which isn't necessarily a single charge.

According to the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling, the Galaxy S25's battery was rated to retain 80% of its capacity for up to 2,000 cycles. We will likely learn more about the rumored Galaxy S26 series in just a few hours.

They day before a big tech event is a swirl of rumors, early leaks, wish projection and (informed) speculation. In Tech Today, Owen Poole runs down everything we might see (and a couple things that likely won't make an appearance).

I know what the Galaxy S26 Ultra is shaping up to look like. I've seen the leaks, and it's clear Samsung is going with a softer, more rounded design this year, for all the sensible reasons: It's more comfortable in your hand and lines up visually with the rest of the S26 lineup. I get it. I really do. Rounded edges are safer, friendlier and probably easier to sell to more people.

But even knowing all that, I'm still annoyed. As a Galaxy Note-head, the boxy, sharp-cornered design felt intentional and a little industrial, like Samsung built a productivity tool. Now it's sanding everything down to blend in. That squareness made the S Pen feel like the point of the phone too, not just an extra feature, and gave the Ultra a personality that stood apart from this sea of glass slabs. If there's ever been a phone that deserves a little edge, it's the Ultra. 

Alas.

PhoneArena tipped us off to a first-impression video of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra from the YouTube channel SamZone, hailing from Bangladesh. Before the review even starts, we get a 7-minute action short: tactical gear, slow-mo, over-the-top violence -- the whole works. You almost forget you're watching a phone review.

Once the review does begin, it's a fairly standard first look, with hands-on footage of the phone, a walkthrough of the design and early impressions of the display, battery life, cameras and more. You can check it out above, but you'll need to understand Bengali if you want the full breakdown. Otherwise, you can just vibe to the visuals?

Every year, Qualcomm introduces its latest Snapdragon chip for mobile phones at the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. When I was in the audience at last September's event where the company revealed the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, I noticed a feature that would be awesome in the Galaxy S26 series: It can pull a single photo-quality frame from video footage. 

We've all been there at some point or another: You're recording a great video of something in motion -- maybe it's a performance. Maybe your kid or a relative, or a friend's kid is running around a youth sports match. Or maybe your favorite team is playing. But then the light hits just right and the subject twists just so, and… wouldn't that make a sublime still image? Too bad you're in the middle of shooting a video. Before you know it, the moment is lost. Everyone's seen a moment during a video that would've been incredible to immortalize in a single photo. Wouldn't it be great if you never missed that moment?

Will this make it into the Galaxy S26 phones? Possibly, but it's far from guaranteed. Qualcomm debuts new possibilities in its chips, but it's up to phone-makers like Samsung to integrate them into their phones. Moreover, not all Galaxy S26 phones sold will use a Qualcomm chip, as Samsung regularly splits regions by flagship phone configurations, shipping some with the latest Snapdragon chip and others with its Exynos chips. I just know that when I hear about fancy new chips, there are some features I give a polite golf clap for and some that I hoot and holler about.

Whenever I travel (like right now, as I head to Spain for Mobile World Congress), I have so many devices that I need to take turns charging them. There's a feature in most flagship smartphones that could probably help: reverse wireless charging. It lets me use my phone to wirelessly charge other devices. But it's so slow that I rarely use it, and I'm betting you don't either.

To wit, the Galaxy S25 has a reverse wireless charging rate of 5 watts (a feature Samsung calls Wireless PowerShare). That's abysmally glacial, and clearly nobody has the patience to let their products sit on the back of a phone (immobilizing both) for that long. If it were faster, perhaps at the phone's base wireless charging rate of 15 watts, I'd be able to harness the device to juice up my other gadgets while I slowly zap life back into my handset. As it is, 5 watts is nearly useless -- but improving it is one way Samsung could bring the Galaxy S26 further into the future.

Samsung's rugged sports watch got a new paint job last summer alongside the Galaxy Watch 8 and 8 Classic launch, but it could use a bigger overhaul to keep up with the competition. The most welcome upgrade would be to the battery life. At two days with the always-on display enabled (and up to three days without it), it's still the longest-lasting Galaxy Watch in the lineup. However, the Galaxy Watch 8 and 8 Classic aren't that far behind, making the Ultra's appeal a little less obvious.

Another feature that's become almost standard on rugged watches, and which the Ultra still lacks, is satellite connectivity. This can be a lifeline for adventure seekers looking to stay connected when they're miles off the grid.

There's a lot more Samsung could do with the Ultra, but this would be a good start and launching it at this Unpacked event, rather than bundling it with its siblings during the summer launch, would also give it a bigger stage to shine.

Despite launching the S26 series later than in previous years, Samsung is still unveiling its new flagships ahead of most of the competition. The highest-profile phones launching around this time, the Google Pixel 10A and the rumored-to-be-upcoming iPhone 17E, are or are likely sub-$700 phones that aren't as high-specced as flagships, so the S26 line will almost certainly outshine them. 

But both Google and Apple's devices coming out at this time will surely be stiff competition for another phone likely coming later this year: the Galaxy S26 FE. Like earlier Samsung "fan edition" handsets, it will offer flagship features with a few compromises at a lower price. For example, the Galaxy S25 FE launched back in September with a lot of the camera hardware and a few advanced features (like Text Call) of the standard S25, but for $150 less.

The FE series is in a tricky spot. It can't get all the best new perks of its pricier flagship siblings without cannibalizing sales, but it also faces increasing competition in the under-$700 price range. In his review of the $650 Galaxy S25 FE, CNET Senior Editor Mike Sorrentino noted that the $550 Motorola Edge was a cheaper alternative at the time, as was the $499 Google Pixel 9A (superseded by the identically priced Google Pixel 10A) and $599 iPhone 16E (which is about to be replaced by the iPhone 17E). We'll have to see what the Galaxy S26 launches with, and what Samsung allows to trickle down to its cheaper alternative device to entice people.

As much as I dislike reducing a phone down to a single feature, the OnePlus 15 stands out among Android handsets with its gargantuan 7,300-mAh battery, which easily lasted through most of the second day in my review period. And it didn't take long to juice back up, thanks to its 80-watt charging rate (up to 100 watts with a specialty charger). That sets the bar for the Galaxy S26 -- especially since OnePlus beat Samsung to the punch, releasing a phone with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip.

While we don't know the Galaxy S26's specs yet, it's unlikely that it'll outdo the OnePlus 15 on either metric. Its predecessors, the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus, had 4,000- and 4,900-mAh batteries with 25-watt wired charging. More capacity doesn't always mean longer battery life, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra could last longer with efficiency gains in hardware and software. But Samsung has capped its previous Ultra handsets at 45-watt peak charging for years, and it's high time the world's highest-selling phone-maker incorporated some long-overdue upgrades already present in other phones. 

Samsung dropped some more AI updates ahead of Unpacked. On Saturday, the company said it's expanding Galaxy AI by adding an AI agent from Perplexity to "upcoming flagship Galaxy devices." You can access Perplexity by saying "Hey, Plex" or by pressing and holding the phone's side button. The agent will be embedded across Samsung apps, including Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder, Calendar and some third-party apps.

"Perplexity's AI agent enables smoother, multi-step workflows, allowing users to move seamlessly between tasks without manually managing individual apps," Samsung said in a blog post. "This system-level approach offers Galaxy users a richer and more flexible AI experience across the device."

Samsung is seemingly pushing for a more intuitive AI experience with its upcoming devices, and adding another AI agent could help with that endeavor -- hopefully, without making things too confusing for phone owners. Motorola has similarly