Amid the Greco-Roman grandeur of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Samsung announced the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra at its Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday. The phones are a follow-up to last year's Galaxy S25 series and have a unified design, top-of-the-line Snapdragon processors and AI features that seem truly useful, such as the ability to order an Uber with your voice from the lock screen.

The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus also come with a $100 price hike, with the S26 starting at $900 and the Plus at $1,100 (that's just $200 less than the $1,300 S26 Ultra). It's unclear if tariffs or the ongoing RAM shortage were to blame for the price increase, but Samsung has a number of preorder deals to make up for the difference. 

At a time when phone-makers are sprinting to incorporate AI into their phones and develop features that connect with people, Samsung is making a renewed push with its third-generation Galaxy AI. Whether it's taking better selfies, swapping out a shirt you're wearing in a photo for another, or delivering relevant info and resources at your fingertips when you need them, the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus might be that turning point that convinces people skeptical of AI to give it a try.

During a briefing on the new phones, a Samsung representative said that the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus have "AI all over the place," and based on my time with them so far, I couldn't agree more.

The Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra are available to preorder and will be in stores on March 11. Be sure to read CNET senior reporter Abrar Al-Heeti's Galaxy S26 Ultra hands-on story to learn more about it.

Watch this: The Galaxy S26 Has a Bigger Screen, Battery and Price

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Galaxy S26 design: Bigger but slim

The base model of the Galaxy S26 has a new design, but the S26 Plus, not so much. The S26's display grew from 6.2 inches on the S25 to 6.3 inches. The phone is a hair taller and wider as a result. It simultaneously seems much bigger, thanks to that extra screen real estate, and yet feels just as slim as the S25, at 7.2mm thick. 

The S26 Plus has the same 6.7-inch screen as last year's S25 Plus. Both phones (and the Ultra) come in cobalt violet, white, sky blue and black.

Galaxy S26 battery: Larger capacity

The Galaxy S26 has a 4,300-mAh battery, up from the S25's 4,000-mAh capacity. For reference, the Galaxy S25 performed the same in our Labs testing as Google's Pixel 10. Both phones did fine but didn't break any records. Hopefully, that larger capacity and the efficiency from the new processor mean the Galaxy S26 gets even better battery life. The Plus has a 4,900-mAh battery, the same as the S25 Plus.

Like the S25, the S26 supports 25-watt wired charging and 15-watt wireless charging. The Plus supports 45-watt wired charging and 20-watt wireless charging. Sadly, there are no magnets built into either phone to support magnetic accessories like wallets, battery packs and stands. Samsung told me the decision to omit magnets was to keep the phones thin. Mission accomplished. But like last year, Samsung offers cases that support magnetic accessories.

Galaxy S26 cameras: Now with more AI

The cameras on the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus are the same hardware as the S25 series, with a 50-megapixel wide-angle, 13-megapixel ultrawide and 10-megapixel 3x telephoto. On the base model, I can understand why Samsung would do that. But at $1,100, the S26 Plus' cameras are competing against the likes of the iPhone 17 Pro. Obviously, it's the Ultra that has the best and most versatile camera system out of the three Samsungs. I just wish that the Plus would inherit the Ultra's main camera to make it more competitive.

But it's the camera AI features that are really compelling. For example, there's Advanced Selfie, which uses AI and machine learning to improve skin tones and texture. There's an updated version of Photo Assist that lets me use Galaxy AI prompts to edit my image. And it's not just removing objects. I can change an image's background to a brick wall or change the color of the shirt I'm wearing without using a single photo editing tool.

Horizontal lock is perhaps the one camera AI feature that I'd use the most. If you're recording a video in landscape (think of a crowded party or chasing your toddler), Horizontal lock keeps the image level no matter how much you move, twist or rotate the S26/S26 Plus. Even if you turn the phone a full 360 degrees, your horizon stays completely locked. I tried it a few times, and it worked really well. I did notice that when the S26 was shaking, the image's foreground appeared warped, while the horizon remained level, so I'm excited to test this more.

Galaxy S26 processor and AI

All three Galaxy S26 phones have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip. That "for Galaxy" nomenclature means the processor is optimized for Galaxy AI and can be more efficient when it comes to a lot of the camera AI features, for example.

More broadly, all three Galaxy S26 phones offer an expanded version of Galaxy AI, which seems to be focused on making phone tasks convenient. For example, there's an automated app action (not new) to help tasks move forward, and now there's support for third-party apps out of the box, like Uber. 

I can press the side button and say, "Get me an Uber ride to the San Francisco airport." A few seconds later, a window pops up, starting the process. You see a small version of the Uber app against a rainbow background, then select the ride you want and your payment options. If you're multitasking, a little shortcut at the top of the screen will bring you back to the interface when you tap it. The automation window has an option to "take control" at any time. 

I only saw a demo of this; no Uber rides were actually booked. But I'd be curious to test it out in real life, especially if I could specify a preferred ride type and my payment method, so I'd only have to approve the payment.

Other Galaxy AI updates include:

Creative Studio: a new hub for AI creation tools, like the ability to make stickers out of photos of your pets or create greetings and invitations.

Audio Eraser: Now third-party apps like Netflix, YouTube and Instagram have a quick panel to eliminate distracting background noise in videos, shows and movies.

Document Scanner: When you're in the Camera app, the phone can identify a document in the frame, let you scan it, even if it's multiple pages, and remove shadows and creases automatically.

Now Nudge: Built into the phone's keyboard, it can understand context and surface relevant info, images and documents, no matter the app.

Circle to Search: Support for multiple-object search, so if you circle an outfit someone is wearing on your screen, you can see each item's info (sweater, watch, shoes and so on) and even view a preview of that item on yourself.

Bixby: Now uses an LLM to understand natural language, so you can control it with prompts that sound conversational. 

Call Screening: Uses Galaxy AI to answer calls from unknown numbers to identify callers.

Scam Detection: If you're on a phone call, this will alert you if it might be a scam.

Galaxy S26 final thoughts for now

The base model of the Galaxy S26 impressed me, though the higher price definitely changes its value for me. Whereas the Galaxy S26 Plus seems less like an upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Plus and more of a version 2.0, its higher price puts it against competing phones with better cameras. I look forward to testing and reviewing the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus for a full review.