The Galaxy S26 pricing saga is getting out of hand, and there's no one to blame but Samsung
Is anyone else more bothered by Samsung's indecision than the actual S26 series price hikes at this point?
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
We still don't know (for sure) if the S26 Ultra will be costlier than the S25 Ultra. | Image by Evan Blass
Before you go there, I'm not blaming leakers and news outlets for trying to milk this subject to the moon and back, but rather Samsung for showing a shocking lack of vision and, dare I say it, courage.
Just own up to it already, Samsung!
I think that everyone can understand we're living some pretty tough times from an economic standpoint, and the mobile industry is obviously not exempt from feeling the same squeeze we're all going through in our day-to-day lives.
Do I like to be constantly reminded that smartphone components (just like everything else nowadays) are getting more and more expensive? Absolutely not. Can that justify Samsung's rumored plan to charge more for the Galaxy S26 trio than last year's S25 roster? Of course, but what I can't understand for the life of me is why the tech giant has reportedly still not made a final decision on this front.
It's not like memory chips will magically get cheaper between today and February 25, so what exactly is the hold-up here? Now, granted, we can't know for sure if the latest pricing report is legit and Samsung's co-CEO is indeed still "agonizing" over this matter, but I have a pretty clear piece of evidence that I believe supports that theory (at least to a certain extent).
You know those free storage upgrade deals that the company has essentially offered for every new Galaxy S and Galaxy Z generation over the last few years? While a similar promotion was unveiled for the S26 family in Europe when reservations opened last week, it took Samsung quite some time to make the same (subtle) announcement in India.
Do you think the Galaxy S26 series will be costlier than the S25 family or not?
In other markets (like the US), no such offer is official just yet, which strongly suggests (to me, at least) that Samsung is kind of "winging" the Galaxy S26 launch and hesitating "until the very last minute" about that long-rumored price hike. That's not something I'd expect from the world's number two smartphone vendor, which is starting to look like a frightened industry rookie all of a sudden.
The lack of innovation remains the big problem
Let's not kid ourselves here, TM Roh is not "agonizing" over the S26 trio's pricing structure because he cares about your current financial difficulties. The concern is many of you won't buy a "vanilla" Galaxy S26 at, say, $900, and that's because there are no key upgrades or substantial improvements over the Galaxy S25 to justify a price increase.
If there were, I believe Samsung would have clarified this matter by now, issuing an official statement to explain the challenges all smartphone manufacturers are facing with rising memory prices and tease the great innovations the S26 family will bring to quell your concerns.
The Galaxy S26 looks virtually identical to its predecessor, which would obviously make any price hike pretty hard to digest. | Image by Evan Blass
At worst, the company would have planted such a story at a relatively well-known social media leaker to justify its "inevitable" pricing decision, which hasn't happened either. I hope you're not so naive as to think that never happens, are you?
For instance, I don't think the recent rumors about the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max retaining the same prices as their predecessors in the fall are false, and I also don't believe the information has made it to press without Apple's knowledge, which only leaves one possibility, and it's something that I'm fairly certain Samsung does pretty frequently as well.
But that means our story could still have a happy ending (as unlikely as it may sound), and at least in the US, the prices might go unchanged after all. Maybe. Hopefully. Let a boy dream, will you?
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