Compared to their predecessors, the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra are now guaranteed to arrive a little later in the year, but while that doesn't seem to bother many prospective buyers that much (at least in theory), Samsung may have a far more serious problem on its hands in the lead-up to a big announcement event purportedly scheduled for February 25.
Timing is not everything
In fact, timing apparently doesn't matter at all for nearly 45 percent of respondents to a recent survey about the Galaxy S26 family. Even more encouragingly for Samsung (and surprisingly for yours truly), an additional 20.5 percent of voters do appear to care about said handset family's launch schedule while deeming the rumored February 26 pre-order and March 11 sales dates as "just right."
Is this the right schedule for the Galaxy S26 family?
That's surprising to me because the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra were already official and up for pre-order this time last year, going on sale around the world as early as February 3, 2025. Back in 2024, the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra were formally unveiled and commercially released even earlier (specifically, on January 17 and January 24, respectively), so in a lot of ways, I feel like Samsung is going back in time rather than moving forward (literally and figuratively speaking) with the Galaxy S26 trio.
But only 36.23 percent of you seem to agree with me that Samsung should have moved more quickly with the S26 series development and production and made the company's "next big things" a commercial reality by now. That's not an insignificant number of people, of course, but for the most part, consumers are showing unexpected patience and restraint... on one important condition.
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The Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn't exactly look radically different from its predecessor in this newly leaked image.
And here's where things get tricky for the world's second-largest smartphone vendor. Those 43.27 percent of poll voters who don't mind waiting until February 25 for a formal announcement and March 11 to actually get their hands on a Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, or S26 Ultra are likely to radically change their stance if the "new" devices end up looking as similar to their forerunners as we currently expect.
I'm not saying that entire number will add to the 36.23 percent of already dissatisfied survey respondents immediately after the S26 trio's launch, but even if just half of the PhoneArena readers who "only care about upgrades" and not dates end up deciding the changes and improvements don't justify the wait in this case, Samsung is in big trouble.
What if there's more to the Galaxy S26 series than meets the eye?
If things were not crystal clear before yesterday, it's now pretty much etched in stone that the S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra will all lookextremely similar to the S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. But that's obviously only on the surface, and while many of the recently revealed specs also seem to be unchanged, some new features, technologies, and tools are naturally in the pipeline as well.
Is the Privacy Screen your main reason for buying the Galaxy S26 Ultra this year?
One particularly innovative function (that will apparently be exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra) captured the spotlight earlier this week, and while a rather concerning number of respondents to a separate survey started a few days ago still have no intention of buying Samsung's next S Pen-wielding super-flagship, a third poll puts the jumbo-sized handset well above its little brothers in your preferences as a consequence of a promising pricing rumor.
If the rumored prices pan out, which Galaxy S26 model sounds better to you?
Clearly, Samsung can still reward the patience of its most devoted fans in a number of crucial ways, at least as far as the S26 Ultra is concerned. Unfortunately, the S26 Plus and perhaps especially the "vanilla" S26 are essentially doomed already in the eyes of many consumers, and although their late release is obviously not solely to blame for that, it's also not helping their cause and improving their mass appeal.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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