What Samsung is doing to the Galaxy S26 Ultra will convince even more people to just get an iPhone

When it was first announced that Samsung was rounding out the corners on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, I was pretty mad. The Samsung phones had, in just a couple of years, become almost unrecognizable from their past counterparts.

Those sharp edges, that authoritative presence, and the overall vibe exuding from them — that of a true flagship phone — become unmistakable. And now, Samsung was just throwing it away.



Granted, the new design is a bit easier on the hands, but I was in the camp of people who wanted the Galaxy flagships to remain looking like the most commanding phones on the market. Suffice to say that the new design, no matter how sleek and pretty it looks, is a downgrade for me.

And, what do you know, Samsung is doing it again with even rounder corners for the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Samsung phones are losing their identity

If Samsung is making its flagship even rounder, then it is completely giving up the visual identity associated with its phones. The S26 Ultra will look even more like the base model Galaxy S26, and will resemble the iPhone even more.

Apple commands massive market share in the U.S. — though that has slipped a bit recently — and Samsung needs to stand out as much as possible. I don’t know about you, but if I was an iPhone 16 user wanting to switch to an Android, I’d have accepted Samsung a lot easier if its phones still looked distinctly different.

If the average consumer looks at the two phones side-by-side and doesn’t notice any major differences, then there is a good chance that they’ll just choose the popular iPhone brand. Apple being an American company already gives it an edge over Samsung across the United States.

I don’t want a Galaxy S26 Pro Max, Samsung, I want you to bring back what the Ultra used to be. Or, hear me out, just give us the Note phones again. I loved how they used to look.

Apple is doing the same thing

Fascinatingly, or frustratingly, Apple is doing the same thing. The new iPhone 17 Pro redesign is heavily inspired by the Google Pixel 9 and its previous iterations. In fact, the iPhone 17 Air is pretty much a Pixel phone if you look at it without paying much attention.

Why are both Samsung and Apple giving up their phones’ unique identities? Change is good, I’m not arguing that, but these are mostly minor cosmetic tweaks to make their phones seem like they’re evolving.

And yet, the Ultra phones retain their 5,000 mAh batteries, and the iPhone is only now moving over to 120 Hz across all models. What’s going on here? Is Google the only manufacturer out of the big three that remembers what its phones are supposed to look like? What’s the point of making everything look and feel the same?

Fortunately, there are at least some upgrades coming in the future that will make the iPhone and Galaxy phones worth getting. From Apple’s side, the iPhone 20 Pro will be introducing a display design that I am very hopeful will inspire more manufacturers to take inspiration from. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S26 Edge will hit the limits of what is possible with Li-ion batteries, hopefully forcing Samsung to switch to silicon batteries too.

For now, though, I think Samsung is making a big mistake with how it’s redesigning the S26 Ultra. I can’t speak for everyone, but I would definitely think twice about buying a Galaxy flagship if it was just going to look like an old iPhone.

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