My theory about the Galaxy S26’s design was correct, but I’m afraid it’s not enough

But as with everything, I have to reconcile the bad with the good. While I’m thrilled to have predicted part of Samsung’s update that will bring back the personality of its flagships, I’m concerned about just about everything else that could come from Unpacked. This is what I think Samsung is still doing wrong.

Before I get into my fears, let me take a moment to say I told you so. Maybe I only pointed it out in the Galaxy A56 review, but I noticed it a few launches earlier: Samsung’s cheapest designs are almost always the most expensive. It started testing (or rather, retesting) the idea of ​​a raised camera bump on the Galaxy A26 and A36, and continued the trend with the later Galaxy A56. To me, this looked like Samsung was putting out feelers about how people would feel about the return of camera bumps.

Clearly the idea was well received. Here we are, less than a year later, and the leaks are pointing to camera bumps for all to see. As Oprah would say, you get a camera bump, and you get a camera bump. If you ask me, I’ll say, thank goodness – it’s about time. After a few years of taking away everything from the Galaxy S series to the point where the flagships resembled generic designs, Samsung was in dire need of something. Literally anything would do.

So it looks like the design team has done some testing. The first test, as far as I know, was introducing Key Island around the power button and volume rocker on the Galaxy AX5 series. That… still hasn’t made its way beyond budget offerings, suggesting it may not be as popular as a choice. On the other hand, it could just be a way to give the capacitive fingerprint reader a little more breathing room. Anyway, it’s still in the lab.

The return of the camera bump is interesting, though. At first glance, you might think this means Samsung will be making some serious updates to its sensors. After all, now he doesn’t have to place them so far into the bodies of his flagships if he doesn’t want to. However, a closer look at some of the links reveals that this new beauty may only be skin deep.

Don’t get me wrong – I like the new look purely because it is, well, something – but I don’t think it actually addresses many of Samsung’s real problems.

Normally with an aesthetic update like this you would hope for a few more upgrades. I don’t know, maybe a charging upgrade here, a battery upgrade there and a new camera sensor? Even one would do that. Instead, according to recent leaks, it seems that Samsung is content with doing… almost nothing.

I’m saying almost nothing because it’s true: the base Galaxy S26 is finally getting a bigger battery. The measly 4,000mAh cell of its predecessor is replaced by a whopping an absolutely gigantic 4,300mAh cell, finally bringing it in line with the much more complex split-cell design of the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Hooray, I think – now Samsung is only 600mAh behind the Pixel 10 instead of 900.

If I can say anything good about Samsung’s battery and charging setup, it’s that the Galaxy S26 Ultra is eligible for a wired charging bubble. It’s expected to go from 45W to 60W, which will fill the 5,000mAh cell (no bump there) just a little faster until thermal throttling kicks in. Hoping for some magnets and a taste of sweet, sweet Qi2 power? No, Samsung is sticking to its existing case-based strategy.

Oh, and if you were hoping for new camera sensors, you’ll have to keep waiting. So far, it looks like the wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto lenses will be the same as the previous generation: same sizes, same resolutions, same everything. It’s hard to overstate how disappointing this is, especially after Samsung barely changed the sensors from the previous Galaxy S24 series either.

Unfortunately, I think this means we all know the bulk of Samsung’s Galaxy S26 strategy: Galaxy AI here, there and everywhere. That wasn’t exciting two years ago and it wasn’t a selling point last year, but here we are. Samsung will likely follow Google’s lead and take the best features from everyone else, and trust that people will buy based on that. If they do, I have a bridge to sell them too.