Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S26 series screams comfort food - a bland confectionary that would satiate your hunger but never inspire, an eminently functional trio that will never move you to raptures, a safe haven, and utterly boring.
At a time when even Apple seems to be experimenting with new form factors, Samsung is resorting to formulaic iterations. What's more, it is being incentivized to do so.
Samsung's bland Galaxy S26 series
If you've been following the rants against Samsung by the notable tipster Ice Universe, you would know that he seems to hold utter contempt for the South Korean giant's lack of initiative in the smartphone sphere. While some suggest that he is doing so out of spite now that his access to Samsung's inner sanctums has been supposedly restricted, one can't summarily dismiss the soundness of the tipster's logical arguments.
After all, from whichever way you look at it, Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S26 series is utterly iterative and banal, by any definition of the word. Sure, the base Galaxy S26 will get a slightly bigger screen, while the S26 Ultra will be marginally thinner and sport more rounded edges.
Also, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will presumably have a selfie camera hole that will be around 4mm bigger than its predecessor's, resulting in an increased field of view. In the same vein, the S26 series is also finally getting iPhone-level wireless charging, and bringing back rear camera islands. But, no one would argue that these changes constitute a revolutionary design language.
In fact, the biggest excitement around the Galaxy S26 series this time around appears to be in relation to the Exynos 2600 chip, which appears to be performing extraordinarily well in early benchmark tests. Then again, only the base and the plus variants of the S26 series will get Samsung's in-house SoC, and that too in select regions.
Some would point to Samsung's about-to-be-revealed Galaxy Z TriFold as a stellar example of the South Korean giant's capacity to take risks. I concur. The TriFold is an consummately risky gambit. But then again, no one doubts Samsung's ability to innovate or take risks. The problem is its inertia, that it is deliberately holding itself back as a result of perverse incentives.
Samsung's perverse incentive to hold back
Jason C. recently made a very cogent argument by suggesting that Samsung sees "AI compute, HBM leadership, 2nm and 1.4nm GAA, Packaging (X-Cube, I-Cube), [and] Next-gen sensors and memory" as its true cash cows.
Even though the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will retail for over $1,000, it'll still entail relatively inconsequential margins due to the very high cost of components.
On the other hand, a successful 2nm process or a truly competitive HBM4 offering can generate profits that are orders of magnitude higher than Samsung's entire smartphone lineup.
In this paradigm, Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S26 series, as well as the plethora of other phones that it sells, serve a singular purpose: generate enough cash to keep Samsung's fabs and AI-focused R&D efforts well-funded.
Samsung is no longer betting its future on the smartphone-centric MX division. So, an iterative, bland, monotonous, and insipid Galaxy S26 lineup is A-okay as long as it generates enough cash to meet the South Korean behemoth's requisite liquidity needs. This is the essence of the perverse incentive that Samsung is currently contending with. And, as long as the situation persists, the Galaxy S-series will likely remain bereft of meaningful innovation.
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