Samsung Galaxy S26+ | Photo Credit: BIJOY GHOSH
This year, the S26 triplets are at a place where it’s the best mix in terms of AI, photography and features. On paper, the middle sibling — the Galaxy S26+ looks like the best of both worlds between the Flagship S26 Ultra and the vanilla S26. It was in for review, and here is my take on the S26+.
Out of the box, the Galaxy S26+ almost felt like the S26 Ultra with its flat display and neatly-rounded curved edges. It’s only after I tapped the lower edge that I figured this is the S26+ which doesn’t have a stylus. Measuring in at 158.4 x 75.8 x 7.3 mm, the phone was slim and comfortably slipped into the pocket . Weighing in at 190 grams, the phone just had enough heft to make its presence felt in hand as well as inside the pocket.
The Cobalt Violet colourway offers a sophisticated lavender-inspired aesthetic that stands out alongside the standard Black and the Samsung.com-exclusive Silver Shadow and Pink Gold options. However, this finish is a notorious fingerprints magnet, with oil smudges appearing prominently against the violet surface. Beyond the upkeep, the protruding camera rings cause the device to rock unsteadily when placed on flat surfaces, making it difficult to use while resting on a desk or table without a case to level it out.
The Galaxy S26+ features a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel that remains a standout, pushing a sharp QHD+ (3120 x 1440) resolution. With a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and 16M color depth, the screen delivers the fluid motion and vibrant accuracy expected of a top-tier flagship.
Being an AMOLED display, it served well as a media consumption device — Catching up on the Rookie or Extraction 2 felt like this screen was made for it with colour, skin tones, deep blacks and contrast coming out quite well on the near-bezeless display.
The dual speakers deliver a decent performance, though they struggle to maintain composure at higher volumes. The audio remains crisp and well-defined up to roughly 66 per cent volume, but pushing past that threshold results in a loss of detail and a noticeably flat sound profile. Considering the S26+ carries a premium price tag, the lack of a fuller, more consistent soundstage feels like a missed opportunity for Samsung to truly deliver a flagship audio experience.
The Galaxy S26+ features the Samsung Exynos 2600 which is also found on the vanilla S26. The Exynos 2600 is Samsung’s flagship-tier processor built on the 2nm process. In AnTuTu synthetic benchmarks, the phone was able to score 2650982 placing it between the OnePlus 15R(2,713,712) and the realme GT 7 (2,445,477).
I was able to play both Rainbow 6 mobile and BGMI at 60FPS , both played well without any frame stutters. The phone while video filming at 4k+, gaming and benchmarking did get warm and thermal throttled a small bit, but for day-to-day use, the heat management of the device in Chennai summers were ok, but not something to write off if you are a hardcore power user.
Galaxy AI in the S26+ like the S26 Ultra and S26 is very refined, Audio eraser not just helps to remove background noise in videos shot on the phone, but also on audio from YouTube and more.
AI Call Screening helps identify unknown callers in real-time, asks for their intent while live Translate: Now supports more languages and works across third-party VoIP apps, allowing for seamless real-time voice translation during calls. These worked well on the device.
Now Nudge uses on-device context to provide timely suggestions, such as reminding you of a meeting or suggesting a route based on your current location and traffic while Now Brief lets one generate a personalised morning or evening briefing that summarises your schedule, unread emails, and relevant news which at times is useful for those on the move.
The Galaxy S26+ features a triple-threat rear camera setup led by a 50MP main sensor with a fast f/1.8 aperture, supported by OIS and Dual Pixel AF. It is supported by a 10MP 3x optical telephoto and a 12MP ultra-wide.
Photos taken off the rear camera setup were vibrant and had a bit of contrast, though sharpness of the telephoto and ultra-wide were middle of the mile quality when zoomed in, breaking in quality post 4.5x while zooming in. Night time pictures were also ok, with a decent amount of resolution, but with slight noise to boot, but enough for social media posting.
Video remains a flagship highlight, offering 8K recording at 30fps with enhanced stabilisation. Horizon lock, an interesting feature, helps keep the horizon locked no matter how you turn/tilt the phone while shooting a video and this is good for those looking to shoot action videos using this phone. When tried out-it does as it claims — keeping the horizon steady, is a win in my book.
The Samsung Galaxy S26+ features a 4,900 mAh battery. This with calls, messages and internet use besides gaming and video play was able to get through one day with 12 per cent left before putting the phone to charge.
The box doesn’t come with a charger, but has a charger cable. On average it took about 1 hour 10 minutes to charge using an old 25-watt charger lying around home. The phone supports up to 45W charging and can easily charge in under an hour using one.
The Samsung Galaxy S26+ has a premium design and delivers great performance and has a colourful AMOLED display which is great for consuming content on. Along with OneUI 8 and refined Galaxy AI. It makes it a compelling buying proposition.
At ₹1,19,000, the price does seem overkill for a plus size phone which faces competition with flagships such as the iPhone 17 Pro, the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL and the vivo X300 Pro which all excel on many fronts including camera and battery which the Galaxy S26+ just seem behind on. In case you are looking for a plus size phone and are willing to look beyond stellar cameras and battery life, then the Samsung Galaxy S26+ can be worth getting.
Price: ₹1,19,999.
Pros: Great display, premium design, refined AI features
Cons: Average camera, battery life, overpriced
Published on April 29, 2026
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。