What I think Samsung should do with the Galaxy S26 ‣ Diverse Daily

Summary

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series is a minor upgrade from the previous model, lacking significant new features.
Predictions for the Galaxy S26 include silicon-carbon battery tech and camera upgrades.
Samsung may need to explore new form factors and design elements to stand out in a stagnant smartphone market.

Samsung feels like a bit of a contradiction at the moment. While it’s at the forefront of smartphone design with foldables like the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, it also just released the Galaxy S25 series, which may be one of its most conservative flagship launches ever. The consensus seems to be that while the S25 lineup is solid, it’s only a tiny evolution over the S24, mostly offering faster performance and a few new AI options. If you have an S24 or even an S23, there’s not much reason to upgrade.

That raises an important question, from a tech industry perspective — where can Samsung’s design go from here? I think it’s safe to say that Samsung can’t keep treading water if it wants to stand out in the market — and yet the company doesn’t seem inclined to swim back to shore anytime soon.

Samsung Galaxy S25

The base model of Samsung’s flagship smartphone lineup for 2025, the S25 features the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a 6.2-inch display panel, and a triple camera array.

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A few prospects, but not many

The future is probably already written

Galaxy S25 Edge on display at Galaxy Unpacked.

I can picture the Galaxy S26 in my head already. The latest rumor, via FNN News, is that upcoming Samsung phones will switch to silicon-carbon battery technology. It’s a variant of lithium-ion, the main improvement being better energy density, supporting thinner battery packs with equal capacity. There’s a strong chance the S26 will look like the (still mysterious) Galaxy S25 Edge — which, like the iPhone 17 Air, might be Samsung’s way of testing the waters with silicon-carbon. Although the tech is already in a handful of Chinese phones, Apple and Samsung may be reluctant to go all-in just yet.

AI ambitions will probably be closely tied to whatever Google’s working on.

Based on Samsung’s release history, I can make other predictions, too. Samsung will naturally offer some sort of processor upgrade, possibly paired with more RAM to better support its AI ambitions. And of course there will be camera upgrades, one rumor being that Samsung wants to use a 200-megapixel periscope zoom system. That could make the S26 Ultra a photography powerhouse, although again, it would just be keeping up with Chinese phones like the Vivo X200 Pro.

Those AI ambitions will probably be closely tied to whatever Google’s working on. The S25 makes Google Gemini a key component, and Samsung has previously cooperated with Google on other AI features like circle-to-search. Samsung will undoubtedly want to put its own stamp on things — just don’t expect anything radical.

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More the same isn’t enough

What should Samsung be exploring?

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If none of those S26 rumors sound exciting, I don’t think they should be. Yes, better battery life — or at least thinner designs with the same longevity — will have an impact on daily use, but probably not a dramatic one. We’re a far cry from the days when Samsung was making conspicuous leaps every generation or two. There’s nothing dramatic on the horizon, and it’s a little disheartening. Even the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 will probably be minor upgrades based on the few rumors I’ve seen so far.

One thing Samsung needs to do is experiment with form factors, and I don’t mean changing how sharp its corners are to match whatever Apple’s into this year. It could, for example, try to make its phones a little more ergonomic, though that seems unlikely given how cost-effective it is to churn out a brick of metal and glass. It might try putting a little more art into its camera bumps. We’ve got the Pixel 9, OnePlus 13, and many other phones as models — there’s no law dictating that Samsung phones have to use the most minimalist camera arrangement possible.

There’s nothing dramatic on the horizon, and it’s a little disheartening.

Perhaps the company could take a look at some of the more fringe brands out there, like Nothing or ASUS’ ROG lineup. Something like (but not directly copying) the Nothing Phone’s glyph lighting or the ROG Phone 9’s rear LED panel could give Samsung phones a more distinctive aesthetic, while serving a practical purpose in the form of notifications. It’s 2025 — if we’re going to live in a cyberpunk dystopia, it’s about time our phones look the part.

Not every change has to appear on the outside. Samsung is a gigantic conglomerate with its own chip manufacturing unit, and it’s amazing to me that the company hasn’t been able to come up with an Exynos processor that beats Apple, Google, or Qualcomm’s in-house designs. That’s easier said than done as die sizes get closer and closer to 1nm, yet it’d be a strategic coup, enabling noticeably more advanced AI and gaming.

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Does Samsung even have an incentive to change course?

The peak smartphone problem

It could be that Samsung is perfectly fine with the status quo. Its phones remain popular, especially in the US, where most Chinese brands aren’t allowed to compete. As long as it can match or beat what Apple and Google are up to, it’s going to enjoy a healthy marketshare.

It may also be that, as some have pointed out, we’ve reached “peak smartphone.” In that view, there’s not much progress left for smartphones anyway, at least beyond annual spec upgrades — they’ve become a commodity. In the next several years, there’s even the possibility of them being replaced by smart glasses. Samsung was one of the first companies to announce a headset for Google’s Android XR platform, and with a few more years of development, miniaturization could put XR in something as compact as Meta’s Ray-Ban shades. Time will tell.

My own sense is that Samsung is somewhere in between. It doesn’t have any particular pressure to innovate faster, and it’s out of easy options, too — no one’s going to get excited over folding or “waterfall” displays anymore. I’m predicting that the S26 and S27 will be nearly identical to each other, short of a technical breakthrough that comes from elsewhere in the industry.