Starting from 6,999 yuan! The Samsung S26 series has increased in price across the board—how should you choose?

Source: Consumer Reports Author: Zhang Derong

Just after the Spring Festival, the global Android leader Samsung took the lead in “handing in its homework.” On the early morning of February 26, Beijing time, Samsung Electronics held the Galaxy Unpacked launch event in San Francisco, officially unveiling the Galaxy S26 series flagship phones.

The series continues the product lineup of the S25 series, including S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra models, with all configurations upgraded to a minimum of 12GB + 256GB. Additionally, the new products feature hardware and AI capabilities upgrades, with an anti-peep display becoming a major highlight of this release.

In terms of processor configuration, the S26 and S26+ models sold in South Korea, parts of Europe, and other markets are equipped with the world’s first 2nm process chip, Exynos 2600. The S26 series sold in China, the US, and other markets, as well as the global S26 Ultra, are powered by the 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 chip. However, in Geekbench Vulkan tests, both chips scored around 27,000 points, indicating roughly comparable overall performance.

Regarding the display, the S26 Ultra debuts with Flex Magic Pixel anti-peep technology. This technology controls the emission angle of subpixels to narrow the visible range from the sides, physically preventing the risk of screen peeking in public places. Users can also set specific anti-peep configurations for certain apps, notification pop-ups, and secure files.

Beyond the hardware and feature upgrades, the entire launch conveyed two key signals for the 2026 smartphone market: product price increases and AI-driven differentiated competition. The reasons are that by 2026, the global smartphone market will enter a new stage of “cost pressure + value creation,” with rising memory prices and increased demand for AI data centers reshaping industry cost structures.

Samsung Can’t Escape Storage Price Hikes

The launch of the Galaxy S26 series officially marks the beginning of price increases in the global smartphone market in 2026.

The starting prices of the S26 and S26+ are each 1,000 yuan higher than the previous generation, while the S26 Ultra’s starting price has increased by 300 yuan. Samsung also offers discounts: consumers purchasing larger storage versions can enjoy an 800 yuan discount.

It is worth noting that the starting price of the Chinese version of the S26 series is 6,999 yuan. This means the Samsung S26 series does not fall within the “national subsidy” range for phones priced below 6,000 yuan. Industry insiders told Consumer Reports that, besides the price increase, the inability to qualify for “national subsidies” could further impact the sales of the S26 series.

The general consensus attributes the price hikes to rising storage costs, with manufacturers forced to raise prices and adjust configurations to maintain profit margins. Tarun Pathak, Director of Counterpoint Research, predicts that the average selling price (ASP) of global smartphones will continue to rise, driven by deeper high-end trends, demand for AI features, and rising DRAM/NAND prices.

Ryan Reith, Vice President of IDC’s Global Customer Devices Research Group, said that the currently widespread “unprecedented” shortage of storage chips is expected to cause a market downturn in 2026, with the duration of the shortage directly affecting the extent of market contraction. Despite shipment pressures, rising costs are likely to keep the average selling price rising.

Industry analysts believe that amid exploding demand for AI computing power, giants like Samsung and SK Hynix are prioritizing capacity for more profitable AI storage, actively reducing mobile memory production, which has led to a shortage and price increases in mobile memory.

Even Samsung, a storage giant, cannot escape the impact of rising storage prices. According to Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division quoted Apple with a 100% price increase, which Apple accepted, putting pressure on Samsung’s mobile division to raise prices as well. Citing sources, the report states that Samsung’s semiconductor division has abandoned long-term supply agreements with Samsung Electronics’ mobile experience division, replacing them with quarterly contracts to maximize profits. Amid global tightness in memory supply, Samsung’s mobile experience division will ensure Galaxy S26 shipments by sharing initial LPDDR5X memory supply between Samsung Semiconductor and Micron Technology.

The rising memory prices have also led several well-known institutions to lower their sales forecasts for the 2026 smartphone market. Omdia’s report “DRAM Devours Smartphones: Key Success Factors for 2026” indicates that supply-side pressures on DRAM, NAND, and other semiconductors are intensifying, causing concern among manufacturers. These constraints could compress profit margins, force product price adjustments, and ultimately suppress consumer demand and shipment expectations for 2026.

Some institutions also suggest that 2026 will see a “volume pressure and structural differentiation” adjustment period. IDC predicts that the low-end market will be most affected, with price increases severely impacting price-sensitive consumers, leading some manufacturers to strategically shrink their low-end product lines. IDC forecasts that China’s smartphone shipments in 2026 will be about 278 million units, down 2.2% year-over-year. The share of phones priced above $600 will reach 35.9%, up 5.4 percentage points; the $400-600 segment will account for 10.1%, down 0.8 percentage points; the $200-400 segment will be 34.0%, down 0.3 percentage points; and the below-$200 market share will shrink by 4.3 percentage points to 20.0%.

Google Gemini Enters the Arena

Compared to typical hardware parameter upgrades, another focus of Samsung’s Galaxy launch event was Google’s AI assistant Gemini, which will be integrated into several flagship phones this year. Sameer Samat, President of Google Android Ecosystem, stated that Gemini-powered phones will emphasize automation features as a key focus of the Android 17 upgrade this year. Notably, in January, Apple confirmed an agreement with Google to use Gemini as the underlying AI for Siri upgrades.

In addition to Gemini, Samsung phones also incorporate two AI engines: Perplexity for web queries, and Bixby, an on-device assistant driven by Samsung’s self-developed large model. “Galaxy AI acts as a coordinator, integrating different forms of AI services into a natural, coherent user experience,” said Choi Won-jun, President and COO of Samsung Mobile. He added that as long as these AI agents are competitive and can deliver the best user experience, Samsung remains open to different solutions.

On the application level, the biggest upgrade in the S26 series is the new camera features brought by Galaxy AI. AI multi-frame fusion technology can brighten images, enhance detail resolution, and reduce noise in low-light environments. Photo editing is also more straightforward—users can input natural language commands to quickly edit photos without complex parameter adjustments or app switching. For example, Galaxy AI can fill in a bitten cake, turn daytime photos into atmospheric night scenes, or intelligently merge multiple images into a better composition. AI editing commands can also help users unleash creativity, such as adding accessories to pet photos or generating stickers with various expressions and poses.

Through Galaxy AI, a bitten paper cupcake can be restored to its complete form. (Image source: Samsung Electronics)

(Images source: Samsung Official Website)

Regarding the global smartphone market trend in 2026, Liu Yixuan, head of Omdia’s smartphone research, believes that manufacturers are leveraging AI differentiation to enhance competitiveness. AI has evolved from a selling point to a key factor defining user experience and value, influencing future upgrade decisions.

IDC predicts that in 2026, the shipment of new AI smartphones in China will reach 147 million units, a 31.6% increase year-over-year, accounting for 53% of the total market. End-cloud integration will become the mainstream service model, with manufacturers increasingly utilizing external cloud-based large models while focusing their resources on lightweight, multi-modal models on the device for deep reasoning. Under the premise of ensuring data security, they pursue personalized and customized AI terminals.