5 things the Samsung Galaxy S26 is still missing | Tech Radar

Overview

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The Samsung Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra (Image credit: Future)

Details

After months of leaks, rumors, and speculation the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is finally here, but were these phones worth the wait?

We won’t be able to answer that definitively until we’ve put them through full reviews, but what is clear is that they’re in many ways iterative updates, and with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display they arguably lack for standout features.

These phones also lack certain features that they were at one point rumored to get. So below, you’ll find five things that the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is missing, with the list being a mix of things we at one point expected, and things that rivals have and we really wish Samsung would give us too.

5 rumored Samsung Galaxy S26 upgrades – from chipset surprises to magnetic charging

The Galaxy S26 lineup makes one thing clear: Samsung wants you in the Ultra

Leaked photos suggest the Samsung Galaxy S26 could be missing a major rumored upgrade

The One Plus 15 has a 7,300m Ah silicon-carbon battery (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The One Plus 15, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, and a number of other phones all have silicon-carbon batteries — a tech that allows them to boost capacities well beyond the roughly 5,000m Ah that most phones previously tended to top out at.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 series though doesn’t, with even the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra having just a 5,000m Ah battery — a capacity that looks distinctly lacking in the face of the roughly 7,000-9,000m Ah batteries we’re starting to see from some brands.

The good news is that Samsung claims to be working on offering silicon-carbon batteries in future, but that doesn’t help us right now.

The Pixel 10 series has built-in magnets (Image credit: John Velasco)

One rumor we heard numerous times in the run up to the Samsung Galaxy S26 line’s launch was that these phones would have built-in magnets, allowing you to attach magnetic chargers and other accessories to the phone, much like Apple’s Mag Safe system.

Sadly, this wasn’t to be, with Samsung instead selling cases with built-in magnets, which then let you attach other accessories — but if you don’t want to put your phone in a case, or prefer the design of a magnet-free case, then you can’t use this system.

That’s disappointing but not entirely surprising, as while the tech exists to do this on Android, manufacturers have seemed slow to embrace it. So far, Google’s Pixel 10 series are the only high-profile Android phones with magnets built in.

You can't track a Samsung Galaxy S26 if it's switched off (Image credit: Future)

One small but useful feature that you can get on Pixel phones but not yet on any Samsung Galaxy is powered-off Find Hub tracking.

5 rumored Samsung Galaxy S26 upgrades – from chipset surprises to magnetic charging

The Galaxy S26 lineup makes one thing clear: Samsung wants you in the Ultra

Leaked photos suggest the Samsung Galaxy S26 could be missing a major rumored upgrade

With this, you’d be able to use Google’s Find Hub network to locate your phone even when it’s switched off. But based on some code spotted by Android Authority, this doesn’t appear to be an option with any Samsung Galaxy S26 models.

While you can locate an offline Galaxy S26 using Samsung’s Smart Things Find, the phone still needs to be switched on, it just doesn’t require an internet connection. So Google’s solution is better, but so far it’s limited to Pixels.

Samsung hasn't followed in Apple's footsteps with an orange shade (Image credit: Future)

Apple sells the i Phone 17 Pro and i Phone 17 Pro Max in a divisive but definitely flashy Cosmic Orange shade, and early reports suggested one or more phones in the Samsung Galaxy S26 series might be sold in a similar color.

Yet, that hasn’t happened, with the three handsets instead sold in Black, White, Sky Blue, and Cobalt Violet, along with Samsung store-exclusive options of Silver Shadow and Pink Gold.

That’s not an awful selection but there’s nothing here that’s as bright, interesting, or unusual as an orange option could have been, so that — or another showy shade — would have been nice to see.

Even the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra tops out at just 60W charging (Image credit: Future)

Samsung actually has upgraded the charging power of some phones in the Galaxy S26 series, with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra both supporting 25W wireless charging (up from 15W on their predecessors), and the S26 Ultra additionally getting upgraded to 60W wired charging, rather than the 45W of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

However, the standard Samsung Galaxy S26 has had no such upgrades, with this still topping out at 25W for wired and 15W for wireless. And even in the case of the Ultra with its 60W wired and 25W wireless charging, it’s still miles behind some rivals.

The One Plus 15 for example supports 120W wired charging and 50W wireless, while the Xiaomi 17 similarly supports 100W wired charging and 50W wireless, and it’s a similar story with a lot of Chinese brands.

So along with an upgrade to silicon-carbon batteries, we’d have really liked to see some more charging power on offer from Samsung’s latest phones.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at Tech Radar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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Key Takeaways

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
The Samsung Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra (Image credit: Future)
After months of leaks, rumors, and speculation the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is finally here, but were these phones worth the wait
We won’t be able to answer that definitively until we’ve put them through full reviews, but what is clear is that they’re in many ways iterative updates, and with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display they arguably lack for standout features
These phones also lack certain features that they were at one point rumored to get