The Best Samsung Phones of 2026, Tested and Reviewed Leave a comment
Other Samsung Phones to Consider
If you do not see a Samsung cellphone talked about on this information, that is perhaps as a result of it is not offered within the US and is just a little more durable to supply for testing. But listed below are just a few different Samsung telephones I’ve examined to contemplate.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge for $1,220: Have you ever wished a actually skinny and light-weight cellphone? No? Well, Samsung has an choice for you anyway. The Galaxy S25 Edge (6/10, WIRED Review) sits within the center of Samsung’s flagship lineup and matches a number of options of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, like a titanium body, stronger entrance glass, and 4K 120 frames per second video recording. All the cameras even have autofocus. But it made a number of sacrifices to realize its amazingly slim 5.8-mm body (for context, the S25 Ultra is 8.2 mm thick). There’s no stylus, no telephoto digital camera, and worst of all, the battery capability has been slashed. We’ve seen this earlier than—skinny telephones have all the time compromised on battery life, and that is no completely different right here. I always needed to child this cellphone’s 3,900-mAh battery with common to heavy utilization, and that is simply not acceptable. (The iPhone Air did it higher.) If you end up always close to an influence supply and you suppose you will benefit from the slim and mild design, then go for it. Rumors recommend that the Edge didn’t carry out nicely, and it could not see a successor in 2026.
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G for $200: On paper, the Galaxy A17 (5/10, WIRED Review) looks as if a extremely nice deal. Six years of software program help, an AMOLED display, expandable storage, and an honest digital camera. Unfortunately, it is held again by lackluster efficiency. The downside is particularly the very restricted 4 GB of RAM within the US mannequin, which severely ruins the whole expertise of utilizing the cellphone. If you had to make use of your smartphone in an emergency, I might not belief the A17 to be dependable. But in case your wants are extraordinarily minimal, it could suffice.
Samsung Galaxy A36 5G for $395: The Galaxy A36 (6/10, WIRED Review) would not fairly measure as much as its friends from Nothing and Motorola. Performance is simply too uneven, and that is not acceptable at this worth. It’s manageable—it is not so gradual that it’ll frustrate—however you are able to do higher. If your wants are very minimal, it is an OK cellphone, and the digital camera system is sweet, with day-long battery life, a pleasant AMOLED display, and 6 years of software program updates.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 or Galaxy Z Flip6: If you do not wish to pay a premium for a brand new folding cellphone, then contemplate 2024’s Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip7 (7/10, WIRED Review). The Fold6 has a near “normal” smartphone expertise on the outside 6.3-inch display. Open the cellphone up, and there is a huge 7.6-inch AMOLED display watching your face, turning this folding cellphone right into a tiny pill. The Flip6 is not as good because the newer Flip7—the larger and brighter cowl display on the most recent mannequin is a step up—however it’s value contemplating over the brand new Galaxy Z Flip7 FE. Technically, it is practically an identical to that cellphone, however the FE makes use of a Samsung Exynos chip as an alternative of a Qualcomm processor, and efficiency might not be as easy. The primary disadvantage? Battery life is not nice. Make certain you do not pay MSRP for these 2024 telephones.
If you are wanting to avoid wasting money, it is fantastic to purchase Samsung’s Galaxy S23 vary or the Galaxy S23 FE from 2023, so long as the costs are a superb deal decrease than the unique MSRP. (They’re laborious to seek out at most main retailers.) These telephones will nonetheless get help for some time, and they’re fairly nice. I do not suppose it is value shopping for something older.
Should You Invest in Samsung’s Ecosystem?
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Samsung is one of the few smartphone producers that may match Apple in its {hardware} ecosystem. Not solely does the corporate make smartphones, however you may as well broaden your expertise by including on a Galaxy Watch8 smartwatch, Galaxy Buds3 Pro earbuds, Galaxy Ring health ring, Galaxy Tab S11, and even a Windows-powered Galaxy laptop computer.
There are sure perks to this, like how some options on the Galaxy Ring and Watch8 are solely obtainable when paired with a Samsung cellphone, and its earbuds will mechanically change between Samsung units based mostly on what you are utilizing. There’s not a lot in the best way of unique options when utilizing a Galaxy cellphone with a Galaxy laptop computer, however options like Quick Share allow you to speedily ship photographs and paperwork between your units.
Again, it is not obligatory, and these different units won’t be the best ones for you inside their respective classes, however if you happen to’re chasing {hardware} parity, you could have that choice with Samsung.
What Is Galaxy AI?
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
With the Galaxy S24 sequence, Samsung launched “Galaxy AI,” a selection of artificial intelligence features, many of which are powered by Google’s Gemini large language models. These enable smart features that may be helpful day to day, like real-time translations during phone calls, real-time transcriptions in Samsung’s Voice Recorder app, the ability to summarize long paragraphs of text in the Samsung Notes app, or change a sentence’s tone with the Samsung Keyboard.
In the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy AI expanded to include Gemini as the default voice assistant and the ability for Gemini to work with multiple apps simultaneously. It also debuted Drawing Assist, which lets you sketch or enter a prompt and get an AI-generated image. Now, you can also use video in real-time with Gemini, even from the cover screen of the Galaxy Z Flip7.
You can find many of these features by heading to Settings > Galaxy AI to toggle them on or off. We have an explainer on how to limit Galaxy AI to on-device processing, too.
What Is Samsung DeX?
Courtesy of David Nield
Samsung’s DeX (short for “desktop experience”) launched in 2017, and it is a option to plug in your Samsung cellphone to an exterior monitor and set off a desktop model of the Android OS, all utterly powered by the cellphone. You can discover a checklist of suitable Samsung telephones right here—the Flip7 is the primary Galaxy Flip to help DeX—and you will want a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, plus a cable to connect the phone to the monitor. (You can also cast DeX to select screens wirelessly.)
When in DeX mode, you can resize Android apps and have them all open in separate windows. It’s a proper computing platform, though you probably won’t want to use this as a permanent laptop replacement or anything of the sort. It’s great if you’re visiting another office, or working out of a coffee shop or airplane (if you have a portable display). We have a whole guide to setting up and using DeX here.
How I Test Phones
I’ve been reviewing smartphones for a decade, but one of my earliest smart devices was a Samsung Galaxy Captivate, which I got for “free” from my carrier at the time. After working during college, I finally saved enough cash for a Galaxy S3, my first flagship. I’ve spent years using Samsung phones in my personal life and began reviewing them for work not too long after.
With each Samsung smartphone, I always put my personal SIM card inside and spend as long as I can (a few weeks) using the phone as my own. I do camera testing and compare the results with similarly priced devices, I benchmark performance and play graphically demanding games to see how they fare, I try out all the new features, and even take calls to make sure that ol’ function still works fine.
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