Expect Samsung Galaxy S26 launch delays, experts warn

Samsung has dragged the launch of its flagship Galaxy S phone series forward over the past couple of years, moving from a slot in February to January instead. But that could be about to change again.

It's claimed that the Galaxy S26 family of handsets will be postponed to a later date.

The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25 models were both announced in January on their launch years, before shipping in early February. The reason for the change was thought to be because of increased competition from China, where a number of brands launch new hardware before the year is out.

Indeed, that's happening in 2025 too, with the Oppo Find X9 and OnePlus 15 to be announced in the coming days, and the Xiaomi 17 already launched in China. However, it now looks like each device's global release could also beat Samsung to the punch.

According to experienced leaker UniverseIce – this time posting on Weibo – the simple message is: "Samsung Galaxy S26 series release confirmed to be postponed". And WinFuture – which also checked with its own sources – corroborates this information.

So what's happening?

There seems to be a change in Samsung's usual plans. Initially, it was thought that the Galaxy S26 Plus would be dropped and replaced with the Galaxy S26 Edge. But it seems that decision has been reversed, most likely due to a lack of appetite for the slimmer phone, with reports that development of the Galaxy S26 Edge has been halted.

At the same time, early reports of Samsung switching to offering a Galaxy S26 Pro as the entry-level device to mimic Apple's branding also seems to have been abandoned.

It now seems there's been something of a change in strategy – and this could have disrupted the timeline and resulted in the change of schedule.

Could this be about Exynos hardware?

There's another rumour that's doing the rounds that concerns the hardware the Galaxy S26 series will run on.

Rumours of the return to Exynos 2600 have been circulating for some time, with the suggestion that it's a really powerful chip – more powerful than the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro, while also topping the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

While Exynos has been focused on territories outside of the US and Asia, the evolution of Samsung's 2nm chip could be cause for the company to push it a little wider.

Coud this be the reason for the delay, as Samsung reshuffles the selection, gets the S26 Plus in place, and stuffs all the new phones with Exynos hardware?

This is a rumour that's going to run and run, because Galaxy Unpacked is one of the biggest tech events of the new year – and anticipation will be high.