Yet another Samsung Galaxy S26 release date leak surely cements Unpacked launch plans

Samsung has so far remained quiet about its plans surrounding Galaxy Unpacked, where the new Galaxy S26 family of phones are expected. But it's looking increasingly likely that the event will take place on 25 February, with the phones landing in stores on 11 March.

This latest run of details comes from Universe Ice, an established leaker, who shares the launch, pre-order and availability dates.

It corroborates information previously leaked that puts the launch of Samsung's phones much later in the year than initially expected.

Samsung pulled forward the launch of the Galaxy S24 in 2024 with an event in January. It similarly held a January launch for the Galaxy S25. However, the Galaxy S26 has slipped a lot further back in the calendar, with many suspecting that it's the change to the line-up of devices that has caused the delay.

Looking at the timeframe that has been suggested, that places Galaxy Unpacked on 25 February, pre-order from 26 February to 4 March, pre-sale from 5 March to 10 March and in-store date of 11 March.

The source states that this timeline is for South Korea, so could be different elsewhere. There's enough flexibility for the date to be different: if the event takes place in San Francisco, it could be that in Korea it's 25 February, but in the US it's 24 February.

Unless Samsung is going to host the Unpacked event at 6am Pacific Time, it will be the following day in Korea. That's a minor detail to consider when looking at these timeframes.

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus and Galaxy S26 Ultra. The phones are said to be a little thinner, powered by either the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or the Exynos 2600 CPU (depending on where you buy and which model), with tweaks to the cameras to boost the performance.

The delay in launch is thought to have come from Samsung reverting its plan to replace the Galaxy S26 Plus with the Galaxy S26 Edge. Reportedly, development of the slim phone was stopped in October, reverting back to the Plus model instead.