Galaxy S26 Plus or Galaxy S25 Plus? Here are the differences based on our review
In our comprehensive review, Samsung's new Galaxy S26 Plus comes across as a really good smartphone, but in many areas this upper-midrange phone shows that development only began late as a replacement for the Galaxy S26 Edge, which was canceled at the last minute. Because of that, "Galaxy S25 Plus (2026)" would actually have been the more fitting name.
In this conclusion to the review, we look at the differences compared with the Galaxy S25 Plus based on our lab and benchmark data. The Galaxy S26 Plus currently retails for $999 on Amazon.
Galaxy S26 Plus is not always the better phone
Thanks to the new Exynos 2600, the Galaxy S26 Plus is clearly the faster Android phone, even if it does not come out ahead of the Galaxy S25 Plus in every benchmark. The Galaxy S26 Plus delivers noticeably better performance both in Geekbench multi-core and in the demanding tier tests of GFXBench. In 3DMark, the 2026 phone and its new GPU outperform its predecessor by more than 20% in some cases.
At the same time, our review also shows that the Exynos 2600's extra performance comes at a "price." In our battery test at an adjusted display brightness of 150 nits, the Galaxy S26 Plus lasts about two hours less than its predecessor, which is likely due to the Exynos 2600's higher power draw in our browser script. The remaining components, such as the OLED display, are likely the same.
The Galaxy S26 Plus also falls behind when it comes to storage. According to AndroBench benchmark results, the internal UFS 4.0 storage is noticeably slower, even though it uses the same storage standard as the Galaxy S25 Plus. It appears that the new Samsung chipset's storage controller limits throughput, especially in write performance. In everyday use, though, most users probably will not notice the slower speed.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus throttles less
Under load, the Galaxy S26 Plus gets a bit warmer. At a maximum of 47.5°C, the new Samsung phone is slightly above the Galaxy S25 Plus' peak value of 43.6°C. Despite the higher temperature, however, the Galaxy S26 Plus throttles less in the 3DMark stress test.
In our testing, the Exynos 2600 shows throttling of 59.6%, while the Qualcomm chipset in the 2025 model reduces its performance by 48.7%. In some cases, the Galaxy S26 Plus can also sustain its peak performance for longer.
In our WiFi test, the Galaxy S26 Plus reaches higher data rates. The Galaxy S25 Plus posts peak values of about 1,300 Mbps in our testing, while the 2026 model reaches almost 1,800 Mbps. In audio, the Galaxy S26+ also performs slightly more linearly in the pink noise test, making it more balanced than the Galaxy S25 Plus.
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