Report: Samsung could drop the Galaxy S26 altogether for a more premium lineup
It looks like Samsung has more than one major change planned for the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. Not only is it expected to replace the Plus model with an Edge variant, if the latest report turns out to be accurate, the base Galaxy S26 could be dropped from the lineup. It is speculated that a Pro phone will replace the base model so the next Galaxy s series lineup will look very different from what we have been seeing for the past several years.
Android Authority’s deep dive into a One UI 8 internal build shows reference to three devices with codenames M1, M2, and M3. These codenames are associated to a Galaxy S26 Pro, Galaxy S26 Edge, and Galaxy S26 Ultra respectively. There was no reference to a Galaxy S26 suggesting Samsung has some interesting plans for the upcoming series. If there is no base Galaxy S26, and the series starts with a Pro model, it could make for a more premium lineup. It could also mean that the Galaxy S26 FE would then be the base model, even though it will likely not release alongside the other three phones. Or will it?
Up till now, Samsung has used ‘1’ in its codenames to identify the base model. That was true with the Galaxy S24 series and the Galaxy S25 series. The Galaxy S24 had the internal codename E1, Galaxy S24 Plus was E2, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra was E3. Similarly, the Galaxy S25 series had codenames NP1, NP2, and NP3. With the latest discovery, M1 seems to represent a Pro model, while M2 is associated with the Edge variant and M3 with the Ultra.
There could still be a base Galaxy S26 model with a codename ‘M0’ or ‘M4’, and the final build of One UI 8 may reflect this, but as of now, there seems to be no reference to a base Galaxy S26.
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