Despite being more than three months away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, leaks and rumors have been flying fast this week. And these leaks include new images of the handsets and a potential camera upgrade.
The latest one concerns a long-needed update to charging speeds on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
The Korean publication ET News is reporting that next year’s Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, will feature 25W wireless charging, while the vanilla S26 and S26 Plus models will come with 20W charging. If true, this is the biggest upgrade to wireless charging in a Samsung phone since the S20 series.
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“Whereas the previous S25 series supported 15W wireless charging across all models, next year’s models will come with faster wireless charging,” an industry insider allegedly told ET News.
Samsung has long trailed behind other Android phone makers who already support 25W charging, and even lags behind its main rival. In fact, Apple already supports 25W wireless charging, after introducing it with the iPhone 16 series.
When the Galaxy S25 series launched earlier this year, the phones came with Qi2 support, though they lacked the internal magnets. At that time, Samsung claimed that the magnets were interfering with S Pen support and the display, thus they were removed during development.
The report doesn’t indicate if Samsung is putting magnets in the S26 series, but doing so would help with charging, making it integrated with the system rather than relying on specific Qi2 Ready cases.
What else to expect from the S26 series
(Image credit: Android Headlines / OnLeaks)
As mentioned, a bevy of S26 leaks popped up this week, revealing a surprising amount about Samsung’s next handsets.
First, it was reported that Samsung’s usual January launch window had been delayed to March because of the cancellation of the S26 Edge. A different Korean paper is reporting that January is back in the cards after Samsung overcame the delay.
According to another leak, the basic S26 and S26 Plus will feature three camera lenses: a combination of 50MP main sensors, 12MP ultrawide cameras and 12MP telephoto cameras. All three sound similar to the current S25 lenses. Leaked firmware revealed a new sensor but no resolution increase; it also revealed a slight battery bump for the vanilla S26, going from 4,000 mAh to 4,300 mAh.
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(Image credit: SmartPrix)
On Monday, new leaked renders for the back-from-the-dead S26 Plus revealed a phone with only a new camera bump on the mid-tier model. It might be a bit curvier with thin bezels, but don’t expect a wild departure.
Regular Samsung leaker Ice Universe followed up on that leak with potential dimensions for all three S26 models and display sizes. The displays are 6.3-inches, 6.7-inches, and 6.9-inches, respectively. Here are the full dimensions of each phone:
- S26 – 5.88” x 2.8” x .27-inches (149.4mm x 71.5mm x 6.9mm)
- S26 Plus – 6.23” x 2.98” x .28-inches (158.4mm x 75.8mm x 7.3mm)
- S26 Ultra – 6.44” x 3.07 x .31-inches (163.6mm x 78.1mm x 7.9mm)
Overall, all three phones are slightly taller and wider than their predecessors. They’re also slightly smaller, shaving about .01 inches (or .25mm) across the board.
As we get closer to the January 2026 launch, we are starting to get a slightly clearer picture of the Galaxy S26 lineup. Right now, next year doesn’t seem to be a big departure from what Samsung has already done, though that could be blamed on the apparent failure of the Galaxy S25 Edge.
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