The craziest Samsung Galaxy S26 rumor may not happen after all — what we know

by · tom's guide

(Image credit: Future)

Rumor has it that the Samsung Galaxy S26 launch is going to be a little different than we expected. By which I mean, it sounds like it's going to be more or less the same as the Galaxy S25 launch. Not only have we heard that the Galaxy S26 Edge has been canceled, and the S26 Plus brought back from the brink, but it seems one other bizarre rumor may not be happening after all.

Earlier this year, we heard some talk about Samsung making changes to the standard Galaxy S26, and renaming it as the "Galaxy S26 Pro" with few, if any, meaningful changes to what the phone can do. That is apparently no longer the case. Oh, and all these changes may have forced the launch date to be pushed back to March.

Samsung Galaxy S26 not-so-Pro

(Image credit: Future)

So about that name? According to sources speaking to SamMobile, Samsung will be dropping plans to release the Galaxy S26 as the Galaxy S26 Pro. Which I definitely think is a good thing, because that decision was likely to blow up in Samsung's face, and subject the company to a lot of flak online.

Massive leak just teased entire Samsung Galaxy S26 line-up — here's your first look

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Samsung Galaxy S26 Edge: All the rumors so far

The original rumors claimed that Samsung was opting for the "S26 Pro" moniker to try and improve sales of the entry-level S26. Needless to say, we had some thoughts on this idea, and none of them were particularly good.

While the standard Galaxy S phones are generally quite good, they play an important role in the lineup. They're the base level at which you compare the Plus and Ultra models to, showing how much better (or not) those phones are. Changing the name to S26 Pro defeats that whole purpose.

Plus, there's the rumor that the phone wouldn't be upgraded to account for the new name. It was instead a misleading marketing tactic to try and get more people to buy the cheapest S26 model on sale. Which is not how this all works. You can't just change the name to "S26 Pro" without the upgrades to go with it, and the majority of people aren't stupid enough to forget that it was just a run-of-the-mill Galaxy S26 with a new label.

So it's a good thing that the ridiculous idea did not make it out into the real world. Assuming Samsung actually had plans to make the name change.

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What's this about a delay?

(Image credit: Future)

Samsung isn't always that consistent with launch windows, and the non-folding Galaxy S flagships have jumped around a lot over the years. But the past few releases have seen the phones arrive in late January or early February — right in the middle of the CES and MWC trade shows. But that may not be the case next year.

According to TechManiacs, the launch may have been pushed back to March. For reference, the last Galaxy phone we saw a Galaxy phone launch this late was 2017, with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8. Every phone since has been unveiled in either January or February.

TechManiacs claims that there has been an issue with the "development and design of the devices," which has forced the delay. There are no specific details about what the issue might have been, nor is there any mention of the changes to the line-up, so we can only speculate as to what's going on.

It could be that Samsung has had to delay the launch thanks to the pivot from a Galaxy S26 Edge back to the Galaxy S26 Plus. Or perhaps there really could be an issue in the S26 design that has forced Samsung's hand. Perhaps both? Unless Samsung decides to be uncharacteristically transparent, we may never actually know.

So until then, all we can do is keep up to date on the latest news and rumors about the Galaxy S26 series. You can check all that out in our official Samsung Galaxy S26 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra hubs.

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UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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