For the longest time, I’ve been an iPhone user, but lately, I've found that relationship has soured. And the Galaxy S25 is a big reason why.
Samsung's flagship phone may not be the one I turn to in my daily life, but I have been using it a great deal for work. And I've been impressed by how much this year's offering has improved over the Galaxy S24.
Still, the Galaxy S25 isn't a perfect phone. While using it, I've run into a number of things I'd like to see changed — and maybe that can happen with the Galaxy S26.
That phone won't arrive until next year, so we've only heard a smattering of rumors so far. Most of those involve the return of an Exynos chip to Samsung's flagships — seemingly, a perpetual rumor about future Samsung phones — and possibly dropping the punch hole camera in the phone's display.
But the way I see it, five major areas need to see improvement with the Samsung Galaxy S26 for it to stay as one of the best Android phones, let alone one of the best phones, in general. These improvements would also push me to upgrade to a Galaxy S26, and possible drop the iPhone completely.
Samsung needs to improve the cameras
If there’s one area where Samsung phones seem to be stuck in a rut, it's the cameras the phone maker uses on its flagships. I had great expectations for the Galaxy S25, but it features the same 50MP main camera, 12 MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x zoom telephoto and 12MP selfie cam that the Galaxy S24 offered. Now, in fairness, Samsung has claimed that the cameras in the new phone are better in low light, but still, it’s not a marked difference from one year to the next.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Ultra got an improved ultrawide camera, with the sensor jumping from 12MP to 50MP. It's probably unlikely the standard Galaxy S26 will ever match the 200MP main camera that the Ultra models features, but I think it would be fair for the phone to at least get the 50MP ultrawide lens. That would give it an edge over the iPhone 17, which rumors are tipping to have the same 12MP sensor as the iPhone 16.
I want to see more AI improvements for Samsung phones
If there's one area where Samsung is clearly beating Apple, it's in how it's implementing AI features. The rollout for Apple Intelligence has been nothing short of a nightmare, while Samsung's Galaxy AI and Gemini integration have been a dream. However, that doesn't mean that Samsung gets to rest on its laurels.
I've been astounded by Galaxy AI on the Galaxy S25, especially its cross-app actions. That said, there is still room for improvement. For instance, while Galaxy AI can summarize a YouTube video and bring the details into the Samsung Notes app, the phone can get confused and offer some pretty odd information.
Samsung should work to improve the AI features on the Galaxy S26 to offer the best overall experience while building on the solid foundation that already exists. I want to see more useful features that add to our day-to-day lives, and less of a push for features like image generation.
The Galaxy S26 is Samsung’s chance to fix current OS mistakes
Saying that the release of One UI 7 has been convoluted would be an understatement. Samsung’s software, based on Android 15, may offer a lot of interesting features like the Now Bar, but to me, Samsung's rollout has felt haphazard. We're still getting updated One UI 7 builds months after the S25's release.
That release is bringing features that have been missing from the version that shipped with Samsung's new phones including Now Bar and Live notification support for the Media Player, as well as a new charging animation. Hopefully, the Galaxy S26 release will include a full OS, rather than one we need to wait for a complete version of.
Stop making me buy a case for Qi2 charging
One of the oddest parts about the Galaxy S25 was that it didn’t have full Qi2 charging support on the device. Instead, if you wanted to make use of the feature, you needed to buy a Galaxy S25 case with built-in magnets for optimized charging. That’s something that needs to be addressed in the Galaxy S26.
I don't like having to buy a case to use a certain feature that should just be a part of the phone. So hopefully, Samsung includes a Qi2 ring with the Galaxy S26. This'll be especially prudent considering how popular many of the Qi2 accessories are, and how widespread the integration has become.
The Galaxy S25 charges fast — the Galaxy S26 needs to be faster
While we're talking about charging, I would also like to see Samsung make the Galaxy S26 charge faster than the 25W speeds that base model Galaxy flagships have offered for years.
In practice, 25W isn't glacially slow. When we tested the phone, we got the Galaxy S25 to a 57% charge after 30 minutes.
But other Android phones are faster. The OnePlus 13 supports 80W or 100W fast charging depending on what part of the world you buy the phone. As a result it got to a 92% charge in 30 minutes. Even more impressive, the OnePlus 13 has a 6,000 mAh battery compared to the Galaxy S25's smaller 4,000 mAh power pack. (While I'm making requests, why not increase the size of that battery, too, Samsung?)
Galaxy S26 outlook
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Samsung Galaxy S26, but I don’t doubt that it will be a step up from the current Galaxy S25. However, what form that step-up takes is the important factor here, and, hopefully, at least some of what I want to see appears in the new phone.
But let me know what you think, especially if you’re a Samsung fan or are tempted to move brands. What do you want to see from future Samsung devices, and what would convince you to upgrade?
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