We Finally Know When Samsung Plans to Launch the Galaxy S26 Series

After the recent round of changes we’ve seen in the past few weeks, and with Samsung rumored to revive its classic trio — the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra — at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked, we finally have an idea of when these phones will launch. If a new report is anything to go by, February seems to be the sweet spot, and thankfully it won’t be pushed back to March.

Galaxy S26 series might launch in February in San Francisco

According to a report from Korean media (via Jukanlosreve), Samsung plans to host its Galaxy Unpacked event on February 25, 2026, where it will unveil the Galaxy S26 series. The report also notes that Samsung will return to San Francisco for the event, the same city where it last announced the Galaxy S23 series. For its more recent launches (including the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25 series), Samsung held the Unpacked events in San Jose, California.

The report quotes an unnamed official familiar with the company’s plans. They told the outlet that Samsung chose San Francisco because it “has emerged as the center of AI (artificial intelligence) technology, it is the best place for Samsung, which opened the era of ‘AI smartphones,’ to hold an event.” [machine-translated]

It’s well known that Samsung uses its early-year Galaxy Unpacked events to unveil the new Galaxy S phones. However, we can also expect the company to shed some light on the Galaxy Z TriFold, or perhaps even announce the device at the same event. This could happen if Samsung doesn’t announce the Galaxy Z TriFold for the US before year ends.

Exynos 2600 still looks to be in play

Furthermore, the report claims that the Galaxy S26 Ultra could feature the Exynos 2600 chip. However, it’s still unclear whether this applies only to Samsung’s home market or to other regions as well. Notably, during its recent earnings call, Samsung expressed strong confidence in the Exynos 2600. Another report, however, cited a Samsung executive who said that the “AP evaluation is currently in progress.”

In simpler terms, it seems that Samsung is planning something significant for the Exynos 2600 in the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+. There’s even a possibility that the Galaxy S26 Ultra could use the same chip. We might see a repeat of the Galaxy S22 situation, where some markets received Exynos variants — even for the Ultra — while others, including the US, got Snapdragon models instead. Early benchmarks suggest that the Exynos 2600 performs just a step below the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.