The Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus is an $1,100 identity crisis

Samsung’s flagship trio for 2026 landed looking exactly like its predecessors — and ancestors. The only major spruce-up happened with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which now looks like part of the family, with many big upgrades reserved just for it. The base Galaxy S26, on the other hand, got the usual minor spec bump.

And then, suffering from middle-child syndrome, is the Galaxy S26 Plus. It’s struggling with an identity crisis so acute that it now feels redundant, and most people are better off ignoring the $1,100 smartphone while deciding which model to buy. That won’t change unless Samsung decides to act on the past rumors of ditching the Plus in favor of an all-new Pro tier.

While we didn’t get a Galaxy S26 Pro this year, it feels like high time for Samsung to reshuffle its flagship lineup to make each upgrade tier more sensible.

Pro camera

Samsung is one of the few smartphone makers to offer three cameras across the board, including on the cheapest model. Google just followed its lead with the base Pixel 10 last year. However, a big compromise with these phones has been the use of inferior cameras and lenses to fit tight price brackets. While that’s understandable for the base model, the Galaxy S26 Plus feels much more restricted, sitting in an awkward spot.

While the Ultra gets an ultra-level quad-camera setup, the Plus is stuck with lower-resolution ultrawide and telephoto lenses, the same as the base model. That’s a worrying scenario because its direct competitors — the iPhone 17 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro — come with upwards of 48MP ultrawide and telephoto cameras, offering sharper images that you can easily zoom into in post without them pixelating.

The Ultra has those too, flaunting a 200MP + 50MP + 50MP + 10MP setup. So even if Samsung ditched the fourth telephoto and brought the rest of those cameras to a Pro model, it would do much more service to this unneeded middle child.

Pro processor

Samsung keeps jumping between Exynos and Qualcomm chipsets across its lineups, and the choice can even vary by region. It’s hard to keep track of which model in which region gets what processor. But from Samsung’s own processor placement for the Galaxy S26 lineup, we can deduce that it sees Snapdragon as the superior chip worthy of the Ultra handset, while the other two have to settle for whatever the latest Exynos processor is.

To justify the Pro moniker, Samsung would have to use the better chip between the two, offering improved heat dissipation and sustained performance. You know who else follows this approach? Apple, with its iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. Both devices use the same Pro processor with more performance headroom than the standard non-Pro chip used in the base variant. Samsung — and, more so, its buyers — would benefit immensely from a similar Pro upgrade.

Pro pricing

This is one thing Samsung doesn’t need to change because the Galaxy S26 Plus is already quite expensive to begin with. Despite being closer to its base sibling in terms of features, the Galaxy S26 Plus is priced the same as the iPhone 17 Pro and the Pixel 10 Pro’s 256GB variant.

At this price — a whopping $1,100 — Samsung should be doing much more for buyers than just offering a basic experience with none of the Ultra’s perks. While asking for a price that is on par with its pro rivals, the Plus tier in Samsung’s lineup deserves the same treatment as the iPhone 16 Plus — it ought to be axed to make way for a Pro (no Air or Edge, please).

Pro goodies

The idea is to reduce the middle child’s closeness to the base model and bring it closer to the Ultra, feature-for-feature. I understand that Samsung would still have to reserve a few features for the Ultra to keep calling it Ultra, like the S Pen, the additional telephoto lens, or the 200MP main sensor. However, it could still bring some of the other niceties — like the new Privacy Display or Gorilla Armor 2 protection for the display — to the Pro model to justify the premium.

All these should make it “Pro” enough to not cannibalize Ultra sales while also being a more meaningful upgrade than just a size bump over the base Galaxy S26.

With the Plus label, the Galaxy S26 Plus feels like a lower-tier phone — and it actually is. It’s nothing more than a blown-up Galaxy S26. By replacing it with a Galaxy S26 Pro, Samsung would align its lineup better with the competition, and consumers would be able to compare apples to apples (no pun intended) when choosing between the Pixel 10 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro, and a potential Galaxy S26 Pro.

It would give the phone the stronger identity it deserves while shedding its entry-level flagship persona despite its premium price.