Surveys show owners of this older Galaxy phone aren’t rushing to upgrade to the S26

Upgrading from a three-year-old flagship used to be an easy decision, but the improvements between generations can feel a lot more incremental these days. With the Samsung Galaxy S26 series now here, one obvious question is whether it’s finally time for Galaxy S23 series owners to make the jump. It isn’t an easy decision, which is probably why two of my colleagues were debating opposite sides of the same Galaxy S26 upgrade question. Both contributors added a poll to the articles in which they made their cases, and we’ve tallied your responses here.

As a quick summary, in his article, Tushar Mehta made the case that an upgrade specifically from the Galaxy S23 Ultra to the Galaxy S26 Ultra makes sense when you stack several generations of improvements. He points to upgrades such as a brighter 10-bit display with built-in privacy mode, the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, faster charging, and Samsung’s latest One UI 8.5 features with expanded Galaxy AI tools. Add in a slimmer, lighter design and some camera tweaks, and the argument is that the cumulative changes make the new Ultra a worthwhile step up.

Megan Ellis took the opposite stance when comparing the standard Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus to their Galaxy S26 series counterparts. In her view, the changes over three years are surprisingly modest, with similar camera setups, relatively slow charging speeds, and only incremental hardware improvements. She also points out that the S23 series still has another Android upgrade coming, while many of the new AI features either aren’t essential or aren’t exclusive to Samsung phones. In short, if your S23 is still working well, she argues there’s little reason to rush into an upgrade.

Both cases are persuasive and discuss different devices in their respective lineups, but we were much more interested in your opinions. Let’s find out your views.

The first poll focused specifically on Galaxy S23 Ultra owners considering an upgrade to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and the results suggest many readers aren’t convinced yet. The largest group, at almost 45%, said they’re happy sticking with the S23 Ultra for now. Around a quarter said their decision would depend on the value of Samsung’s trade-in deals, leaving roughly three in ten who said they would definitely upgrade.

The poll from Meghan’s article about upgrading from the Galaxy S23 series to the Galaxy S26 didn’t include a trade-in option, leading to an even clearer result. Roughly two-thirds of voters said the upgrade isn’t worth it, while only about a third said they would move to the newer model.

With more than 5,000 votes in that second poll, the message from readers is pretty clear: most of you don’t see enough of a leap between these generations to justify upgrading right now. That lines up more closely with Megan’s skeptical take. Even in the Ultra-focused poll that was pro-upgrade, enthusiasm wasn’t exactly overwhelming, and trade-in deals were clearly a big factor. Of course, the two polls aren’t directly comparable anyway, and either could be true depending on your circumstances. The only concrete takeaway is that the majority of you don’t see the S26 generation as a must-have upgrade.

We took a look at the comments sections of both articles to understand the reasons for your votes, and they broadly reflected the same hesitation seen in the polls. Several readers said their Galaxy S23 devices still feel perfectly capable, with performance and cameras that don’t feel dramatically behind newer phones. A few also argued that the improvements Samsung is highlighting, such as AI features or the new privacy display, simply aren’t compelling enough to justify spending flagship money on an upgrade right now.

On top of that, most of the commenters who were keen on upgrading essentially made the case for upgrading from any phone. Battery degradation, longer software support, and very good trade-in deals were the most common reasons people said they might consider moving to the S26 series.

So Samsung hasn’t exactly bowled you over, but in the OEM’s defense, it probably didn’t expect to. The marketing department almost certainly knew this would be the response, but the number crunchers will have worked out that it’s better to incrementally underwhelm to sell smartphones year after year, rather than go for broke with a completely different model every 12 months. That’s just the joy of capitalism.