- Samsung can now stick to its usual naming scheme in the S series
- We have also heard that the S26 Edge may not be launched
- The phones may appear later than usual, sometime in March
It looks like the Galaxy S26 development process isn’t going quite as smoothly as Samsung would hope: earlier this week we heard that the Galaxy S26 Edge may have been cancelled, and now there are new rumors surrounding launch delays and phone reshuffles.
First and foremost, rebranding. Several previous leaks had suggested that the entry-level model in this range would be called the Galaxy S26 Pro – perhaps to add to the appeal of the phone and match Apple’s iPhone range – but now it looks like that’s no longer the case.
According to sources speaking to SamMobile, the entry-level handset will actually just be called the Samsung Galaxy S26 after the Samsung Galaxy S25. If the Edge variant is also dropped, we get the usual standard, Plus and Ultra models.
We wondered how smart it would have been for Samsung to give an entry-level phone the Pro moniker – albeit the entry-level model in a relatively powerful flagship series – and now the handset won’t be directly compared to the iPhone 17 Pro, which it probably would have otherwise.
A longer wait
The other rumor is around a launch window. According to TechManiacs (via GSMArena ), all this fighting over naming and perhaps stopping production of the Galaxy S26 Edge means the devices won’t see the light of day until March.
You have to go back a few years to the Samsung Galaxy S23 to find the latest time these S-series phones didn’t launch in January – and even then they debuted in early February.
Samsung won’t be happy about having to push back its 2026 schedule, but if the phones aren’t ready, there’s not much that can be done. In a change from the Galaxy S25 series, at least some of the Galaxy S26 models are expected to come with Exynos chipsets inside.
TechManiacs has a bit of a hit and miss record with leaks, but it’s certainly plausible that the S26 phones will be delayed given the rumors so far. Interestingly, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is said to be on schedule for January, so it may actually appear earlier than the others in the series.
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