Samsung Galaxy S26 prices could be a mess: Here's which models could cost more, less or the same

Pricing for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series could be all over the place, as a new leak giving us the alleged cost for the base, Plus and Galaxy S26 Ultra models claims we'll see both increases and decreases.

This is according to journalist and tipster Roland Quandt, both from a post of his on BlueSky, and a story for his site WinFuture, citing figures provided by an unnamed Swedish retailer. Confusingly, the article contradicts some of Quandt's earlier claims, seemingly due to an initial misunderstanding on his part.

Taking the story on WinFuture as more accurate, it seems like we will see a more expensive standard Galaxy S26 model, while the Plus will not increase in price. Astonishingly, it's the Ultra model that will seemingly get cheaper, at least for the lower storage options, as the table below shows.

Let's go through this one by one. As Quandt claims, the Galaxy S26 is looking like it'll receive a significant price bump. Part of this is because, as we've heard previously, the Galaxy S26's base storage will apparently increase from 128GB to 256GB. But even compared to the Galaxy S25's 256GB pricing in Swedish krona, the S26 version is about 9% more expensive.

At least the Galaxy S26 Plus, the larger "basic" model, looks to be keeping its entry-level price steady. The Galaxy S26 Ultra apparently goes a step further, dropping the price for both its standard 256GB and mid-level 512GB specs. However, the S26 Plus and Ultra do not extend these benefits to their top storage options (512GB and 1TB, respectively). The price has increased by 6% since last year's models for the S26 Plus, and remained the same for the Ultra.

These price fluctuations supposedly come with a further cost, although not one you'd notice immediately. Quandt mentions that there are "no free pre-order upgrades expected" for the Galaxy S26 series, unlike previous years. Early buyers of new Galaxy S phones directly from Samsung itself have historically benefited from a "double your storage for free" offer, but it seems this won't be returning for 2026.

What's the point of all this?

Samsung isn't (and likely will never) openly explain its decision-making process for pricing its latest phones. But Quandt makes an educated guess that this odd mix of increased, decreased and stable prices is the company trying to take the blows of RAMageddon on behalf of the users. Samsung benefits from being a manufacturer of RAM, but even it can't ignore the absurdly high demands that the global AI data center buildout is having on high-bandwidth memory prices.

"Overall, they're likely trying to minimize impact on sales, especially for the beloved Ultra model," suggests Quandt. This would explain why the Ultra — usually the most popular model, has seen no price increases in the leaked info, while the cheaper versions with tighter profit margins have done.

It's hard times for everyone right now, so we can cross our fingers that these price increases won't appear in the U.K. or U.S. markets. But we'll only really know for sure when Samsung launches the Galaxy S26 series — which is tipped to be at a currently unannounced event held on February 25.

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