Samsung Galaxy A26 review: good display, polished software, familiar vibes

The Samsung Galaxy A26 was a quiet arrival alongside the more popular A36 (review) and A56 (review) this year. While not much has changed compared to the Galaxy A25, the phone builds on its predecessor with some key improvements. These include a bigger display, a more refined design that’s better protected with an IP67 rating, and a more powerful chipset, while still selling under Rs 30,000 in India. Let’s see if the device stands out in its highly competitive price segment.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy A26 is a great option for those looking for a smartphone with a sleek design, a vibrant display, and fluid, reliable software. It also has an excellent selfie camera and offers the longest software support policy in its price bracket. However, there are a few trade-offs to keep in mind. The phone’s rear cameras leave room for improvement, there is no charger in the box, and you only get a single speaker. 

Design and display

The Galaxy A26 looks similar to its predecessor, with a few refinements. The rear cameras now sit in a pill-shaped module, helping it stand apart from the Galaxy S-series. The back panel is made of glass which adds to the premium fell. It smudges rather easily resists but is fingerprints to some extent.

The flat sides and panel remain, but the 3.5mm headphone jack and second speaker are gone. There’s only a single bottom-firing speaker, along with a USB-C port and microphone. The power and volume buttons are on the right, with the power button doubling as a fast, reliable fingerprint scanner.

The SIM tray is on the left and includes one hybrid slot. A major upgrade is the addition of IP67 water and dust resistance, bringing it in line with other A-series models.

The display has been upgraded to a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It still has a dated drop notch and a thick chin, which is a little disappointing at this price.

While there’s no word on the brightness level, it performs decently indoors but struggles outside. Our lab test showed a peak brightness of around 550 nits, below the segment average of 800 nits. The screen itself looks great, with vibrant colours and solid contrast. However, the single-speaker setup affects the overall multimedia experience, as it sounds a little tinny and lacks depth.

Cameras

The Galaxy A26 uses a similar camera setup as its predecessor, featuring a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 2MP macro lens. There’s a 13MP snapper on the front for selfies and video calls. As mentioned, the rear cameras now come in a pill-shaped module, which sets the Galaxy A26 apart from its pricier Galaxy A-series siblings.

Rear camera performance is fairly decent, offering good dynamic range. Colours tend to appear a bit muted compared to real life, and detail levels could be better, particularly in portrait shots.

Low-light performance leaves room for improvement, particularly in delivering sharper results. On the plus side, the phone’s native editing tools are simple to use, offering plenty of options to enhance your photos. Overall, the rear cameras get the job done, though both hardware and software tuning could be better for wider appeal. For me, the real highlight is the front camera, as it captures excellent selfies with near-accurate colours and well-preserved textures.

I compared the phone’s cameras against one of its key rivals, the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion (review). Here’s how the two phones fared against each other: 

Daylight

There’s a major difference between the Galaxy A26 and the Edge 60 Fusion’s approach towards colours. The former typically prioritises cooler tones, while the shot with the Edge 60 Fusion is on the warmer side. They are evenly matched in detail and clarity levels, although the Galaxy A26’s image may look aesthetically less appealing with softer colours.

Ultra-wide

Both phones undergo colour shifts when switching to their ultra-wide lenses. The Motorola Edge 60 Fusion’s ultra-wide shot features a strange yellow tint with average visibility due to high contrast. Samsung’s image looks relatively better, though it’s still not perfect. Based on details, Samsung still has some way to go with its ultra-wide camera.

Portrait

In portrait shots, the Samsung Galaxy A26 delivers more natural colours and portrays a near-accurate skin tone. The Motorola Edge 60 Fusion also does a great job with the skin tone, although it tends to saturate the image a little heavily. In terms of facial details, the Edge 60 Fusion delivers slightly better results, while the Galaxy A26 smooths them out.

Selfie

The Samsung Galaxy A26 sticks to natural colour reproduction for its selfies. The details are crisp, and it even preserves all the facial details with great clarity. The Motorola Edge 60 Fusion keeps the colours a lot more saturated, but it doesn’t deliver as many facial details and has comparatively lower clarity.

Low-light (night mode enabled)

The Galaxy A26’s low-light shot looks much better exposed and more vibrant at first glance. However, when looked at closely, the former’s detail level isn’t great, and the objects appear softer with poor edge detection. The Motorola Edge 60 Fusion, in comparison, preserves the texture and detail level.

Performance and software

The Samsung Exynos 1380 SoC powers the Galaxy A26, paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. The storage is further expandable with a microSD card. In terms of performance, the phone works pretty well for day-to-day use and general purposes.

I did encounter some lag while trying to multitask and sometimes in the settings itself, although nothing too jarring. Looking at the benchmarks, you’ll notice the phone isn’t a powerhouse in the segment. 

This also means that hardcore gamers would prefer more juice for long hours of consistent gaming. While it will easily deliver decent performance in medium graphical settings in titles like COD: Mobile and BGMI, you may notice some frame drops if you push the settings higher.

However, Samsung seldom boasts numbers and focuses on the software experience with its custom One UI. The phone ships with One UI 7 based on Android 15 out of the box with 6 years of OS and security updates promise, the highest yet in its segment.

You can still enjoy AI features (Circle to Search, Object Eraser, AI Select, and Read Aloud) as a part of the Android 15 OS, but these are limited compared to other A-series phones. 

Battery and charging

The phone packs the same 5,000mAh battery with support for 25W fast charging. Samsung could’ve considered adding a bigger unit, as 5,500mAh to 6,000mAh batteries are slowly becoming the norm in this segment, with a few outliers even pushing up to 7,000mAh.

In our lab tests, the phone dropped 29 percent over two hours of gaming and streaming, which is noticeably higher than the segment average of 24 percent. I got around 6 hours of screen-on time, with some 5G usage in between. Its PCMark score was also a bit average at just 12 hours.

Charging isn’t a strong point either. It takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes for a full charge, which is slightly above the average, despite the smaller battery. Do note, we used a 45W charger from Lenovo since Samsung does not ship charger in the box.

Final Verdict

The Galaxy A26 is priced at Rs 24,999 for the 8 GB + 128 GB variant and takes on the POCO X7 (review) and Motorola Edge 60 Fusion (review) in this segment. The POCO X7 offers a better multimedia experience, more battery life, and a sturdier design, while the Motorola Edge 60 Fusion delivers better camera performance, faster charging, more battery life, and added AI features. These make the competition a little tough for the Galaxy A26.

That said, the Galaxy A26 still holds up well with its vibrant Super AMOLED display and clean software backed by long-term support. The lack of a charger, the missing headphone jack, and modest camera performance are worth keeping in mind, but it’s still a dependable option for those who value display quality and reliable software. More importantly, if you’re upgrading from an older Samsung phone, the Galaxy A26 will definitely feel more updated and refined.

Editor’s Rating: 7.6 /10

Reasons to buy:

• The Galaxy A26 features a sleek design and comes with IP67 water and dust resistance.
• The 6.7-inch AMOLED panel is vibrant and offers great visuals.
• It offers the longest software support in its segment, with 6 years of Android updates.
• The selfie camera delivers impressive results.

Reasons not to buy: 

• The rear cameras need improvements.
• There’s no charger in the box.
• The headphone jack is missing.