Our poll shows what buyers actually care about in new smartphones (Hint: it’s not AI)

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After months of leaks and tips from different sources about the Galaxy S26 lineup, we are finally very close to the day when the series will be unveiled. At the time of writing, just over 48 hours are left until the Galaxy Unpacked event. But if you were to ask for my honest opinion on whether I am actually excited about the upcoming devices or not, my answer would be a clear no. It’s not because we already know all the specifications, but because we know that none of the rumored specifications are impressive. That’s despite the fact that most users actually look forward to specifications in a smartphone.

Specifications over everything else

One of our recently published stories had a poll where we asked you how important smartphone specifications are to you. The poll currently has 460 votes, with almost 50% of the voters saying that they’re the most important thing. Despite this clear demand, most smartphone brands these days are giving the least priority to specifications and instead prioritizing things that matter very little to the end user.

Let’s take the upcoming Galaxy S series as an example. None of the rumored features of any model in the S26 lineup would make you think… that’s an upgrade I’m looking forward to. It’s the same boring 5,000 mAh battery capacity in the S26 Ultra, almost identical cameras, and just a slight performance upgrade. In fact, in a separate poll in which we asked whether you’re going to buy any of the Galaxy S26 phones now that most of their details have already surfaced online, more than 40% of voters said they aren’t going to buy any of these upcoming S series phones.
At least for the Ultra model, there’s the privacy display feature that could act as its selling point, but nothing attractive is rumored to be coming in any other variants of the S26 line. If not specifications, then what exactly are manufacturers focusing on these days? It’s probably the AI upgrades, which I believe are likely the most advertised features from all brands, regardless of whether the end user actually even wants them or not.
Take the announcement post for the Galaxy S25 series, for example. AI features such as writing assist, circle to search, drawing assist, and others have been given high priority throughout the page. Details about upgrades that users actually look forward to, such as the camera, battery, display, and more, have been mentioned at the very bottom of the page.
I saw a similar approach from Google as well during the launch of the Pixel 10 series. AI features like Magic Cue, Camera Coach, Add Me, and others were the things that were largely discussed in the Made by Google event, and not the specifications and the hard numbers of the Pixel 10 line phones.

Apple has started giving users what they want, and it’s time for Samsung to do the same

It’s not that only Samsung and Google are giving less priority to actual specification upgrades in their smartphones. Apple was criticized for many years for following this approach, where most of its phones were almost similar to their respective predecessors in terms of specifications. However, it changed that with the launch of the iPhone 17 series.

Other smartphone brands like OnePlus and Xiaomi also prioritize specifications over AI features that would rarely be used by users. For instance, the 165 Hz display, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, and its huge 7,300 mAh battery are the specifications on which the OnePlus 15 is being sold instead of what its AI could do.

It’s high time that brands like Samsung start introducing things that users actually want. I’m not saying that AI features and other experience-enhancing elements shouldn’t be added or advertised. Instead, there should be a balance between such extra features and actual specification upgrades. Unfortunately, these additional features are likely going to outweigh the actual specification upgrades in the S26 lineup.

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