Are you tired of boring Galaxy phones? The latest news from Samsung is a nightmare

From an outside point of view, times should be good for Samsung right now. The company just launched the Galaxy S26 series last week, along with two new pairs of Galaxy Buds. After pre-orders for the S26 phones opened, Samsung reported record sales and a 25% increase over S25 pre-orders.

The champagne should be flowing. TM Roh, CEO of Samsung Mobile, should be smiling from ear to ear.

According to the South Korean publication FNN NewsSamsung Electronics has entered “emergency management.” This was done due to rising costs across the board, including RAM and semiconductors.

While operating under emergency management, Samsung is reportedly looking to cut costs wherever possible. This includes measures such as booking employees economy class flights instead of business class and asking some workers to “voluntarily” retire early.

More importantly, Samsung’s Device Experience division, which includes Samsung Mobile, has reportedly been ordered to reduce costs by 30%. In other words, Samsung will have a significantly smaller budget for its Galaxy phones going forward, at least until the emergency management order ends.

If you’ve been following the tech world over the past few months, this report probably won’t surprise you. The RAM crisis is nothing new. Costs have been increasing throughout 2026 for several reasons. These are not problems unique to Samsung, but the concern is how Samsung operated before this emergency management and how much worse things can get in the future.

While the Galaxy S26 series might be off to a good start in terms of sales, the phones themselves are an undeniable indicator of how much Samsung’s mobile division has stagnated.

Months before the S26 family was announced, several reports suggested that Samsung had big plans for the line. The Galaxy S26 would be replaced by a much more capable Galaxy S26 Pro, while the Galaxy S26 Plus would be shelved in favor of a new Galaxy S26 Edge. After years of begging Samsung to do something interesting with the Galaxy S series, this seemed like exactly the revitalization it needed.

However, as we now know, none of that happened. There was no Galaxy S26 Pro or Galaxy S26 Edge. Instead, just as we’ve done for years, we got a base model Galaxy S26, the larger Galaxy S26 Plus, and the flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra.

As has been the case for the last few years, neither of these phones were dramatic improvements over their predecessors. Like the Galaxy S25 series before it, you have to look with a microscope and a very discerning eye to see what’s new. Samsung’s privacy screen on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is greatbut that’s the only really interesting improvement you’ll find on all phones.

Cameras? Exactly the same on the S26 and S26 Plus compared to their predecessors. The S26 Ultra has slightly larger sensors, but otherwise it doesn’t change either. Samsung tweaked the designs slightly on all three phones, but it’s still the same general design language that Samsung has used since the Galaxy S23. There’s no Qi2 magnetic charging on any S26 model, nor any interesting new AI features or notable improvements to screen quality. Aside from the new chipset, these are pretty much the same phones that Samsung launched last year.

Except, of course, when it comes to prices.

In short: the Galaxy S26 series is a extremely S25 series iterative update. In many ways, especially with the camera and charging, Samsung is using the same specs it has used for years. And in return, you are asked to pay more than ever.

The Galaxy S26 series is not an impressive performance from Samsung. The phones aren’t objectively bad, but they’re also essentially the same three phones Samsung has been selling us for the past few years. Except this time they are more expensive.

None of this is good, and more importantly, it all happened before the new emergency management mandate. Now that that’s in place, and with Samsung needing to cut costs by up to 30%, it’s safe to say things aren’t going to get any better. If anything, they are likely to get worse.

Fast forward to next year. With RAM and semiconductors likely to become even more expensive and with Samsung’s reduced budget, what do you think will happen to the Galaxy S27?

We certainly won’t see any worthwhile spec upgrades, unless Samsung wants to dramatically increase prices. The most likely outcome is another year of minimal hardware changes, but even then, Samsung may have to scale back on its already lukewarm annual updates to stay on budget. There is also a very real scenario in which Samsung has to lower components such as RAM and storage if it does not want to raise prices for the second year in a row.

As mentioned above, Samsung is not the only company facing the copycat effects of our current global economy. However, it has taken him more to adapt. Compare Samsung’s position with that of Apple and some of its latest products, such as the iPhone 17, iPhone 17e, and MacBook Neo. You could argue that Apple has been releasing some of its most competitive products in years, while Samsung is doing the opposite.

Samsung should do just as well as Apple, especially since pre-orders for the S26 are so strong. But instead, Samsung is tightening its belt and preparing for the worst.

Whether it’s the Galaxy S27 series, this year’s Z Fold 8/Z Flip 8, or any of Samsung’s many budget phones, it’s safe to say its outlook is pretty bleak. And from where we are now, it’s impossible to say when it will get better.