Samsung Galaxy A26 review

6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display

The Galaxy A26 offers a slightly-bigger-than-before 6.7-inch display with a standard 1080 x 2340px resolution and supports up to 120Hz refresh rate. The screen doesn't support any HDR video, but we don't expect it to, given the handset's price point.

And even though we didn't expect much from the display in terms of max brightness either, we find the maximum brightness in auto and manual modes to be underwhelming. We measured only 365 nits in manual mode and 777 nits in auto mode. This isn't enough for comfortable outdoor use on a bright sunny day. Sure, it will get the job done, but we expected more, especially from an OEM with a solid tradition in display manufacturing.

Refresh rate

Even though there's an automatic mode for refresh rate control in the display settings menu, it's practically a static 120Hz refresh rate mode. The Standard mode, on the other hand, puts the display at a constant 60Hz.

We've tried in several apps and system menus and found the refresh rate to be constantly at 120Hz, which draws more power than real automatic solutions. Interestingly, we've seen this issue in last year's Galaxy A25, and it seems that Samsung still hasn't addressed it.

Battery life

The Galaxy A26 features a standard 5,000 mAh battery and runs on an energy-efficient Exynos 1380 SoC. However, like its predecessor, the A26 falls short of our expectations. The Active Use Score of 10:44h is not nearly enough to call the Galaxy A26 competitive in this regard.

The device posted particularly weak web browsing and video playback results. Pretty much all Galaxy A26 alternatives will provide longer battery life.

Charging speed

The Galaxy A26 features the same 25W fast charging as last year over Power Delivery with Samsung's PPS. But that's not nearly enough to compete with its competitors in this price bracket.

The Galaxy A26 can charge from 0 to 100% in 1 hour and 26 minutes, which is considerably more than most. But more importantly, the A26 is at the bottom of the chart in the first 15 and 30-minute marks.

Even though charging isn't particularly fast, Samsung has included several options to protect the battery's health. You can limit the charging to 80 or 90%, or you can let the system decide when to initiate fast charging based on your behavior.

Speakers

The Galaxy A26 features a single, bottom-firing loudspeaker, a downgrade over last year's Galaxy A25, which had a set of nice-sounding stereo speakers.

As a result, loudness and sound quality have dropped significantly. The A26 still gets a "Good" -27.1 LUFS score, but it's no match for its rivals quality-wise. Music sounds dull, tinny, and with virtually no bass.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.