2 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Samsung

Founded in 1938, Samsung is the largest chaebol in South Korea. The myriad of companies under its brand are some of the biggest in their respective industries, but Samsung Electronics is the most notable. It makes some of the most popular phones in use today, and its flagship portfolio includes the Galaxy S-series and foldable Z-series devices. It also makes televisions, tablets, computers, headphones, and many of the displays, chips, and batteries found in devices from Apple, Sony, and others.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Google and Samsung are tapping into Quick Share.

Android Authority has found references to an expanded AirDrop-like system in Android 17 beta and Canary builds called “Tap to share” that uses NFC to help transfer files between phones brought close together. As it sits at the OS level, the feature could be coming to all Android devices.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Samsung Display’s new film reduces reflections and scratches on QD-OLED monitors.

The QuantumBlack film reduces light reflectance by 20 percent helping to boost the perceived contrast of QD-OLED displays in settings where ambient light is unavoidable. It also improves a panel’s surface hardness and durability from 2H to 3H so a display can resist even accidental fingernail scratches when it’s being moved.

A person sits next to a computer monitor displaying the Samsung QuantumBlack film on screen.
Samsung says companies including Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI plan to launch QD-OLED monitors featuring its new film.
Image: Samsung Display
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Samsung’s mobile web browser is now on PC.

The Samsung Browser is available for Windows 11 and Windows 10 devices, though some of its AI-powered features — including multi-tab awareness and a chatbot assistant that searches the web for you — are limited to the US and South Korea. An expansion to other regions is “expected in the future.”

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Samung Galaxy S26 Ultra repairability is “brutal.”

iFixit praised the device’s built-in privacy display, but said it made for “one of the ugliest screen repair paths in a flagship phone,” giving it a provisional repairability score of 5 out of 10.

“Parts of this phone suggest Samsung understands what repair-friendly hardware looks like,” says iFixit. “The company just keeps stopping short of fully committing to it.”

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John Higgins
John Higgins
Samsung announces its new Neo QLED TVs for 2026, and the QN90 is missing.

The QN90 has been Samsung’s flagship mini LED since 2021, but is no more as the company moves more towards RGB LED TVs, leaving the QN80H and QN70H as its main quantum dot 4K mini-LED TVs. A new “Mini LED TV” line has 11 less expensive, non-QD options.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Samsung’s Galaxy S26 will support AirDrop.

Choi Won-joon, COO of Samsung’s Mobile eXperience Business, made the announcement at a press conference in Japan, according to Korean publication EBN.

Android support for AirDrop has so far been limited to Pixel 10 devices, but Google said in February that it would come to more Android phones “very soon.”

Why people really hate AIWhy people really hate AI
David Pierce
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Samsung plans to spend $73 billion on AI chip expansion.

The company is increasing production and research investments by 22 percent in 2026 in an attempt to overtake SK Hynix’s lead as Nvidia’s dominant memory provider. Co-CEO Jun Young-hyun says demand for agentic AI is fueling a surge in orders, with funds being funneled toward “future-oriented” sectors like advanced robotics.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Here for a good time, not a long time.

Samsung has discontinued its TriFold phone after just a few months on sale, amid speculation that it only ever manufactured a few thousand devices. So long, TriFold, we barely knew ye.

macfixer:

RIP Galaxy Z TriFold

2026 — 2026

🫡🫡🫡

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Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the choice — if you have a Galaxy phone

Sound and ANC performance improve with the Buds 4 Pro, but you still need a Galaxy phone for full functionality.

John Higgins
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review: show off

8

Verge Score

The Ultra returns to form with an innovative display.

Allison Johnson
Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus review: This again

Samsung’s latest Galaxy S phones are going through the motions.

Dominic Preston
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Samsung says over 120 games will support its glasses-free 3D displays by the end of 2026.

At GDC 2026, the company announced plans to expand its support for “glasses-free 3D gameplay on the Samsung Odyssey 3D gaming monitor.” Samsung says over 60 titles are already supported through its Odyssey 3D Hub platform, but that will expand to over 120 by year’s end, including Rogue Factor’s Hell is Us releasing in March.

A 3D game displayed on Samsung’s Odyssey 3D gaming monitor.
Other titles coming to Samsung’s Odyssey 3D Hub include Hell is Us and Cronos: The New Dawn.
Image: Samsung
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Samsung is still planning to launch its first smart glasses in 2026.

We still don’t know much about the AR glasses Samsung is building with Google, but Jay Kim, Samsung’s EVP of the company’s mobile division, tells CNBC the device will connect to your phone and have a built-in camera at “your eye level.”

Kim added that Samsung aims to launch the product this year, echoing what the company said in January.

Allison Johnson
Allison Johnson
Just watch those pixels flex.

Samsung Display has a helpful visual on its MWC booth showing how the Flex Magic Pixel technology in the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display works. The technology itself isn’t new — it debuted at MWC 2024 — but its application in a real, shipping product is.

Front and center at Samsung Display’s booth, the demo shows how the OLED structure limits light emitted to the sides of subpixels when privacy mode is engaged. Kinda cool.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Samsung expands satellite support.

The new Galaxy S26 series supports satellite-based messaging and data services — including emergency assistance — offered by Samsung’s telco partners in North America, parts of Europe, and Japan. “Select Galaxy smartphones” are also eligible for the wider coverage.

Nathan Edwards
Nathan Edwards
I am once again asking for Samsung to put the magnets in the phones.

Like last year, the Galaxy S26 phones are “Qi2 Ready,” which means you’ll need a magnet case to use Qi2 accessories. Which is fine, I guess, since you were gonna get a case anyway. Fifty bucks seems a little steep, though.

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Nathan Edwards
Nathan Edwards
Everything announced at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 in 12 minutes.

The Galaxy Unpacked keynote ended less than an hour ago, and with it the announcements of the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra. We watched the whole thing, but you don’t have to. Got twelve minutes?