One Day to Unpacked Under Tight Security... Sky-High Expectations for the Transformed Galaxy S26

A day before Galaxy Unpacked... A visit to the U.S. venue
A space the size of two soccer fields, accommodating up to 5,000 people
Enhanced AI features... Easy and convenient for everyday use

'Galaxy Unpacked 2026,' where Samsung Electronics will unveil the Galaxy S26 series, is now just one day away. This year's event will be held at the Palace of Fine Arts, an iconic architectural landmark in San Francisco, USA. The Palace of Fine Arts was originally built for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 and, through multiple restorations and reconstructions over more than 100 years, has established itself as a landmark of the area. It has been consistently used for large-scale corporate events, art exhibitions, performances, and as a filming location.

View of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, USA, where Samsung Electronics' 'Galaxy Unpacked 2026' event is being held. Photo by Kim Bokyung

Ancient Europe in a high-tech city... A preview of the venue

On the 24th (local time), one day before Galaxy Unpacked, San Francisco was filled with cutting-edge technology befitting its status as a global tech hub. In particular, it stood out as a testbed for unmanned autonomous driving services. Near the venue, Waymo, a Google-based self-driving taxi with an empty driver’s seat, was slowly making its way along the streets.

However, upon entering the Palace of Fine Arts, the grand circular dome and surrounding columns of the venue evoked the image of an ancient Roman temple. It felt like a place where innovation meets tradition and art coexists with technology. It seemed like a fitting symbolic venue to unveil the Galaxy S series, which is leading the era of mobile artificial intelligence (AI), to the world. Samsung Electronics also held a previous Unpacked event here in 2020 to introduce the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip.

Galaxy Unpacked will take place inside the arched building located behind the large dome and columns. In front of the north entrance, where attendees will enter, staff were busily preparing the event, setting up a registration area for participants alongside tight security to maintain confidentiality. The windows punctuating the building were covered with thick curtains to prevent any view of the interior. The exhibition hall here spans about 13,000 square meters, roughly the size of two soccer fields, and can accommodate up to 5,000 people.

Exterior view of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, USA, where Samsung Electronics' 'Galaxy Unpacked 2026' event is being held. Palace of Fine Arts official website

The venue is expected to be arranged with a main stage where President and CEO Roh Tae-moon, Head of the DX Division, will unveil the new products, as well as an experience zone where global media outlets and invited influencers can try them out firsthand. Contrary to expectations that the venue would be wrapped in promotional materials announcing the festival-like event, the exterior looked relatively subdued. According to Samsung, due to regulations in San Francisco, it was not possible to hang large outdoor billboards or banners on the building exterior to promote Unpacked.

Conversational AI agents will make everyday life more convenient

The Galaxy S26 is expected to lead the next step in the evolution from smartphone to AI phone. In particular, instead of the conventional method of typing commands by tapping the keyboard with your fingers, the focus is likely to be on a conversational interface that executes functions through natural voice commands and on the role of an "AI agent." A key question is how well Gemini, Google’s highly advanced AI model that can already handle complex coding, will be optimized for the Galaxy S26 and the Android operating system (OS).

AI agents are expected to make our daily lives more convenient. While voice commands have so far been limited to simple tasks such as "Call OO," in the future it is expected that users will be able to perform photo editing with spoken commands, such as "Remove the people from this image and leave only the background," for pictures taken with the camera.

This kind of conversational interface can help digitally vulnerable groups, such as older adults who are not familiar with using smartphones, make their daily lives more convenient through AI technology. It is also a way to justify the existence of AI phones at a time when they must compete with new products such as smart glasses that free up the user’s hands and AI-dedicated devices. Taking into account that active AI users tend to use more than one AI model, Samsung has additionally equipped the Galaxy S26 with Perplexity. A Samsung official said, "At Galaxy Unpacked 2026, we will introduce AI features that will be truly surprising," adding, "Through AI agents, we will enable users to enjoy AI experiences naturally in their everyday lives."

Meanwhile, for the mobile application processor (AP), which serves as the brain of the smartphone, the base and Plus models are highly likely to be equipped with Samsung Electronics’ in-house Exynos 2600 chipset, while the Ultra model is likely to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th generation. As for the factory price, Samsung is projecting an increase of about 99,000 won for the 256GB model and about 209,000 won for the 512GB model compared with the previous generation. In particular, there are projections that the factory price of the 512GB Ultra model will approach 2 million won.