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 built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and has established itself as a local landmark for more than 100 years through multiple restorations and reconstructions. 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 evoked in a cutting-edge city...A preview visit to the venue

On the 24th (local time), one day before Galaxy Unpacked, San Francisco was filled with cutting-edge technologies befitting its status as a tech hub city. It was particularly notable as a testbed for unmanned autonomous driving services. Near the venue, Waymo, a Google-based autonomous taxi with an empty driver's seat, was slowly making its way along the road.

Upon entering the Palace of Fine Arts, the grand circular dome and columns surrounding 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 perfectly symbolic location 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 to the hall, where visitors will enter, staff were busy preparing for the event, setting up a registration area for attendees and maintaining tight security for confidentiality. The windows scattered throughout the building were covered with thick curtains so that the interior could not be seen. The exhibition hall here is about 13,000 square meters, close to 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 hall where President and CEO Roh Tae-moon, Head of the DX Division, will present the new products, as well as an experience zone where global foreign media and invited influencers can try them out firsthand. Contrary to expectations that the venue would be wrapped in promotional materials announcing the festival, 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's exterior to promote Unpacked.

Conversational AI agents to make everyday life more convenient

The Galaxy S26 is expected to take the leap from smartphone to AI phone one step further. In particular, the focus is likely to be on a conversational interface and the role of an "AI agent" that performs functions through natural voice commands, rather than the existing method of manually typing commands on a keyboard. The key question is how well Gemini, Google's AI model that has already been advanced to the level of handling complex coding, will be optimized for the Galaxy S26 and the Android operating system (OS).

The AI agent is expected to make our daily lives more convenient. Whereas until now only simple voice commands such as "Call OO" were possible, in the future it is expected that users will be able to edit photos taken with the camera using voice commands, such as "Remove the people in this image and leave only the background."

This kind of conversational interface can allow digitally vulnerable groups, such as the elderly who are not familiar with using smartphones, to make their daily lives more convenient through AI technology. It is also a way to prove the reason for AI phones to exist in a market where they must compete with new rival products such as smart glasses that free up users' hands and AI-dedicated devices. Considering that heavy AI users tend to use two or more AI models, Samsung has additionally equipped the Galaxy S26 with Perplexity. A Samsung representative said, "At Galaxy Unpacked 2026, we will unveil AI features that will be astonishing," 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, Samsung Electronics' own Exynos 2600 chipset is highly likely to be installed in the base and Plus models, while Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th generation is likely to be installed in the Ultra model. As for the factory price, a price increase of about 99,000 won is expected for the 256GB model compared to its predecessor, and about 209,000 won for the 512GB model. In particular, there are projections that the factory price of the 512GB Ultra model will approach 2 million won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.