Is Samsung about to ruin the Galaxy S26’s big reveal? Place your bets now

I propose a friendly wager. A bit of fun amongst mates, nothing serious.

Samsung will reveal the Galaxy S26 series in the very near future, with the end of February being the likely time for the first, big, Galaxy Unpacked event of 2026.

That’s not what we’re going to bet on. We’re going to bet on the amount of time Samsung spends talking about AI during it, and we’re going to use the Galaxy S25’s launch event as the benchmark.

Wallets at the ready.

Looking back at 2025

An AI lovefest

It was a year ago that Samsung took to the stage in San Francisco to reveal the Galaxy S25 as part of a 70-minute event. However, it was more AI than S25.

From the very minute it started, T M Roh looks at Now Brief on his phone, and immediately he gets on stage, he’s all about Galaxy AI, saying it’s setting the stage for a new standard in mobile AI.

AI agents are now integrated at the system level inside One UI 7, Google and Samsung have a shared vision for an AI ecosystem, and its goal is to create an integrated AI platform together.

Then, we have Google Deepmind’s Demis Hassabis talking about Gemini Live, some more about AI security, and a promotional video about Galaxy AI. That’s 10 minutes gone already, and not a hint of a phone, only AI.

I’m not going to rehash the entire event, because if you sat through it a year ago, then you’ll know what it was all about.

However, I’ve rewatched it, and by my calculations, the opening 30 minutes of the 70-minute event was solely about AI. Approximately 13 minutes were dedicated to the Galaxy S25 series hardware.

All AI and nothing else?

It wasn’t quite that bad

It wasn’t all an AI snooze fest, and filmmaker Jonathan Clay’s section about taking the S25 Ultra on a shoot was interesting and inspiring.

Unfortunately, many were probably asleep by the 45-minute mark when this happened, so may not remember.

Why was the Galaxy S25’s launch event like this? It’s simple.

Samsung has invested a lot of money into Galaxy AI, it was the big tech buzzword at the time, and it needed to show how cutting edge the company was.

Samsung wasn’t alone in this either. Cast your mind back to Google’s Pixel 10 launch event, an insufferable, cringe-making showcase of Google’s AI with barely a mention of the Pixel 10 hardware.

If you launched a product in 2025, did it even exist if it didn’t have any AI?

Betting on the future

More, or less AI?

You know all this. It’s not news that companies pushed AI hard in 2025, and we had to put up with it. What about 2026?

Samsung will be the first major mobile brand to show off its flagship devices for the year, and its launch event will set the tone.

Here’s the challenge. How much would you bet that Samsung will go beyond 30 dedicated minutes of the presentation talking about Galaxy AI, Google Gemini, or AI features like summarization or Now Brief at Unpacked 2026?

Or, do you think it’ll cut back on the AI talk, and more than 13 minutes will be spent on the Galaxy S26’s hardware and features, at the expense of some AI talk?

You can shout “higher” or “lower” at the screen now, like it’s the 70s, and you’re in the audience for a cheap game show.

An easy win

Is there a safe bet?

AI hasn’t gone away over the last year, so surely betting higher than 30 minutes spent talking about it during the next Unpacked event means an easy win, right?

Possibly. At CES 2026, Samsung spent a lot of time talking about AI, but didn’t go into detail about any new products or hardware for 2026, so it’s definitely saving all that for Galaxy Unpacked and the Galaxy S26.

Plus, AI isn’t quite as new as it was at the beginning of 2025, and there won’t be quite as much need for explainers, and major features like Gemini Live and Now Brief don’t need as much introduction as they did.

It may mean the AI talk gets streamlined.

Thirty minutes is also quite a long time. Can it really stretch it out again? Perhaps betting higher isn’t the safe bet it first appears to be.

Plus, by betting it’ll spend more than 30 minutes only talking about AI, we’re also betting on a dreary event, and admitting the days where launch events were about hardware and features are truly long-gone.

It’s time to place your bet. Will the Galaxy S26’s Unpacked event have more than 30 minutes dedicated to AI, or less?

I’m a glass-half-full person, so I’ll say less. But I’m also fully expecting to lose my shirt after the event ends.