7 options it’s best to count on from 2026 flagship Android telephones

This was a big yr for Android telephones, as a number of improvements and enhancements have been keenly felt. Whether or not it’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s large CPU efficiency leap, the continued rise of silicon-carbon batteries, sturdiness enhancements, or slick digicam {hardware}, there have been a number of notable developments on this era.

Know-how waits for nobody, although, and next-generation smartphone processors have already been revealed. We’ve even seen the primary next-generation high-end telephones within the Xiaomi 17 collection. With all that in thoughts, I assumed it will be a good suggestion to have a look at the options it’s best to count on in 2026’s flagship Android telephones.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Dimensity 9500 chips are anticipated to energy nearly all of high-end Android telephones globally. And the excellent news is that each of those chips convey spectacular video upgrades.

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chip is the primary cellular processor to help the Superior Skilled Video (APV) codec. This codec is supposed to supply “perceptually lossless” video high quality whereas nonetheless permitting for changes in post-production. These tweaks embrace coloration grading and spotlight/shadow changes. That is an encouraging addition for “prosumers” and fanatics basically. Moreover, Google beforehand confirmed that Android 16 helps APV, whereas Galaxy S26 collection rumors additionally point out APV help.

In the meantime, MediaTek says its Dimensity 9500 is the primary Android chipset to help 4K/120fps video with Dolby Imaginative and prescient. It’ll additionally greatest Apple’s iPhones by supporting 4K/60fps cinematic portrait video (up from 4K/30fps). So, our fingers are crossed that telephone makers reap the benefits of these video enhancements.

Silicon-carbon batteries have been a serious theme in 2025, following their debut in 2023. The OnePlus 13 and vivo X200 Professional have 6,000mAh batteries, whereas the realme GT7 Professional gives a 6,500mAh battery. The China-only HONOR Energy has a loopy 8,000mAh battery. Sadly, Apple, Google, and Samsung haven’t hopped on this bandwagon but.

Nonetheless, rival manufacturers are streaking forward with even bigger batteries. The Xiaomi 17 collection exemplifies this method, because the three telephones have batteries starting from 6,300mAh to 7,500mAh. Even the bottom Xiaomi 17 has a 7,000mAh battery regardless of its 6.3-inch display screen. In the meantime, the OnePlus 15 is claimed to have a large 7,800mAh battery, whereas the OPPO Discover X9 Professional may have a 7,550mAh battery.

Xiaomi says it’s elevated the silicon content material in its batteries to realize these features, and we suspect different manufacturers may very well be doing the identical. That raises issues concerning the long-term stability of those batteries, as elevated silicon content material sometimes means a extra unstable and unreliable battery over time. In any occasion, manufacturers like Samsung and Google nonetheless haven’t embraced primary silicon-carbon batteries. We actually hope this adjustments in 2026.

AI fashions are large, so firms usually have to make use of smaller fashions or applied sciences like quantization (i.e., compression) to get them operating on a smartphone. Nevertheless, chipmakers have provide you with a few fascinating options in latest months.

For one, MediaTek has introduced that the Dimensity 9500 helps completely tiny 1.58-bit AI fashions through the BitNet-1 framework. This apparently means a 50% drop in energy consumption and diminished storage necessities, however I do marvel how succesful these fashions will likely be.

In the meantime, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 now helps INT2 precision for greater quantization of AI fashions. This help comes a couple of years after the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 launched INT4 precision, which was a milestone for on-device AI on the time. Both manner, telephones powered by these new chips ought to be capable to run ever-larger AI fashions, which ought to lead to extra advanced AI capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy AI and Google’s AI options are inclined to run properly on their respective units, as they’re designed to faucet into devoted AI silicon. Nevertheless, many third-party AI apps and companies fall again to the CPU or GPU in the event that they aren’t optimized for devoted AI {hardware}. That’s not perfect, because the CPU and GPU are sometimes much less environment friendly and/or highly effective than the NPU. Main Android silicon makers are addressing this subject, although.

The Dimensity 9500’s CPU helps SME2, which is an elective set of directions and {hardware} for Arm’s newest CPUs. MediaTek says this permits 50% higher object detection processing efficiency and 50% decrease energy when operating “encoding/decoding” fashions. Arm additionally beforehand claimed that SME2 permits six instances quicker responses with Google’s Gemma 3 mannequin and the flexibility to summarize 800 phrases in only a second on a single (unspecified) CPU. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 helps SME somewhat than the most recent SME2 extensions, which suggests extra modest AI-related features.

These enhancements gained’t change devoted AI {hardware}, however AI workloads not optimized for a given chipset/telephone ought to get a significant velocity enhance. Our fingers are crossed that low-end processors with SME/SME2 launch in 2026, as these chips historically lack highly effective AI silicon.

Just about all telephones with 200MP cameras take disappointing full-resolution images in most conditions. That’s as a result of 200MP images are successfully single-frame snapshots devoid of further picture processing. That is set to vary for no less than one model.

OPPO confirmed final month that the Discover X9 Professional’s 200MP telephoto digicam makes use of “multi-frame fusion” expertise to ship higher 200MP images. Which means capturing full-resolution 200MP snaps gained’t essentially be a waste of time.

This expertise may not be unique to OPPO, both, as MediaTek has confirmed that the Dimensity 9500 chip (used within the Discover X9 Professional) helps 200MP seize and 320MP “snapshots.” This distinction between “seize” and “snapshot” means that the chip certainly helps 200MP pictures with further processing.

Smartphone makers like to hype up the height brightness of their shows, regardless that this measurement is a gimmick. Nevertheless, we may see some producers moving into the other way with their new-generation telephones.

MediaTek has beforehand claimed that its Dimensity 9500 chipset helps one-nit of show brightness. This help comes a yr after the iPhone 16 Professional collection debuted one-nit show brightness. That’s impressively darkish, however what would such a darkish display screen be used for? Effectively, bedtime studying is one fashionable use case, as your telephone display screen gained’t essentially disturb your associate.

It seems like OPPO and vivo’s new flagship telephones will each help one-nit show brightness, and we may even see different manufacturers undertake the show characteristic all through 2026.

Gaming is a sure-fire technique to drain a telephone’s battery, however each Qualcomm and MediaTek have made some effectivity features that bode properly for future Genshin Impression and Name of Responsibility periods. For starters, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s GPU gives a 20% drop in energy consumption over the 8 Elite GPU. That’s a reasonably first rate effectivity enchancment.

Nevertheless, the Dimensity 9500 GPU ups the ante with 42% higher energy effectivity. That’s a considerable enchancment over the Dimensity 9400, which already provided 44% higher effectivity. In any occasion, it looks like it’s best to be capable to recreation for longer with these new chips.

These are the principle issues we count on to see from Android flagships in 2026. Which of those are you most excited for? Is there one other characteristic you hope to see that we didn’t point out? Tell us within the feedback.