TL;DR
- Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series, despite its premium pricing ($900-$1,800), comes with a significant amount of preinstalled third-party bloatware from Meta, Microsoft, and Spotify.
- A clean setup of a 512GB Galaxy S26 Ultra reveals that system files and preinstalled apps occupy over 40GB of storage before any user data is added.
- Unlike budget phones that use bloatware to lower costs, the Galaxy S26 Ultra retains its high price tag while still including these preinstalled apps.
Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series is the company’s newest flagship lineup. Early pre-order and sales figures put the Galaxy S26 Ultra in a good spot to become one of the most popular Android phones if it holds momentum. Samsung did raise prices this year, with the Galaxy S26 starting at a cool $900 and the S26 Plus starting at $1,100. The Galaxy S26 Ultra didn’t see a price increase for the base variant, but it’s still pretty expensive, starting at $1,300. Surprisingly, for the price paid, Samsung is giving users a bloatware-heavy software experience on the Galaxy S26 series.
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