Samsung is about to unveil a new Galaxy S series at its Galaxy Unpacked event on February 25, 2026, in San Francisco, and for most shoppers that single fact is a strong reason to avoid buying a current Galaxy S phone right now. With the company already accepting reservations and promoting launch offers, buying today can mean paying more for hardware that’s about to be replaced by a newer generation.
Galaxy Unpacked Is Days Away
Samsung has confirmed that its next major hardware event will take place on February 25, 2026, in San Francisco. The company’s Galaxy Unpacked event hub lists livestream times and a series of pre-briefings building toward the announcement, signaling that the company is deep into its launch cadence. Samsung’s published schedule indicates the company is proceeding with its planned launch timeline.
The timing matters for anyone shopping for a Samsung flagship. When a manufacturer openly counts down to its next product generation, the current lineup instantly loses value. Retailers and carriers may discount existing stock to clear inventory, but those markdowns don’t always match the value of a new device’s launch promotions. Waiting even a couple of weeks can mean getting better hardware at a lower effective price.
Samsung Confirms the Next Galaxy S Series
Any ambiguity about what Unpacked will feature disappeared when Samsung issued its formal invitation. The company explicitly stated that “The new Galaxy S series is coming,” according to the official invitation for the February 25 event. Samsung is billing the upcoming phones as its next AI-focused devices, framing them as tools designed to simplify daily tasks rather than simply spec-sheet upgrades.
That direct language removes the usual guessing game that surrounds product launches. Samsung is not teasing a tablet refresh or a new wearable here. The company is telling consumers, in plain terms, that a new generation of its most popular phone line is about to arrive. For shoppers who have been eyeing a Galaxy S25 or similar model, this confirmation should freeze any purchase plans until the new hardware and its pricing are on the table.
Pre-Order Incentives That Punish Early Buyers
Samsung is not just asking people to wait. The company is actively rewarding patience. Its U.S. reservation page already advertises a package of pre-order perks: a $30 Samsung credit applied during the pre-order window, up to $900 in additional savings, and a sweepstakes entry for a chance to win $5,000. Those numbers represent a substantial gap between what a buyer would spend on a current Galaxy S device today and what they could pay for a newer one in just a few weeks.
The $900 figure may reflect a combination of trade-in credits and promotional discounts, based on how Samsung typically structures launch offers. Even if a buyer captures only a fraction of that ceiling, the math still favors waiting. A current Galaxy S phone purchased at full retail today will lose trade-in value the moment its successor goes on sale, and the buyer will have missed the launch window where Samsung is most generous with credits. The $30 reservation bonus is modest on its own, but it stacks on top of those larger savings, and the $5,000 sweepstakes adds a low-probability but zero-cost upside.
The AI Angle Changes the Calculus
Samsung’s marketing language around the upcoming Galaxy S series centers on artificial intelligence, with the invitation describing the phones as designed to make life easier through AI. While the company has not released detailed specifications or feature lists, the emphasis on AI capabilities suggests the new devices may ship with software (and potentially hardware) changes that could be hard to match on older models through updates alone. Buyers who purchase a current phone now risk missing features that Samsung is building into the next generation from the ground up.
This is where the usual advice to “just buy what is available” breaks down. In a typical product cycle, the gap between the outgoing and incoming model might be a slightly better camera sensor or a marginally faster processor. When a manufacturer signals a platform-level shift toward AI integration, the generational leap tends to be wider. Samsung’s event hub highlights pre-briefings and materials leading up to Unpacked, signaling the company is positioning this launch as more than a routine refresh. Consumers who lock themselves into a two-year financing agreement on a current model may find themselves a full generation behind on the features Samsung prioritizes going forward.
What Smart Shoppers Should Do Instead
The practical move is straightforward. Anyone considering a Galaxy S purchase should place a free reservation on Samsung’s website, wait for the February 25 event, and then evaluate the new lineup against the current models. If the new phones do not impress, the existing Galaxy S devices will still be available, likely at steeper discounts than they carry today. If the new phones deliver on Samsung’s AI promises, the reservation perks make the upgrade significantly cheaper than buying the outgoing generation at current prices.
There is a common counterargument that the best time to buy a phone is whenever you need one. That logic holds in most months of the year, but it weakens when a confirmed launch is days away and the manufacturer is publicly advertising up to hundreds of dollars in savings tied to reserving and pre-ordering. For many buyers, the opportunity cost of waiting until after the February 25 event is close to zero. The opportunity cost of not waiting could run into the hundreds, between lost trade-in value, missed credits, and the gap in features between this year’s Galaxy S and last year’s.
Samsung has made its timeline and its incentive structure unusually transparent this cycle. The company is telling consumers exactly when the new phones arrive, exactly what savings are available, and exactly what product line is being refreshed. Ignoring that information and buying a current Galaxy S phone right now is one of the few objectively poor decisions a smartphone shopper can make this month.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
