The iPhone 17 series has reset the market dynamics for the smartphone world. For the next 12 months, brands are now expected to take ‘inspiration’ from Apple’s iPhone 17 models and implement it in their devices. The iPhone 17 Pro’s bold new design and its vibrant shade of orange may kick off a chain of iPhone clones from other major Android-based phone makers. That said, all eyes are on Samsung – Apple’s age-old rival that never shies away from bringing its take on Apple’s newest offerings.
Three months from now, Samsung is expected to bring the Galaxy S26 series as its next-generation flagship series. Although the product development may have started months ago and could be reaching the final stages of production, Samsung could still have enough time to implement a few iPhone-inspired changes. While the rectangular ‘camera plateau’ is already expected to grace the Galaxy S26 Edge, as seen in some leaked renders, we believe that Samsung may bring more iconic iPhone 17-inspired design cues to its next-gen smartphones.
While we won’t mind a similarly bright hue of orange gracing an aluminium unibody Galaxy S26 Ultra, there are five features from the iPhone 17 series that we hope Samsung brings to the table.
Anti-reflective display across all models
Samsung was the first to pioneer the cause of anti-reflective coating on its Ultra-branded phones but this year onwards, it should take care of the standard Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus. The anti-reflection coating is a boon in the outdoors, cutting down on unnecessary reflections. The iPhone 17, iPhone Air and the Pro variants get an anti-reflective coating as standard. It’s high time that the Galaxy S26 models get them all as standard too.
Square sensor for selfie camera
The iPhone 17 series brings a new 18MP selfie camera with a unique square aspect ratio. This sensor design allows for both portrait and landscape shots without the need to rotate the phone, thus making selfie photos and videos a lot more convenient. A square front camera sensor could make the Galaxy S26 series a lot more creator-friendly.
Much faster wired charging
Faster wired charging has been the norm on the Pixels and iPhones this year, and Samsung shouldn’t back out for the Galaxy S26 series. The Galaxy S25 Ultra already supports 45W wired charging, and it is high time that Samsung extends it to the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus along with the S26 Ultra and S26 Edge. As battery capacity increases, the need for faster wired charging is always a boon.
Camera sensor upgrade
On the camera front, Apple has equipped the iPhone 17 series with high-resolution 48MP sensors for both the main and ultrawide lenses. The Pro even gets a 48MP telephoto camera. Hence, it only makes sense for Samsung to go for an all-50MP sensor setup on all the variants of the Galaxy S26 series. Even if the ultrawide camera remains at 12MP, the telephoto sensor on all the models need to go to 50MP sensors for improving zoom quality.
We are also not discounting the possibility of a 200MP sensor for the telephoto camera on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
