I’m an iPhone user, but not a ride-or-die iPhone user. When I tested the Motorola Razr Ultra for Mashable last year, it reminded me how much I like some Android features.
And with the Samsung Galaxy S26 phones rumored to be coming in late February with One UI 8.5, I’m exactly the kind of person Samsung needs to woo.
Unlike a lot of iPhone users I know, I really would consider ditching my iPhone for an Android handset — if the price (and feature-set) were right.
Samsung phones tend to leak like a faucet ahead of their official launch, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now. We’ve already broken down everything we know about the Galaxy S26 line and the next Galaxy Unpacked launch event. Given what we know, these are the rumored S26 features that could convince me to defect from Apple to Android.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
All S26 phones released in the United States are expected to come with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. And it’s supposed to offer noticeable upgrades to battery life, on-device AI computing, graphics, and overall performance. Apple is still king in the laptop world thanks to its M-series silicon, but early tests show that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 really is the “world’s fastest mobile system on chip,” as Qualcomm has promised.
Free access to Google Gemini
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched with an attractive offer: six free months of Google AI One Pro, normally $19.99 per month. That includes expanded access to the latest Gemini tools and cloud storage. I expect Samsung to put forward a similar launch offer for the S26 (as Pixel phones did, with 12 months of access for free).