The Galaxy S26 is a photography nightmare | The Vergecast

Quick Overview

The Vergecast hosts strongly criticize Samsung's new Galaxy S26 camera features, labeling the potential for creating purely synthetic images, like adding a dog to a photo via natural language prompt, as a "photography nightmare" and "beyond dangerous," while also discussing iterative hardware updates and the announcement of agentic AI features shared with Google's upcoming plans.

Key Points: Samsung's disclaimer on the Galaxy S26 AI phone explicitly states, "Not all the features on the AI phone are AI based," which the hosts found "nuts." The new S26 line introduces features like a privacy screen using two sets of pixels, horizon lock in the camera, and an audio eraser for third-party streaming apps. The host expressed visceral alarm over the AI photo editing, noting Samsung stated smartphones are "moving beyond capture" to "make other stuff," and dangerously claimed the phone should "help you add what should have been there." A demo showed adding a dog to a cafe photo using natural language, prompting the host to question the lack of guardrails against creating fictional or harmful content, like adding Jeffrey Epstein to a photo. The price of two S26 models increased by $100, justified by bumped storage, establishing a trend of making cheaper things better while raising overall phone costs. Microsoft Gaming saw a shakeup where Asha Chararma became CEO, replacing Phil Spencer, and Sarah Bond, his deputy, did not receive the role, signaling a pivot toward AI work. Google and Samsung announced agentic AI features where the phone can take actions like ordering an Uber using natural language, utilizing Gemini capabilities on the S26.

Context: The Vergecast episode recorded after the Samsung Unpacked event covers the newly announced Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra phones, alongside new Galaxy Buds. The discussion centers heavily on the software and AI features, particularly the photo editing capabilities, which triggered strong negative reactions from the hosts, contrasting Samsung's approach with that of competitors like Apple and Google regarding photographic reality. The conversation also touched on recent leadership changes at Microsoft Gaming.