Galaxy S26 series leaks in cases; I still can’t tell if the phone has magnets or not [Gallery]

Ben Schoon | Jan 29 2026 - 4:00 am PT

The Galaxy S26 series may or may not have magnets, but it’s getting harder to tell, and new case leaks aren’t really helping lift the curtain on this mystery.

To recap what we’ve heard so far, some of the early Galaxy S26 series leaks pretty clearly showed that Samsung was planning to install Qi2 magnets within the actual hardware. But ever since Samsung threw out the plans for its new flagship series, this has been up in the air. The presence of first-party Qi2 hardware including a new specially-designed battery bank suggests that the phone might have magnets, but a more recent leak leaves room for doubt.

So, we’re caught in a dilemma.

And the case leaks aren’t helping.

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Evan Blass posted a handful of cases from UAG that show the Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra with their updated camera bumps and some Qi2 magnet rings within the case. That’s a pretty standard affair for a third-party cases whether there are magnets inside or not, though.

A bit more telling is a set of pictures posted by @MysteryLupin of what appears to be Samsung’s first-party Galaxy S26 Ultra cases, where we can see a handful of faux leather cases that also have Qi2 magnet rings inside. That’s notable because, last time around, Samsung didn’t bother including magnets in its Galaxy S25 cases of this style. The only first-party magnet case Samsung released was a poorly-received plastic case.

Again, that seems to indicate that the phone will probably have magnets inside, as including the hardware within the phone itself would demand all cases to do the same for the sake of not breaking features, but it’s hard to say anything for absolute certain, especially when the source of this particular case leak is unknown – and that orange case feels pretty out of place, given we know that’s not a part of Samsung’s color lineup.