Bucket Tech: Samsung S26 FE

Samsung has officially introduced the new Galaxy S26 FE, bringing many of the features found in its flagship Galaxy S range to a more accessible device. It also becomes the first phone in the Galaxy S26 family to launch with Samsung’s new One UI 9 software and Android 17.

At the heart of the S26 FE is Samsung’s Exynos 2500 processor, paired with a large 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. The screen features a 120Hz refresh rate and can reach an impressive 1,900 nits of brightness, making it easy to view even in direct sunlight. The phone itself remains relatively slim at just 7.4mm and weighs 193g.

The camera setup has also received plenty of attention. Around the back is a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultra-wide and an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, while the front gets an upgraded 12MP selfie camera. Samsung has also brought across features such as Nightography, Super Steady video and My FanCam, which can automatically keep a selected subject in the centre of the frame while recording.

Of course, AI is a big part of the S26 FE experience. Samsung’s latest Galaxy AI features can help with everything from editing photographs using simple prompts to creating videos from your photos and clips. Features such as Now Brief and Now Nudge are designed to make the phone more useful throughout the day, while Gemini can handle more complicated tasks through simple voice or text requests. Circle to Search has also been improved to allow multiple objects in an image to be searched at once.

Powering everything is a 4,900mAh battery with support for 45W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging. The S26 FE also gets Wi-Fi 6E, adding faster and more reliable connectivity to the package.

One of the more impressive aspects is Samsung's long-term software support. The S26 FE will receive seven generations of Android/OS upgrades and seven years of security updates, which should keep the phone feeling current for a very long time.

For South African buyers, the Galaxy S26 FE launches on 4 September 2026 in Blueberry, Graphite and Pistachio. Pricing starts at R15,499 for the 128GB model, while the 256GB version will cost R17,999. Samsung is also including a six-month trial of Google AI Pro, which normally costs R429.99 per month and includes additional AI features and 5TB of cloud storage.

Overall, the Galaxy S26 FE looks like Samsung’s attempt to bring the best parts of its flagship S-series experience to a more affordable package. You get a big 120Hz AMOLED display, capable cameras, plenty of AI features, fast charging and, importantly, years of software support. It may not have all the bells and whistles of the flagship S26 models, but for someone looking for a premium Samsung experience without stepping into flagship pricing, the S26 FE could be a very interesting option.

Bucket Tech: Google Gemini

 

AI has been slowly creeping its way into almost everything over the past 2 years, it came in relatively unannounced with tech companies using AI to assist with some of the most minute applications but slowly it began to grow even more, AI became more than something on your smart phone to help you take better pictures, soon with applications like Chat GPT, you were able to get AI to write you letters, essays, heck, it can even write this post you're reading but rest assured, this one is coming straight from that grey matter in my head. Yes, AI is here to assist you, at the end of the day, AI can only do so much because its an ever evolving technology that feeds from information you give it. Apple recently at their event went through the various features their OS has with AI, by the way, they call it Apple Intelligence and not the global norm which is Artificial Intelligence. But Apple being Apple can do shit like that and the world will still be amazed. This however riled up the Android boys hence last night, Google decided to drop Gemini, their AI assistant that is available to use on all Android devices. Gemini is deeply integrated into Android and runs at its core, with the rest of the operating system being built around it, this they say will "redefine what phones can do". 

Yes, we've always had the interactive functions of "voice command" from Google before, but with Gemini it's become more streamlined and has a lot more functionality than before. With "Okay Google" command prompt it limited you to app based questions, while with Gemini, the command prompt is changed to a simple "Hello" and then you can ask it pretty much anything you want? What is great as per the above video, it can run through multiple apps to give you an answer with solutions and show you how to do it. For example, an email was sent to you to meet a person at a certain location at a certain time, the user asked Gemini for the info, it searched through Gmail for the specific email, found the time and location, opened Google Maps and told her how long it will take for her to get their with traffic information. This new personal assistant feature comes really handy for people on the go, to schedule appoints and reminders. 

As always, the big question comes about security, with so much information being fed into the Gemini, how sure are you that what you're telling it wont reach into the hands of those of others. Google says with its end-to-end approach to AI privacy on Android, all your personal information is secured. Google is using cutting-edge privacy technologies like Private Compute Core and federated learning to ensure the assistant experience with Gemini on Android is aligned with their existing Secure AI framework, AI Principles and Privacy Principles. They maintain they do no hand off to a third-party AI provider and everything on their ecosystem is in house. 

With Android global footprint on various devices, Gemini is the most widely available AI assistant, with this in mind, it supported in 45 languages in more than 200 countries and territories and its an ever growing platform with these figures only going to grow. Whether you're using Gemini on Pixel devices or Samsung devices, each brand has customized Gemini in various ways  to make it more comfortable for their user to experience.  Some stand out features will feature throughout the Android ecosystem like Samsung's "Circle to Search" is available on Gemini now and this is only the beginning.