Samsung edges past Apple for top smartphone customer satisfaction in ACSI 2026 study

At a glance:

• Samsung scores 81 in the ACSI 2026 cell phone rankings, edging past Apple's 80 and breaking last year's tie for satisfaction leadership.
• AI integration debuts in the study with an 85 score, nearly matching the top-rated basic functions of calling and texting (both 86), signaling a shift from novelty to practical utility.
• In the foldable segment, Samsung leads with 80, while Apple's rumored foldable iPhone — a 7.8-inch inner display model priced around $2,000 — could reshape the competitive landscape later this year.

A new satisfaction leader

Samsung has taken the top spot in smartphone customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's 2026 Telecommunications, Cell Phone, and Smartwatch Study, published this week. Samsung scores 81 in the ACSI's cell phone rankings while Apple posts 80, breaking last year's tie between the two companies for satisfaction leadership. The overall cell phone industry score rose 1% to 79 this year, recovering from a sharp 4% decline in 2025 that had pushed it to its lowest point in a decade.

The ACSI attributes the recovery to a broader trend in which new features translate into everyday value without introducing new pain points. Battery life, for instance, improved 5% to an 81 score, while AI integration — measured by the ACSI for the first time — scores 85 overall. That figure suggests customers are not only aware of AI features but actively find them useful. For the cell phone industry, the highest-rated customer experience metrics remain the fundamental functions of making phone calls and sending text messages, both scoring 86. AI feature performance debuts at 85, nearly matching those top table-stakes interactions, which the ACSI says marks a meaningful shift from novelty to practical utility.

Flagship vs. legacy vs. foldable

Among new flagship owners, Samsung's latest Galaxy S-series leads at 84, followed by new iPhone owners at 82, with Google's flagship models scoring 80. Satisfaction with flagship models overall scores 82, far outpacing legacy phones at 76 and foldables at 72. The gap underscores how rapidly the market rewards cutting-edge hardware, but it also highlights the still-significant friction points for devices that push form-factor boundaries.

In the foldable segment, Samsung holds a clear lead with an ACSI score of 80, which is 8 points ahead of Google at 72 and 10 points ahead of Motorola at 70. The ACSI notes that foldable owners are three times as likely to complain as non-foldable owners, pointing to durability, weight, and app-compatibility concerns that still dog the category. Competitive dynamics in the segment may shift soon, however, as Apple's rumored entry into the foldable market is anticipated for later this year. Apple is widely expected to debut a foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models this fall, featuring a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover screen, priced at around $2,000.

Smartwatch standings and industry trends

In the smartwatch category, Apple holds steady at 80, while Samsung drops 4% to create a first-place tie at the top of the leaderboard. Customer experience characteristics of smartwatches are universally rated higher this year at the industry level, with the biggest gains including ease of navigating menus and settings, up 7% to 80, and app and accessory connectivity, up 5% to 83.

The broader satisfaction uptick across wearables reflects maturation in both hardware and software ecosystems. As smartwatches become more central to health monitoring and notification workflows, users are rewarding manufacturers that smooth out integration pain points — a trend the ACSI's data mirrors across the phone and telecom categories as well.

What the numbers say about AI adoption

The debut of AI integration as a measured satisfaction metric is perhaps the most telling addition to this year's study. Scoring 85, AI feature performance nearly matches the scores for calling (86) and texting (86), two functions that have been staples for decades. The ACSI's framing — that satisfaction improves most when new features translate into everyday value — suggests that generative AI assistants, on-device photo editing, and predictive text enhancements have crossed the threshold from experimental gimmick to genuine daily utility for a meaningful share of users.

Battery life, meanwhile, ticked up 5% to 81, reinforcing that hardware fundamentals still matter enormously. The 2025 dip of 4% had been driven partly by the rapid rollout of power-hungry AI features and increasingly complex camera systems, so the 2026 rebound hints that manufacturers have begun managing the tradeoff more effectively — through larger cells, more efficient silicon, and smarter background processing.

Study methodology and context

The ACSI study is based on 26,963 completed surveys, with customers contacted via email between April 2025 and March 2026. That window captures a period in which AI features went from headline-grabbing demos to shipping products on flagship devices from Samsung, Apple, and Google. It also encompasses the fallout from the 2025 industry-wide satisfaction dip, making the 1% rebound in 2026 a data point that industry watchers will want to monitor in future reports.

The study's granularity — breaking out flagship, legacy, and foldable sub-segments, and introducing AI as a standalone metric — gives a more textured picture than simple brand rankings. It reveals that while Samsung and Apple trade the top spot by narrow margins, the experience gap between flagship and legacy devices remains substantial, and the foldable category, despite Samsung's lead, still carries a notably higher complaint rate.

What to watch next

Several developments could shift the satisfaction landscape before the next ACSI release. Apple's foldable iPhone, expected this fall, could either raise the bar for foldable satisfaction or inject new complaints if early adopters encounter durability or software issues. Meanwhile, Samsung's semiconductor business recently crossed a $1 trillion valuation, driven by surging memory-chip demand, and reports indicate Apple has held exploratory talks with Intel and Samsung about using U.S.-based chipmaking capacity — a move that could affect supply chain stability and, indirectly, product quality timelines.

On the display front, Apple is expected to finalize OLED panel approvals for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max this month, with Samsung Display and LG Display likely to dominate panel supply. China's BOE has reportedly been closed out of the premium tier supply chain, reinforcing a pattern of concentration around a small number of panel makers. For consumers, the ripple effects of these supply decisions tend to show up in consistency, pricing, and repairability — all factors that the ACSI's satisfaction framework weighs.

The 2026 study suggests the smartphone market is entering a phase where AI capability is no longer a differentiator but a baseline expectation. How quickly that baseline raises — and whether manufacturers can maintain the hardware fundamentals that keep satisfaction scores climbing — will be the story to watch in the next round of data.