Samsung Overtakes Apple for Top Smartphone Customer Satisfaction

Samsung has edged past Apple for the apical spot successful lawsuit restitution for compartment phones, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's 2026 Telecommunications, Cell Phone, and Smartwatch Study, published this week.


Samsung scores 81 successful the ACSI's compartment telephone rankings portion Apple posts 80, breaking past year's necktie betwixt the 2 companies for restitution leadership. The wide compartment telephone manufacture people roseate 1% to 79 this year, recovering from a crisp 4% diminution successful 2025 that had pushed it to its lowest constituent successful a decade.

The ACSI says restitution improves astir erstwhile caller features construe into mundane worth without introducing caller symptom points, citing artillery beingness tradeoffs arsenic an example. AI integration, measured by the ACSI for the archetypal time, scores 85 overall, signaling that customers are not lone alert of AI features but find them useful, portion improvements successful artillery life, up 5% to 81.

For the compartment telephone industry, the highest-rated lawsuit acquisition metrics are the cardinal functions of making telephone calls and sending substance messages, some scoring 86. AI diagnostic show debuts astatine 85, astir matching those apical table-stakes interactions, suggesting that AI is moving from novelty to applicable inferior for galore customers.

Among caller flagship owners, Samsung's latest Galaxy S-series leads astatine 84, followed by caller iPhone owners astatine 82, with Google's flagship models scoring 80. Satisfaction with flagship models wide scores 82, acold outpacing bequest phones astatine 76 and foldables astatine 72.

In the foldable segment, Samsung holds a wide pb with an ACSI people of 80, which is 8 points up of Google astatine 72 and 10 points up of Motorola astatine 70. The ACSI notes that foldable owners are 3 times arsenic apt to kick arsenic non-foldable owners, and says competitory dynamics successful the conception whitethorn displacement arsenic Apple's rumored introduction into the foldable marketplace is anticipated for aboriginal this year. Apple is wide expected to debut a foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models this fall, featuring a 7.8-inch interior show and a 5.5-inch screen screen, priced astatine astir $2,000.

In the smartwatch category, Apple holds dependable astatine 80, portion Samsung drops 4% to make a first-place necktie astatine the apical of the leaderboard. Customer acquisition characteristics of smartwatches are universally rated higher this twelvemonth astatine the manufacture level, with the biggest gains including easiness of navigating menus and settings, up 7% to 80, and app and accessory connectivity, up 5% to 83.

The ACSI survey is based connected 26,963 completed surveys, with customers contacted via email betwixt April 2025 and March 2026.
This article, "Samsung Overtakes Apple for Top Smartphone Customer Satisfaction" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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