ACSI: Samsung leads Apple in mobile phone satisfaction, Apple Watch tied for lead

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released the study on telecommunications, cell phones and smart watches this year. Here’s how the iPhone and Apple Watch worked.

The iPhone loses a point, while the Apple Watch remains stable

Over the years, Apple has touted its high customer satisfaction as a mark of the quality of its products, to the point that Tim Cook’s “customer sat” line has become something of a meme, particularly at Apple events and earnings calls.

Last month, during Apple’s Q2 2026 earnings call, customer satisfaction was raised five times during the hour-long session, with Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh twice mentioning that customer satisfaction for the iPhone 17 line had recently been measured at 99% in the US by 451 Research. Parekh also cited figures from 451 Research of 97% for the Mac, 98% for the iPad and 96% for the Apple Watch.

This week however, ACSI (via Macmonde) published the study on telecommunications, cell phones and smart watches this year, with somewhat different figures.

The study was based on 26,963 completed surveys conducted between April 2025 and March 2026. Customers were asked to rate their recent experiences with the largest companies in each category.

In the overall “mobile phones” category, Samsung took first place maintaining its score at 81, while Apple lost one point compared to last year, to 80.

The category’s overall score increased 1% to 79. This year’s study also measured AI feature performance for the first time, with the category scoring 85 on ACSI’s 0-100 scale.

Notably, AI feature performance starts at 85, which is almost the most important interactions, suggesting that AI is moving from novelty to practical utility for many customers.

When the “mobile phones” category was broken down by model type (flagship, foldables, and legacy/other), Samsung again scored higher than Apple in the flagship segment, 84 versus 82, respectively, while Apple scored one point above Samsung in the legacy/other segment, 79 versus 78, respectively. Samsung comfortably leads the foldable device segment with a score of 80, well ahead of Google with 72 and Motorola (Lenovo) with 70.

Meanwhile, in the “smartwatch” category, Apple and Samsung are tied with scores of 80 each, with Apple unchanged year-over-year and Samsung down from last year’s score of 83.

Overall customer satisfaction in the “smartwatch” category also remained unchanged at 77, with “Apps & Accessories Connectivity,” “Fitness/Activity Tracking Usability,” and “Website Satisfaction” scoring highest, at 83 each.

To view the full ACSI report, follow this link.

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