Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra gets a refreshed design but maintains its IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. The phone now has an aluminium frame and thanks to its slightly slimmer design, is now lighter. The S Pen is still available but lacks Bluetooth functionality and related features.

While its display remains familiar in size and quality, it now gets a new privacy feature that once activated will only let the user see what’s being displayed on the screen. Processing power remains the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s strong points. It does warm up under load but never gets abnormally hot.

Camera performance is a bit of a mixed bag. Out of the four rear-facing cameras, the 3X telephoto camera is the weakest with average performance, which is not expected from a flagship device. Low light performance in general is also quite average. Video recordings on the other hand look very impressive.

The phone’s battery capacity remains unchanged, but is now paired with a power efficient processor and so is able to deliver slightly better battery life. Wired charging speeds have increased but not as much as on competing devices.