Samsung's 2026 flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, is finally here, and I spent some time with the device and here's what I feel.
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 is here, which means I got new S-series devices to check out, and I will start with the Ultra, of course. While the world may have already seen the Galaxy S26 Ultra thanks to a leak mere days before the actual launch. But there are tons of details that aren't covered well, so let me dive straight into it.
The biggest headline feature may be the Privacy Display on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but there are plenty of upgrades hidden in plain sight, starting with the design, as this is the slimmest Ultra model yet at 7.9mm. Let me break down everything.
Samsung has introduced a new class of hardware-level display protection on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It uses a "wide and narrow" pixel structure to prevent shoulder surfing. And what this does is black out the screen when viewed at an angle of more than 30 degrees. The best way to explain this is to imagine someone looking at your phone screen from any angle (30° or more), and the display appears black or heavily obscured. To you, looking head-on, the light remains fully clear and bright. Additionally, Samsung has added AI enhancements to the Galaxy S26 Ultra that can detect sensitive areas, such as an OTP in a text, a password field, or a banking app, and apply the privacy effect only to those specific pixels, while the rest of the screen remains normal.
For Galaxy S26 Ultra users, this feature provides basic protection suitable for general browsing in public, and an aggressive mode for sensitive data that further narrows the viewing cone.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has definitely taken design cues from the Galaxy Fold 7, and it looks better than ever and is less bulky than the S25 Ultra. The 10-bit display comes with upgraded colour production (from 16 million to over 1 billion colours) for high-fidelity landscape and sunset photography. Samsung has also added Corning Gorilla Armour 2 for enhanced durability at the front.
Under the hood, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (customised for Galaxy), making it the first smartphone featuring Qualcomm's latest flagship chip. On the camera front, Samsung says the Galaxy S26 Ultra gets the brightest camera yet, with a 47 percent larger aperture on the 200-megapixel primary camera, and the 50-megapixel telephoto lens is 37 percent brighter. In the limited time I spent with the device today, I couldn't test performance or the cameras to give you a verdict. Of course, Samsung will send us the review unit soon, so stay tuned for an in-depth look at the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samsung stressed during the pre-launch briefing that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will feature new video capabilities, including 8K video at 30 fps and 4K auto-framing without sacrificing image quality. The company promises super-steady videos, including a new 360-degree horizontal lock that uses the gyroscope and accelerometer to keep footage level regardless of camera tilt. There's also the Photo Assist feature, which can enhance images with AI.
On the battery front, the Galaxy S26 Ultra still packs a 5000mAh battery but finally gets 60W wired charging, which the company claims can charge the phone from 0 to 75 percent in 30 minutes. It also gets 25W wireless fast charging.
Samsung is leading the charge in adding AI features to its phones, and with the latest S26 series, the company takes it a notch above. A shift from AI being a tool to an assistant that acts on behalf. The Galaxy S26 Ultra gets Bixby and Gemini support. There's a new Now Nudge feature onboard that proactively alerts you to things you might miss, like downloading a boarding pass that's sitting in your email as your departure time approaches. Similarly, the Call Screen acts as an AI assistant that answers unknown numbers on your behalf, providing a real-time transcript so you can decide whether to pick up.
This year, Samsung is introducing Now Assist, an AI agent that understands screen context across apps to suggest actions such as blocking a calendar event or finding specific photos for a chat. There's also Photo Assist, which moves beyond object removal and lets users regenerate images, add objects, or combine multiple images using text prompts. The Galaxy S26 Ultra also features Creative Studio, where users can create themes and templates using AI-generated stickers, posters, and wallpapers. The company is also bringing an audio eraser that will reduce noise in third-party apps like YouTube and Instagram, cleaning up background noise in non-professional videos.
Final Thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra feels like a bigger upgrade than the Galaxy S25 Ultra in every way. Of course, for Samsung, the design should be something that becomes a signature, and the Fold 7-like camera island at the back is a signature element that the Galaxy S26 Ultra gets. The slim design scores highly for making single-handed use easier.
Stay tuned to Gadgets 360 for an in-depth review of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, where we test the display, performance, camera and battery to see how big an upgrade the phone is compared to its predecessor.
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