Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Overview

Design and Display

The S26 Ultra is Samsung's thinnest and lightest Ultra ever at 7.9mm and 214g. The corners are softer, and the sides curve more gently, finally matching the design language of the standard S26 models. Samsung has swapped titanium for Armor Aluminum, which may help with thermals despite the marketing shift. The back uses Gorilla Glass Victus 2, the front Gorilla Armor 2, and IP68 is included. Colors this year include Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, and White. 

The 6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with 1–120Hz refresh and 2,600 nits is standard flagship fare, but the headline feature is the new Privacy Display. It uses a mix of wide and narrow-firing pixels. When activated, the wide pixels turn off, making the screen content disappear to anyone not looking head-on. You can set it for specific apps or just the lock screen. However, it halves the active pixels, so brightness and resolution take a visible hit. Even with the feature off, viewing angles are slightly worse than before, with a blue tint appearing off-angle.

Chipset and Performance

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy powers the Ultra globally. It delivers roughly 19% faster CPU performance and a 24% stronger GPU. A redesigned vapor chamber improves thermal dissipation by 21%. RAM starts at 12GB for the 256GB/512GB models, with 16GB for the 1TB version. Samsung has dropped the 128GB base storage option, starting all models at 256GB.

Cameras

While the sensor count looks identical, aperture changes make a big difference. The 200MP main lens now opens to f/1.4 (up from f/1.7) for 47% more light, and the 50MP 5x periscope moves to f/2.9 for 37% brighter long shots. The 50MP ultrawide and 10MP 3x telephoto are unchanged. Low-light video is much improved, and a new Anti-Flare lens coating reduces starburst artifacts. A new Horizontal Lock in Super Steady mode corrects rotational movement. While Samsung has closed the gap, Google’s computational photography still leads in point-and-shoot scenarios.

Battery and Charging

The battery remains at 5,000mAh, but charging has finally improved. The S26 Ultra now supports 60W wired charging, hitting 75% in about 30 minutes. Wireless charging steps up to 25W (from 15W). Samsung argues chip efficiency extends endurance to 31 hours of video playback. However, there are still no built-in magnets for Qi2 wireless charging to keep the device slim.

Software and Galaxy AI

The phone ships with One UI 8.5 on Android 16, with seven years of updates. A new "Nudge" feature offers contextual suggestions, like pulling up relevant photos when asked via text. Photo Assist now supports natural language editing in the Gallery. Bixby has been upgraded to an LLM-based conversational agent with Gemini integration for multi-step tasks.
The phone includes 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and USB-C. Biometrics are handled by a reliable ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock, with Samsung Knox Vault for sensitive data.