I’ve used the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it leaves a lasting impression

Design and screen

• Slimmer and lighter than Galaxy S25 Ultra
• Familiar 6.9-inch AMOLED screen
• World-first built-in privacy tech

Take a quick look at the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and you’ll struggle to notice any significant differences between it and last year’s Galaxy S25 Ultra. But honestly, that’s not a criticism – the S25 Ultra ditched the sharp, boxy design for something a little more rounded, a little more in line with the rest of the Galaxy S25 collection.

That continues with the Galaxy S26 Ultra; it might not look it, but against last year’s S25 Ultra, you can see wider, curvier corners that bring it even closer to the general look and feel of the base models. 

It has also allowed Samsung to shave a few grams off this year’s flagship, weighing in at 214g compared to last year’s 218g – though that comes at the cost of the premium titanium frame that Samsung has coveted for its Ultra model for the past few years. 

Instead, it’s back to sporting the same Armour Aluminium as the rest of the flagship range, available in shades like White, Black, Cobalt, Violet and Sky Blue. It follows the pattern of Apple’s Pro-level iPhones, which have also recently reverted to aluminium, and it makes sense; aluminium is the superior material for thermal performance. Titanium gets a little too hot, and can cause throttling – not really a great look for a top-end flagship phone. 

Regardless, it doesn’t detract from the premium feel of the phone in any noticeable way, and it sat nicely in my hand, though I’m not sure if that’s more down to the reduced thickness, now measuring at 7.9mm – something that is noticeable compared to last year’s 8.2mm-thick model.

It’s still a big phone with a big screen to boot, but it’s now a little nicer to use, especially one-handed. 

The screen itself remains one of the biggest selling points of the Ultra, sporting a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with a pixel-packed QHD+ display and an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate. 

It’s not any bigger or brighter than last year’s S25 Ultra, but it boasts one of the coolest implementations of screen tech I’ve ever seen. 

Dubbed Privacy Display, it essentially blocks prying eyes from seeing your screen. It works much like a traditional privacy display, reducing the viewing angles so it looks black unless viewed head-on, but the real magic here is that it doesn’t need to cover the whole screen; you can enable it for specific elements like notifications. And, when not needed, you can turn it off altogether. A very fascinating bit of tech indeed. 

Combined with the signature anti-reflective screen tech and boosted Gorilla Armour 2 protection, it looks like it’ll remain one of the best screens around. 

One downside of the curvier corners of this year’s Ultra is that the top of the S Pen is now slightly curved to match, meaning you have to put it back in a certain way if you want it to sit flush with the rest of the frame. You can insert it the other way without issue, as I accidentally did during my hands-on time, but you’ll notice it oddly sticking out at the corner. 

Cameras

• Similar cameras to S25 Ultra
• Wider aperture on some lenses for better low-light photography
• Camera sensors are starting to look conservative

The camera layout on the S26 Ultra mirrors that of the S25 Ultra, though there are a few hardware tweaks this year. 

The 200MP main sensor now has a wider f/1.4 aperture that Samsung claims boosts light intake by an impressive 47%, while the 50MP periscope lens is boosted by 37% with its wider f/2.9 aperture. The 50MP ultrawide and 10MP 3x telephoto lens remain entirely unchanged, though Samsung is doubling down on its image processing tech to boost quality across the range.

Whether that’s a goal achieved is yet to be seen – snaps from the cameras looked great in the well-lit hands-on area, but it’s when lighting conditions are less than ideal that you can really sort the wheat from the chaff. 

I will say, though, the hardware is starting to feel a little bit aged compared to the competition, with the likes of the Oppo Find X9 Pro boasting not only a higher-res 200MP zoom lens, but a larger 1/1.56-inch sensor too – and don’t get me started on the 10MP 3x telephoto. You’ll now find better hardware on even mid-range phones. 

But again, I’ll reserve my final thoughts for the full review – it could be that Samsung has somehow managed to squeeze even more out of these older sensors. We’ll see. 

That said, there are plenty of improvements to other areas of the camera experience; Samsung claims that night-time videos should have less noise, while the Super Steady Video mode now automatically corrects up to 360-degrees. There’s also better auto-framing tech, now allowing full 4K capture without degrading image quality. 

Performance and battery

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy worldwide
• Same 5000mAh battery
• Qi2 charging, but not magnetic

Samsung’s dreaded chipset split has returned this year – but it doesn’t affect the top-end Ultra model. Regardless of where you buy the S26 Ultra, you’ll get the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset. 

You’ll also get that on the base S26 and S26 Plus in the US, China and Japan, but everywhere else, you’ll get Samsung’s home-grown equivalent, the Exynos 2600. 

That said, just like on every other 8 Elite Gen 5-equipped flagship in early 2026, the S26 Ultra felt snappy and responsive during my hands-on time. Apps open instantly, scrolling felt fluid, and snaps were taken instantly. It should handle gaming a little better with a larger, redesigned vapour chamber, but I’ll have to put that to the test in the full review.

That’s paired with 12GB of RAM if you opt for the 256- or 512GB options, or a boosted 16GB of RAM if you go for the top-end 1TB storage option. 

Despite Samsung’s competitors offering larger and larger batteries – the Oppo Find X9 Pro boasts an impressive 7500mAh cell, while the Honor Magic 8 Pro features a 6270mAh battery – the company has once again decided to stick with the same 5000mAh that we’ve seen for the past few years. 

Now, I can’t provide any meaningful insight into battery life based on around an hour of hands-on time, but it’s hard to imagine it’ll perform much better than the S25 Ultra did – which is to say it should last around a day, though heavier days will probably require a mid-day top-up.

Samsung has at least boosted the charging speeds of the Ultra, jumping from 45W to 60W and delivering a 75% charge in 30 minutes, according to official figures. 

The wireless charging has also been upgraded to the latest Qi standard, allowing for faster 25W charging, but it’s not full Qi 2 support like you’ll find on the iPhone 17 and Pixel 10 with built-in magnets – a bit of a disappointment, if I’m being honest. In a year where very little has changed hardware-wise, it would’ve been a key reason to upgrade. 

Software

• OneUI 8.5 based on Android 16
• A smattering of new Galaxy AI features
• Seven years of OS upgrades

The S26 Ultra, like the rest of the range, comes with OneUI 8.5 out of the box. Based on Android 16, the stylised UI looks and feels much like it did on the S25 Ultra following the OneUI 8 upgrade late last year, but there are a few S26-exclusive features that might not make it to last year’s model when it eventually gets the same update.

Samsung has focused much of its efforts – unsurprisingly given the trend of the past couple of years – on its Galaxy AI toolkit. The Now Brief is said to offer more personalised information, while the complementary Now Bar is said to offer more contextual shortcuts and recommendations throughout the day.

There’s also Search with Finder, Samsung’s spin on semantic search that lets you search through messages, emails and search settings using natural voice. Now Nudge looks to deliver real-time suggestions when you need them, though this seems limited to messaging apps and providing shortcuts to calendar events and photos – none of which is particularly new, just new to Samsung. 

The camera/photo experience also gets a boost with Photo Assist, which lets you add elements to photos with prompts, along with Document Scanner updates to minimise distortions. Audio Eraser also supports third-party apps like YouTube and Instagram, allowing you to remove background noise from live streams, football matches, and the like.

These look like great additions that bolster Samsung’s already-competent set of AI tools – but I’ll have to wait until I use the phone long-term to see if any of them make a genuine impact on my day-to-day digital life. 

Elsewhere, Samsung’s signature seven years of OS upgrades on offer, taking the flagship through to Android 23 – it’s one of the strongest long-term promises around.

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Early Thoughts

On first impression, the Galaxy S26 Ultra feels like a safe upgrade rather than a radical redesign, with a lighter frame and curvier corners that simply make it nicer to hold. It’s the screen that’s the real standout here, with new Privacy Screen tech that could be a real win for anyone who values their on-screen privacy. 

While the camera hardware is starting to look a bit conservative compared to its Chinese competitors, Samsung’s focus on image processing could still give it an edge – though I’ll need to see how it holds up in less-than-ideal conditions to confirm. 

Performance looks strong, as is standard for an Ultra device, though the 5000mAh cell remains unchanged at a time when rivals are going all-in on big batteries. It could be that Samsung has managed to squeeze more out of the cell by way of optimisation, but again, that’s something I’ll have to put to the test. 

That all said, I’ll save my final impressions for once I’ve spent some time with the phone. In the meantime, why not check out our hand-picked selection of the best Android phones?