Samsung has announced its latest flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. The newest update is thinner, lighter, more powerful, and with a big focus on AI, most of which comes from the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy.
Measuring at 163.6×78.1×7.9mm and weighing 214g, it is both thinner and lighter compared to the predecessor, and you still get the same Gorilla Armor 2 at the front, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back, titanium frame, and IP68 rating.
Samsung kept the design changes to a minimum, so it looks and feels the same, except for the camera island bump. The screen is a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with QHD+ resolution and adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, peaking at 2,600nits of brightness. The biggest update is the new Privacy Display option, which dims the part of the screen quite cleverly, by dimming out specific pixels on the hardware side. Of course, this was previously done with protective films, but Samsung is the first to do it on the screen.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, a slightly beefed-up version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with slightly higher clocks and Adreno 840 GPU. The SoC is paired up with 12GB of RAM and 256GB and 512GB storage options, and 16GB of RAM on the 1TB version. Samsung was also keen to note that it has paired the SoC with its largest vapor chamber ever, offering up to 21 percent better thermal performance.
The camera system also got slightly upgraded, and you still get the main 200MP sensor with a slightly wider f/1.4 aperture, which, according to Samsung, captures 47 percent more light. You also get a 10MP 3X telephoto, a 50MP 5X telephoto with f/2.9 aperture, and a 50MP ultrawide one.
Regretably, Samsung kept the same 5,000mAh battery, but it did raise the charging to 60W.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will run on One UI 8.5, which is based on Android 16, with plenty of new AI features, including Photo Assist, Call Screening, Nudge, Brief, and more.
It will be available in Black, White, Cobalt Violet, and Sky Blue color options, as well as Silver and Pink Gold as online exclusives. The price in Europe starts at €1,450 and goes all the way to €1,950. It is scheduled to start selling on March 11th.
