The S26 Ultra Arrives
Samsung announced the Galaxy S26 Ultra at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 on February 25 in San Francisco, with availability from March 11 at a starting price of $1,299 - unchanged from the S25 Ultra. The device represents a considered rather than radical upgrade: the headline feature is a world-first built-in Privacy Display that narrows the viewing angle so that anyone looking from the side sees little beyond a dark screen, while the owner's direct view remains clear. It is a feature that was available before only via third-party screen protectors, and here it is implemented at the panel level during manufacturing - which means no brightness penalty or added thickness.
The design makes a notable shift from the previous two generations. After the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra both used titanium frames, Samsung returns to aluminum for the S26 Ultra. The result is a device that is 0.3mm thinner (7.9mm vs 8.2mm) and 4g lighter (214g vs 218g). The 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 3120×1440 resolution, 120Hz adaptive refresh, and Corning Gorilla Armor 2 carries over from the previous generation, with brightness peaking at 2,600 nits.
Camera Improvements
The camera specifications look similar to last year on paper, but the key upgrade is aperture. The 200MP primary camera now opens to f/1.4 - widened from f/1.7 on the S25 Ultra - allowing 47% more light to reach the sensor, with a meaningful impact on low-light and nightography performance. The 50MP periscope telephoto delivers 5x optical zoom and 10x optical-quality zoom via Samsung's Adaptive Pixel processing. A new All Lens On Prism mechanism powers the 5x telephoto in place of the traditional periscope mechanism, enabling a slimmer camera module. The ultra-wide retains its 50MP sensor from last year.
For video professionals, the S26 Ultra is the first Galaxy phone to support the APV (Advanced Professional Video) codec for up to 8K at 30fps capture. Horizon Lock video stabilisation - using gyroscope and accelerometer data in real time - is a welcome addition for action and travel footage.
Performance and AI
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy delivers meaningful performance headroom over its predecessor, with an improved NPU enabling more sophisticated on-device Galaxy AI processing. Notably, the S26 Ultra uses Snapdragon globally - unlike the S26 and S26+ which reintroduce a chipset split with Exynos 2600 in some markets. Galaxy AI 2026 additions include Photo Assist with object addition (previously objects could only be removed), an expanded Creative Studio, and Now Nudge proactive notifications. Charging speed reaches 60W wired for the first time in the Ultra lineup, alongside 25W wireless.
