Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung's Flex Magic Pixel display is the headline new hardware on the S26 Ultra and easily the most-discussed feature in every review. Two interleaved pixel grids — wide-angle and narrow-angle — let the phone dim the wide-angle subpixels with one tap to limit viewing angles to roughly head-on. It can run on the whole screen, only on notification banners, or trigger automatically for selected apps and PIN entry. Reviewers universally call it a genuine industry first but note real trade-offs in resolution, peak brightness, and contrast — especially in the optional Maximum Privacy Protection tier.

• The Privacy Display 'really did relieve that feeling of discomfort' on planes, in airports, and crowded convention halls — the first new feature Allison Johnson has seen on a phone in a long time that does something genuinely new— The Verge
• Engadget calls Privacy Display 'a powerful tool' that 'really ought to be a standard feature on all premium phones going forward' — works at acute angles both side-to-side and up-and-down— Engadget
• Ars Technica confirms the screen is 'quite hard to read once you get about 45 degrees off-center' and the auto-trigger for apps and lock-screen PINs makes it genuinely useful day-to-day— Ars Technica
• Trusted Reviews 'used it more and more' while travelling — on planes, in pre-briefings, and 'simply for checking my bank balance without worrying about prying eyes'— Trusted Reviews
• MKBHD's microscope test confirms the trade-off: when Privacy Display turns on, half the (wide-angle) pixels switch off, so resolution is 'quite literally cut in half' and peak brightness drops a notch— MKBHD
• 9to5Google warns the display is 'compromised just a tiny bit at all times, even if Privacy Display is fully disabled' — viewing angles and resolution take a slight hit because the panel structure is fundamentally different— 9to5Google
• Maximum Privacy Protection mode drops contrast hard — Engadget says the noticeable drop in contrast and luminance 'isn't worth the increased privacy' for everyday use— Engadget
• Notification-only mode is the cleverest implementation — the screen reveals notifications only when you're looking head-on, and Trusted Reviews calls this 'a very fascinating bit of tech indeed'— Trusted Reviews
• Linus Tech Tips confirms ~45 degrees of tilt is enough to fully black out the screen and labs measured 2,997 nits of peak brightness — actually beating Samsung's 2,600-nit claim— Linus Tech Tips
• Phone Arena calls it 'the super-awesome Privacy Display feature' and one of the few hardware features in years that 'will make a difference in real life' rather than a benchmark talking point— Phone Arena

Underneath the Privacy Display tech, the panel is the familiar 6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X at 1–120Hz LTPO with 2,600 nits peak brightness (lab-confirmed closer to 3,000) and Gorilla Armor 2 anti-reflective coating. The hardware specs barely changed; what's controversial is whether the new panel structure subtly degrades the always-on viewing experience versus the S25 Ultra's reference panel.

• 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel at 3,120 × 1,440, 1–120Hz LTPO, 2,600-nit peak claim — same nominal specs as last year— Trusted Reviews
• Lab measurement at Linus Tech Tips actually hit 2,997 nits peak — Samsung is 'underselling' the panel's brightness— Linus Tech Tips
• MKBHD notes the panel is still 8-bit simulating 10-bit color and that the anti-reflective coating is 'not quite as good at the anti-reflective thing' as the S25 Ultra— MKBHD
• Verge sees more color shift on the S26 Ultra than the S25 Ultra when viewing from a very low angle, even with Privacy Display off— The Verge
• Out of the box the phone is configured to 1080p for battery; switching to 1440p is a one-time settings change every reviewer recommends— MKBHD
• TechRadar still considers the panel 'class-leading' for outdoor visibility, HDR playback, and stylus latency in 2026— TechRadar
• Trusted Reviews calls it 'easily the best screen around — or at least it will be until it's inevitably copied by the competition'— Trusted Reviews
• Gorilla Armor 2 with ceramic-infused glass keeps reflections way down and survived PBKreviews' four bare-concrete drops without cracking— Phandroid

Same sensors as the S25 Ultra (200MP main 1/1.3in, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x telephoto, 50MP 5x periscope, 12MP selfie) but the main and 5x get wider apertures (f/1.4 from f/1.7; f/2.9 from f/3.4). Reviewers agree the low-light gain is real and visible without leaning on AI. New software tricks: APV codec for near-lossless 1080p/4K video, Horizon Lock super-stabilization, and an expanded Photo Assist with generative editing. The unloved 10MP 3x sensor and AI-aggressive 30x+ zoom are the recurring weak points.

• 200MP main with new f/1.4 aperture lets the sensor 'collect more light, resulting in quicker exposures with less motion blur' — Verge confirms lower ISO and faster shutter speeds than the S25 Ultra in side-by-side testing— The Verge
• Forbes' two-week test on low-light cat photos found 'much more vivid colors' and 'sharper details with more enhanced shadows' versus the S25 Ultra — 'the difference feels truly drastic'— Forbes
• Engadget's challenging backlit Grogu shot showed the S26 Ultra outperform a Pixel 10 Pro on subject exposure — 'managed to make an already great main camera just a bit better'— Engadget
• 10MP 3x telephoto is dated and the only zoom range where image quality visibly sags — Trusted Reviews calls it 'particularly dated' compared to Oppo's 200MP zoom in the Find X9 Pro— Trusted Reviews
• Ars Technica notes shots 'tend to look a bit overprocessed in the 3x to 4.9x zoom range' because the 10MP sensor can't keep up between the 1x and 5x optical primes— Ars Technica
• 5x periscope with the new top-mounted-lens design produces a more pleasant bokeh and brighter low-light shots, though minimum focal distance extends about half to 52cm— Ars Technica
• Minimum focus distance on the main camera 'definitely got worse' — MKBHD says macro mode survives but close-up subject sharpness is a noticeable downgrade— MKBHD
• Horizon Lock super-stabilization is 'one of the best executions we've seen' — keeps video level even when you flip the phone upside down, though capped at 4K— MKBHD
• APV codec lets you record near-lossless 1080p/4K log video with external-storage support — Ars calls it 'just about every feature you could want' for serious mobile video— Ars Technica
• Android Authority finds AI zoom degradation kicks in around 30x — 'a fake sharpness… almost like rendered in a video game' — and the 100x mode is essentially marketing— Android Authority
• Color tuning has been dialled down this year — Trusted Reviews says Samsung 'avoided the overly-green and red hues of previous flagships for something a little more neutral'— Trusted Reviews
• Forbes contributor Paul Monckton frames the camera as '5x better but 3x worse' — flagship aperture upgrades on the main and periscope, but the 3x telephoto sensor stagnates— Forbes

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, paired with 12 or 16GB RAM and up to 1TB storage, comfortably tops every published Android benchmark and trades blows with the iPhone 17 Pro in single-core. A redesigned, larger vapor chamber keeps sustained performance up, though Wild Life stress runs still shed 30-40% of peak GPU output under load.

• Engadget records a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 11,240 (vs 9,828 on the S25 Ultra) and GPU score of 25,403 — the fastest Android scores currently published— Engadget
• Trusted Reviews measured 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test stability at 67.6% — a big jump from the S25 Ultra's 58.4% and ahead of the Honor Magic 8 Pro (55.4%)— Trusted Reviews
• Ars Technica records the S26 Ultra topping all benchmark charts on paper but losing 'about 40 percent of its graphical performance' under prolonged stress— Ars Technica
• Linus Tech Tips' stress test showed the S26 Ultra outperforming an iPhone 17 Pro by ~34% and a OnePlus 15 by ~5%, but flagged that it 'gradually gets worse over time' as thermal throttling kicks in— Linus Tech Tips
• 39% NPU improvement enables on-device Galaxy AI features without round-tripping to the cloud — Ars praises the 'local-only private AI processing' toggle— Ars Technica
• Android Authority confirms the S26 Ultra holds Wild Life Extreme leadership over the OnePlus 15 for the first 12 loops before settling 'just a hair behind' — a meaningful reversal from the S25 Ultra era— Android Authority
• Genshin Impact at max settings ran at a 'mostly solid 60 FPS' on LTT's review unit, with occasional hitching once the chassis got noticeably warm in hand— Linus Tech Tips
• Sustained 30-minute heavy-workload test by a YouTube benchmarker showed the S26 Ultra ahead of iPhone 17 Pro Max in multi-core throughput but losing on efficiency — 11% battery usage on iPhone vs more on the S26— In Depth Tech Reviews

The S26 Ultra inherits the same 5,000 mAh capacity Samsung's used since the S20 Ultra — six years unchanged — but 60W wired charging is genuinely faster and Qi 2.2 25W wireless is overdue. Reviewers split: most say battery life is 'fine' but no longer flagship in a market where OnePlus 15 ships with 7,300 mAh and Oppo Find X9 Pro packs 7,500 mAh. Charging speeds are now a competitive feature, not a weakness.

• Same 5,000 mAh battery as the S25 Ultra, S24 Ultra, S23 Ultra, S22 Ultra, S21 Ultra and S20 Ultra — 9to5Google calls this 'easily the most egregious spec Samsung hasn't changed'— 9to5Google
• Phone Arena's real-world diary measured average 100% screen time at just 6 hours 1 minute — 'just not very impressive' next to iPhone 17 Pro Max's nearly 9 hours on the same test— Phone Arena
• Engadget's local video rundown measured 30 hours 3 minutes — only ~30 minutes longer than the S25 Ultra; chip efficiency gains, not capacity, are doing the work— Engadget
• 60W wired charging: 0-50% in 18-19 minutes, 0-75% in 30 minutes, 0-100% in 47-53 minutes across multiple independent tests— Trusted Reviews
• Mrwhosetheboss' charging test confirmed 47 minutes 0-100% versus 1 hour 19 minutes for the iPhone 17 Pro Max — a 32-minute charging gap in Samsung's favor— Gizmo Rush
• Wireless charging upgraded to Qi 2.2 25W but built-in Qi2 magnets are still missing — Ars Technica says you 'can add that functionality back in by choosing the right case, but that's not a very premium experience'— Ars Technica
• Trusted Reviews' MWC use case 'had to top up the phone every single day with my power bank', 'never once making it through a full day' under heavy travel— Trusted Reviews
• 1-month long-term reviewer found average usage of 46-47 hours between charges with light-to-moderate use — closer to 2 days when on Wi-Fi all day with no GPS— YouTube creator
• Owner-comparison post on r/OnePlus: S26 Ultra battery 'wasn't getting me through a full day sometimes' after 2 months — OnePlus 15's 7,300 mAh got the user back to ~59% at end of heavy first day— Reddit r/OnePlus
• Engadget calls Samsung's continued omission of Qi2 magnets 'the major annoyance' and hopes 'this is the last time' the flagship ships without them— Engadget

One UI 8.5 ships on Android 16 with seven years of OS + security updates promised. Beyond the new transparent glass UI choices, the story is Galaxy AI — Now Brief, Now Nudge, Photo Assist, Creative Studio, summarized notifications, plus Gemini task automation (beta) for limited ride-share and food-delivery flows. Reviewers split sharply on whether the AI features are genuinely useful or 'slop', but a local-only AI processing toggle gets near-universal praise.

• Seven OS upgrades and security patches take the phone through to Android 23 in 2033 — Trusted Reviews calls it 'one of the strongest long-term Android bets around'— Trusted Reviews
• Now Nudge is Samsung's Magic Cue clone for proactive contextual suggestions — Verge saw it work a couple times but Ars Technica 'haven't seen a single Nudge appear in my testing'— The Verge
• Gemini task automation can open Uber/DoorDash and complete the flow up to the final confirm tap — Ars says it 'usually got there, asking me to tap the final order button after a lengthy wait'— Ars Technica
• Photo Assist's natural-language editing is powerful but unsettling — Verge could 'remove my husband's shirt' and 'paste celebrities into selfies'; the Engadget Pikachu sticker test was outright strange— The Verge
• MKBHD calls most of the AI 'slop' — useful features like call screening and Audio Eraser get praise but Galaxy AI is 'not a reason to buy this phone'— MKBHD
• Perplexity is pre-installed and can be set as the system AI assistant via long-press of the action button — Forbes calls it useful for Perplexity loyalists, but Engadget says 'Hey Plex' didn't reliably wake it— Forbes
• Ars Technica praises Samsung's local-AI-only toggle for blocking cloud processing of Galaxy AI features — a degree of user control no other major Android maker offers— Ars Technica
• Now Brief 'still does almost nothing of use' after a year of feature push — Ars notes the same weather, calendar, news-recap pattern Google Now had in 2012— Ars Technica
• Notification summarization is consistently more reliable than Apple's equivalent, says 9to5Google, but the 'Priority Notifications' system marks random Telegram and Twitter pings as critical— 9to5Google
• One UI 8.5 is leaning further into iOS-style design language — floating glass bottom bars, vertical brightness/volume sliders — 9to5Google wishes Samsung would 'embrace the fact that Android is different'— 9to5Google

Slimmer (7.9mm vs 8.2mm), lighter (214g vs 218g), back to aluminum frame after two years of titanium, softer rounded corners that lose the last of the Note family's boxy heritage, and a new unified camera plateau that aligns with the Z Fold 7. The S Pen now has a rounded cap that only inserts one way. Reviewers are split on whether the new design is a confident refresh or a step closer to looking like the S26+/Pixel/iPhone crowd.

• Slimmer 7.9mm thickness and 214g weight feel materially better in hand than the S25 Ultra's 8.2mm/218g — even Verge calls it 'much sleeker'— The Verge
• Switch back to aluminum (Armor Aluminum 2) is a thermal win — Trusted Reviews notes 'aluminium is the superior material for thermal performance' versus titanium which 'gets a little too hot, and can cause throttling'— Trusted Reviews
• MKBHD is disappointed — the Ultra now looks 'just more and more like the Plus' and has lost its distinctive sharp-cornered identity— MKBHD
• Camera plateau sticks out further than last year and 'rocks viciously on a table' — MKBHD warns naked-phone typing is a problem and the rear lens covers are more exposed— MKBHD
• PBKreviews drop test: Gorilla Armor 2 survived four bare-concrete drops without cracking the display; one rear camera lens cover shattered on the second back-down drop and the periscope lens picked up some distortion— Phandroid
• S Pen redesign with a curved cap means it only inserts one way — Trusted Reviews calls it 'a slightly awkward S Pen redesign' but most reviewers shrug it off as a minor annoyance— Trusted Reviews
• Cobalt Violet 'hero' color reads more grey than purple under typical lighting — 9to5Google found it 'going through an identity crisis' and prefers Sky Blue or white— 9to5Google
• Still a huge phone — 163.6mm tall, 78.1mm wide — Android Authority warns it's 'firmly in my two-handed camp' and not great for smaller hands— Android Authority
• IP68 water/dust resistance + Gorilla Armor 2 front + Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back combine for one of the toughest flagship builds shipping in 2026— Ars Technica

The S Pen returns with the same physical and software functionality as the S25 Ultra — pressure-sensitive input, Air Actions, quick note-taking, low-latency drawing — but no Bluetooth, no remote-trigger camera shutter, and a new asymmetric cap that only fits in the silo one way. Reviewers split between 'still the best stylus on any phone' and 'increasingly hard to justify the silo footprint when most owners use it once a month.'

• Bluetooth in the S Pen is still gone three years on — the remote-trigger camera feature that made the Note line iconic has not returned— Linus Tech Tips
• Ars calls it the 'best stylus around' for writing and drawing — unrivalled responsiveness and precision once you accept the loss of Bluetooth features— Ars Technica
• 9to5Google admits the S Pen 'never really came out of its silo for me in the past couple of weeks' — wonders aloud whether the silo's footprint can survive much longer— 9to5Google
• Asymmetric cap design only fits one way and 'protrudes a little more' — Trusted Reviews shrugs it off but Verge says it definitely requires conscious thought now— Trusted Reviews
• S Pen 'occasionally got knocked out of its slot during PBKreviews' drop test but worked fine afterward' — silo retention is good but not flagship-iPhone-AirTag tier— Phandroid
• Long-term 2-month reviewer's verdict: 'I used to only use it to remotely trigger the camera and in the past 2 months there hasn't been a single situation where I've needed to do that'— 2 Months Later
• Android Authority 'count on one hand the number of times I've used it since getting the phone' and would trade the stylus for Qi2 magnets every time— Android Authority

Latest standards across the board — Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4-6 (varies by region), USB-C 3.2, sub-6 and mmWave 5G, Ultra Wideband for proximity features, and the new AirDrop interoperability rolling out in mid-2026. Physical SIM tray retained while Pixel dropped it. The big software story: AirDrop support from Apple is rolling out as a system-level service on Galaxy S26 devices for the first time.

• Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 (Trusted Reviews list 6.0), USB-C 3.2, sub-6 + mmWave 5G — flagship-tier across the board— Trusted Reviews
• AirDrop interoperability is rolling out to the S26 family in May 2026 — first non-Apple devices to receive native AirDrop send/receive, 642 upvotes on r/apple announcement thread— Reddit r/apple
• Physical SIM tray retained — Ars Technica's reviewer 'much to my personal chagrin' that Pixel dropped them; useful for international travelers— Ars Technica
• Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner is fast and 'doesn't need to flash a bright light to scan your finger, either'— Ars Technica
• Speaker quality is loud with decent bass but 'a bit metallic' compared to iPhone 17 Pro Max's tighter low-frequency separation— Phone Arena
• LTT noticed a 'sand in the speaker' rasp on the bottom firing driver at high volume — likely thinness trade-off— Linus Tech Tips
• No microSD slot remains a non-starter for power users — multiple r/Samsung commenters lament its continued absence on a 'pro' tier flagship— Reddit r/Samsung

At $1,300 starting (256GB), $1,499 (512GB), $1,799 (1TB), the S26 Ultra still costs more than the OnePlus 15 ($899 with double the storage), the Pixel 10 Pro XL ($1,199), and the iPhone 17 Pro Max ($1,199). Reviewers position the value case around the privacy display, the camera versatility, the seven-year update window, and the One UI ecosystem rather than raw spec-for-spec parity.

• Starting MSRP held at $1,299 — but 512GB jumped to $1,499 (from $1,419) and 1TB to $1,799 (from $1,659) versus the S25 Ultra— 9to5Google
• OnePlus 15 at $899 includes 512GB + 16GB RAM + 7,300 mAh battery — 'you cannot beat that' value, per a side-by-side owner on r/OnePlus— Reddit r/OnePlus
• Engadget calls the $1,300 hold-the-line price 'almost a blessing' given component-cost inflation across the industry in 2026— Engadget
• Trade-in offers worsened sharply after pre-order — 9to5Google describes trade values that 'fell off a cliff' and perks like doubled storage 'vanished this time around'— 9to5Google
• Phone Arena says the Ultra is still 'the phone to buy in 2026' if you value slim design, One UI refinements, and Samsung's overall ecosystem reliability — but rivals 'pull further ahead' on cameras and battery life— Phone Arena
• Ars Technica frames the long-term value case: 'fast enough out of the box that it could remain usable all the way to the end of its seven-year update lifespan'— Ars Technica
• Forbes recommends skipping the Ultra and grabbing the S26 Plus or base S26 'if you don't need every single feature — most notably, the Privacy Display'— Forbes
• Comparison vs iPhone 17 Pro Max: Ultra wins on display, AI flexibility, and zoom; iPhone wins on battery efficiency, ecosystem cohesion, and video color science— Phone Arena