Following months of rumors and leaks, Samsung has officially revealed the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra.They seem like great upgrades for anyone with an older phone, but if you have an S24 or S25, you can probably sit this one out.This is mostly another iterative update for the Galaxy S series, with all three phones keeping most of the same hardware and design elements from their S25 counterparts, but the Ultra has a few surprises.
You do get the usual bump in performance and power efficiency, though—all three phones are powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.The entry-level Galaxy S26 has a 6.3-inch 2340 x 1080 AMOLED screen, a 50MP primary camera with 2x “optical quality,” a 12MP ultra-wide camera, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, a 12MP front camera, and 25W charging.That’s about the same as the Galaxy S25, and the 12GB RAM and base 256GB storage is identical as well.
The battery capacity has been slightly increased, though, from 4,000 mAh to 4,300 mAh.You also get support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, and the usual IP68 water and dust protection.The Galaxy S26+ has most of the same hardware as the Galaxy S26.
The main differences are the larger 6.7-inch screen, 4,900 mAh battery, and 45W charging, which were also present on the Galaxy S25+ from last year.If you want a larger phone without the higher cost and weight of the S26 Ultra, this is the phone for you.Finally, there’s the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
It has a 6.9-inch AMOLED screen with S Pen support, 256 GB storage, 12–16 GB RAM, a 5,000mAh battery, and “Super Fast Charging 3.0” at up to 60W.There are also options for 512GB or 1TB storage.The phone has a redesigned vapor chamber, which Samsung says will help keep the processor and other components cooler during extended use.
The cameras on the Galaxy S26 Ultra include a 200MP main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, another 50MP telephoto camera with 5x zoom, and a front-facing 12MP selfie camera.That’s mostly the same setup as the S25 Ultra, but with wider apertures to allow more light.The Nightography Video and Super Steady modes have also been upgraded, and the S26 Ultra is the first phone that can record with the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec—an equivalent to Apple’s ProRes codec for lossless-quality recording, intended for professional video projects.
The most interesting upgrade might be the Privacy Display, only available on the S26 Ultra.It prevents people (and cameras) around you from seeing the phone's screen, by "controlling how pixels disperse light." Unlike usual stick-on films for privacy, it can be toggled in software and works across portrait and landscape mode.It also has two modes—"Partial Screen Privacy intelligently limits visibility for notification pop-ups, while Maximum Privacy Protection further obscures side views for added discretion, all with minimal impact on power or usability." All three models come with Android 16 and One UI 8.5 out of the box, with a guarantee of seven “generations” of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates.
That would put the end of support around Android 23, assuming the current naming scheme continues into the future.Either way, you won’t have to worry about malware or other security vulnerabilities until sometime around 2033.The base Galaxy S26 starts at $900, the Galaxy S26+ starts at $1,100, and the S26 Ultra starts at $1,300.
That's a $100 bump for the S26 and S26+, but the Ultra is the same price as last year.Costs for RAM and other flash memory are rapidly increasing from datacenter demand, and Samsung seems to be passing on some of that higher cost.Samsung Galaxy S26 SoC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Display 6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x RAM 12 GB Storage 256 or 512 GB Battery 4,300 mAh Operating System Android $900 at Samsung Expand Collapse Samsung Galaxy S26+ SoC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Display 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X RAM 12 GB Storage 256 or 512 GB Battery 4,900 mAh Operating System Android $1100 at Samsung Expand Collapse Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra SoC Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Display 6.9-inch Dynamic Super AMOLED 2X RAM 12 or 16 GB Storage 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB Battery 5,000 mAh Operating System Android $1300 at Samsung Expand Collapse There might not be many new changes, but the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra were already great phones.
I would have preferred to see the microSD card slots and headphone jacks make a comeback, but in terms of expectations, these new models seem decent.You can pre-order the Galaxy S26 series starting today, February 25, and full retail availability starts on March 11.Source: Samsung
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