Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra is the phone that most Android shoppers across the region will be weighing against the rest of the flagship pack this year. It was announced on 25 February 2026 at Galaxy Unpacked in San Francisco, alongside the S26 and S26+ and the Galaxy Buds 4 series, and went on sale on 11 March.
What changed on the Ultra
The headline feature is the Privacy Display, a panel-level technology that Samsung describes as a first in a smartphone. Switch it on and the viewing angle narrows sharply, so the screen looks normal to the person holding the phone and is hard to read from the side. That suits a crowded commute or a busy market stall. It can cover the whole screen or only certain areas, such as notification pop-ups or particular apps. Unlike a stick-on privacy film, it is built into the panel and does not add a layer on top.
The Ultra keeps its S Pen and slot, comes with a 6.9-inch display, and returns to an aluminium frame for the first time since the Galaxy S23. Corners are more rounded, and the phone is the thinnest Ultra Samsung has made.
Charging gets a lift. Each of the three main models now has its own wired speed: 25 W on the S26, 45 W on the S26+ and 60 W on the Ultra, the fastest wired charging ever on a Galaxy phone. All three support Qi2.2 wireless charging up to 25 W, though none has built-in magnets.
The camera
The Ultra carries a 200 MP main camera, a 50 MP ultrawide, a 10 MP telephoto with 3x zoom and a 50 MP telephoto with 5x zoom. Against the S25 Ultra, the main aperture widens from f/1.7 to f/1.4 and the 5x aperture from f/3.4 to f/2.9, which lets in more light. The 5x camera uses a new mechanism called All Lens On Prism rather than a traditional periscope lens. Software adds Horizon Lock, which keeps the horizon level in video even through a 360-degree rotation, at up to 4K.
Specs and support
The Ultra uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy worldwide, while the S26 and S26+ split between that chip and the Exynos 2600 depending on region. The 1 TB Ultra has 16 GB of RAM. The phones launched on Android 16 with One UI 8.5, and Samsung promises seven years of security patches and OS upgrades, until 2033.
A fourth model, the Galaxy S26 FE, was announced on 27 August and released on 4 September. It runs the Exynos 2500, ships with Android 17 and One UI 9, and is covered by the same promise of updates until 2033.
