When I started testing the tech, I felt like the big appeal of any new premium phone was its new feature set – eventually higher resolution cameras, then faster charging, then different hardware specs gave way as the main draw, but the Samsung Galaxy S26 series feels like a return to the old way of doing things.
The new trio of phones, consisting of the Samsung Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra, feels incredibly familiar – and that’s because it is. The S26 has mostly the same specs as the Galaxy S25, the S26 Plus doesn’t differ much from the Galaxy S25 Plus, and the Ultra model has few changes over the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
What’s really new are the tons of new features and tools that Samsung has included in its new phones; Some are AI-labeled devices, as the company insists on calling them “AI phones” rather than “smartphones.” But there are also many other nice little improvements hidden under the hood.
Ahead of their official launch, I spent some time with all three members of the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup and was assured that the stagnation in specs doesn’t mean they’re the déjà vu phones I was expecting.
The design of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series looks familiar, but has some improvements
Okay, I admit: At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S26 models hardly differ from their predecessors. The sizes are almost the same, the buttons and cameras have the same configuration, and there are no brand new colors as far as I can tell.
But there are a few optimizations. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is thinner than before, measuring just 8.3mm – it’s no S25 Edge, but it loses some weight. Likewise, the base Galaxy S26 is now slightly larger, with a screen diagonal of up to 6.3 inches.
The display specifications are also largely the same, with Samsung once again coming up with its good-looking displays. However, one key feature of the Galaxy S26 Ultra comes on the display and intentionally makes the screen look worse. Or “worse.”
This is a privacy display that is only available in the top model. This is a built-in tool that reduces the viewing angle of the screen. So if you rotate it vertically or horizontally, it’s almost impossible to see what’s on the display – ideal for preventing nosy people from seeing what’s on your screen and protecting your privacy when you do online banking or see sensitive information in public.
It can be activated via the swipe menu and there are also customization options: you can set it to only work for certain apps, for certain parts of the display or only for notifications.
This is more effective in real life than the images suggest and could be a game changer for business users (or individuals really).
The Samsung Galaxy S26 software is where the upgrades shine
The software and features department is where Samsung hopes its best selling point lies. I have to say, I was so impressed with what I saw that these tools were the first things that came to mind when I started writing this hands-on review.
My favorite tool is the updated Audio Eraser, which now works in third-party apps (and not just Samsung ones) to remove sounds like wind, crowds, or traffic. Useful for watching sports games, live streams or poorly mixed videos so you don’t get distracted by the noise.
But what else? AI is of course the be-all and end-all, but in most cases it is not automatic writing or generative slop, but rather organizational tools. Now Nudge can suggest actions based on context (if someone asks for someone’s phone number, it can call them for you), Circle to Search now works for multiple circled items at once (e.g. an entire outfit), Search with Finder can now also scan your notifications (great for aggregating multiple group chats to find what you need), and Now Brief now pulls relevant information from a range of apps (it can find events from all your apps, not just calendars).
Another key tool is call screening, which builds on previous iterations by having an AI chatbot answer your calls for you and demand responses. All in all it seems pretty cold, but I guess there’s no point in being polite to spam callers.
Samsung Galaxy S26 cameras benefit from hardware and software improvements
It’s time to repeat the refrain of that song: The Samsung Galaxy S26’s specs are pretty similar in the camera department, just like everywhere else. The Standard and Plus models have a 50MP main camera, a 10MP telephoto camera, and a 12MP ultra-wide camera, while the Ultra has a 200MP main camera, 10MP and 50MP zoom cameras, and a 50MP ultrawide camera.
However, the apertures have undergone a reorganization, especially since the main cameras now have an aperture of f/1.4. So you’ll want to capture a little more light to spit out brighter and more vibrant images.
There are also relatively new features, but some improvements have been made to the existing ones. Nightography uses the wider apertures to capture more data, improving noise reduction, and Pro can now shoot in APV 8K at 30fps. Auto-framing now works better to capture moving 4K images, while Stable Video mode uses the accelerometer and gyrosphere to capture even smoother snapshots. ProScaler upscales dingy images to make them even clearer, and mDNIe’s 10-bit data processing apparently allows it to capture four times the colors.
These are all features I need to test in the wild to see if they’re any good, but what’s most intriguing to me are the improvements to the selfie camera. I’ve long decried how brands have prioritized rear cameras, equipping them with better ISPs and engines, and not offering this for the front camera even when the hardware is identical, but nothing more. Now the front camera uses the same improved AI ISP and object-aware engine as the rear ones.
Generative editing has seen a big improvement and I’ve spent some time playing around with it. Now you can write prompts to the phone to edit the images you take, from small things (changing the background color) to big things, which you can see in the images accompanying this review (add a cat to the image). It comes in handy when you use it for small edits and adjustments. However, if you fly too close to the sun, you risk turning your own photos into AI blobs.
Performance improvements are to be expected with the Samsung Galaxy S26
It wouldn’t be a new generation of smartphones if there wasn’t a faster chipset, right?
In the UK, where I’m informed, the Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus will get the company’s own Exynos 2600 chipset, while the S26 Ultra will get the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. That’s right, after the S25 generation was missing, the separation of Exynos and Snapdragon is back! Based on precedent, I would assume that buyers of the base and Plus models in the US, Canada and China will also receive the Elite Gen 5.
When describing this new chip for the Ultra, Samsung said it will offer 39% more neural processing, 24% more GPU performance, and a 19% CPU improvement. I still have to check how these boosts are noticeable in daily use or during intensive tests.
Tech fans may recognize Snapdragon chipsets by their persistent overheating issues. Apparently Samsung knows this, because it has redesigned the thermal architecture for the S26 Ultra. It now features a larger steam cooling chamber that the company says is 21% more efficient than before. I didn’t put it through its paces or play any games, but none of the Ultra models I tested got particularly hot.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 charges faster… and slower
The familiar specs of the S25 phones are back, and since I only had an hour with the new phones, I wasn’t able to test their battery life or charging speed. I’m particularly interested in how Privacy Display affects the Ultra’s sustained performance. But there are a few small changes.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Ultra retain the 25W wired charging capability of their predecessors, as well as the 15W wireless charging capability. However, thanks to the 300mAh increase in battery size, the base model will likely charge even slower.
Samsung has increased the S26 Ultra’s charging speed to 60W, which is a nice, solid increase that should make the 5,000mAh battery run even faster. I’m a big believer in premium phones needing fast charging so you can turn them on and use them again quickly, and 60W is a step in the right direction.
