Changing phones is always a gamble. They expect something new, something exciting – maybe even something better. And to be fair, the Galaxy S26 Ultra delivers on that promise in many ways. It is one of the most technically impressive smartphones currently available. It features a 6.85-inch 2K LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, peak brightness of up to 2,600 nits, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, offering about a 10-15% performance increase over its predecessor.
But after spending time on it, I found myself in a strange position. The more I appreciated what Samsung created, the more I missed my iPhone 17 Pro.
The privacy display has some real compromises
The standout feature this year is clearly Samsung’s Privacy Display. It uses pixel-level lighting control to limit the viewing angle, making your screen unreadable from the sides. In theory it’s brilliant. In practice, it’s really useful – especially in public spaces like airplanes or subways, where shoulder surfing is a real problem.
Samsung deserves credit here because these are not just software tricks. It is a hardware-driven innovation that is becoming increasingly rare in modern smartphones.
But once you turn it on, the tradeoffs become clear. The display becomes noticeably darker, color accuracy drops slightly and the overall viewing experience feels limited. This is particularly noticeable because the S26 Ultra’s panel is otherwise one of the brightest and most vibrant in the industry.
And then you become aware of the contrast.
Apple does not offer a privacy display. But no features will be introduced that impact the core experience. The iPhone approach is slower, more conservative – but also more sophisticated. You don’t get any experimental features, but you don’t have to deal with their compromises either.
Camera improvements that do not change the result
On paper, the S26 Ultra’s camera system sounds improved. The main sensor now has a wider aperture of f/1.4, while the telephoto lens is at f/2.9, theoretically improving low-light performance. The phone retains its triple 50MP setup, including a periscope zoom lens.
On their own, the results are excellent. The photos are sharp, bright and social media friendly.
But compared to the S25 Ultra, the differences are minimal. In most real-world scenarios, it would be difficult to tell which phone took which shot unless you actively looked for it. Even benchmark comparisons and parallel testing suggest that the improvement is incremental rather than transformative.
Meanwhile, the iPhone continues to shine in areas that matter every day – video consistency, color accuracy, and optimization for apps like Instagram and Snapchat. While Apple’s computational photography doesn’t always push boundaries, it does provide predictability.
Samsung is innovative. Apple refined. And in most cases, refinement wins in everyday use.
Performance and AI: Powerful but overwhelming
There’s no denying the sheer performance of the S26 Ultra. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers top-notch performance and the device handles everything from gaming to multitasking with ease. But the real focus this year is on AI.
Samsung has equipped the phone with numerous features: AI image editing, generative filling, object insertion, writing assistant, real-time translation and contextual suggestions through tools like Now Brief or Now Nudge. These features are technically impressive, but have limitations. AI-generated images are often output at lower resolutions – which doesn’t match the phone’s native display. Editing images can reduce their quality by up to 20-30%, making them less practical for long-term use.
More importantly, many of these tools feel optional rather than necessary. These are features you try, not features you rely on.
And over time it feels exhausting.
The iPhone, on the other hand, takes a different approach. It integrates AI more quietly and focuses on tasks that improve existing workflows rather than introducing entirely new ones. It does less – but it does it more consistently.
The irony of it all
The S26 Ultra didn’t make me dislike Android. It reminded me why I liked iOS.
Because while Samsung experiments with bold features – privacy displays, AI tools, camera optimizations – Apple is focusing on stability, consistency and shine. And this difference becomes more noticeable the longer you use both. The features you admire aren’t always the ones you miss.
My last take
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is an exceptional device. It’s powerful, innovative and packed with features that push the boundaries of what a smartphone can do. But using it didn’t feel like an improvement in my daily life. It felt like entering a different philosophy. And sometimes that’s enough to make you realize that you value innovation not for its own sake, but for how seamlessly it all fits together.
And in that regard, I missed my iPhone 17 Pro more than expected.
