Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review
The Android Phone of the Year
I’m late to the party with my Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review this year, but with more than half of the year gone by now, we have a much better outlook of where the smartphone market is in 2026 and by extension where the S26 Ultra fits in the hierarchy. It is fair to say after a long time with this phone in my rotation that it is the most well-rounded Android smartphone accessible to the masses this year. It’s also unapologetically expensive to buy brand new at $1,300 without any gimmicks or revolutionary jumps in technology. It can also be true that the Ultra is a bit boring and dare I say stale at this point in its design life cycle. All of these things can be true at the same time. The real question is if the S26 Ultra should be your daily driver and if it is worth spending your hard earned money for. That’s what we’ll try to dig down deep and figure out in this review.
Retail Price: $1,499.99
The Corners Are Gone
For years, the Ultra series was known for its sharp edges that gave it a boxy-vibe. Samsung has finally deviated from that design language and subtly rounded off the edges on the Ultra this year to ironically unify the look to match the base S26 phones. I’m not particularly picky about one or the other, but for now I do like how the rounded edges feel on my fingers when holding the large phone.
Samsung also chose to go away from the previous iteration’s titanium frame in favor of a lighter Armor Aluminum build. While it might sound like a downgrade on paper, the aluminum does a better job of dissipating heat during heavy gaming sessions. We’ll talk about performance later, but the S26 Ultra does a fantastic job of keeping the phone cool. I don’t think I’ve come across the slightest feeling of heat on the back of the S26 Ultra even once during my long term use of the device. The phone is slightly thinner (7.9mm) and lighter (214g) than its predecessor, making it a bit more convenient to carry. It also doesn’t get caught on the edges of the lining of a pant pocket as much now due to the change from sharp to curved edges. The device continues to offer standard IP68 protection against the elements, and it is shielded by the latest Gorilla Armor 2 from Corning. This updated glass utilizes ceramic materials to provide top-tier durability against drops while simultaneously doing a fantastic job of cutting down on distracting screen reflections.
-
6.9 inch 1440× 3120p AMOLED display
120 Hz Refresh Rate
Android 16 skinned with One UI 8.5
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
12 GB ram
512 GB of storage
5,000 mAh battery
200 MP, f/1.4 Wide
10 MP, f/2.4 Telephoto
50 MP, f/2.9 Periscope Telephoto
50 MP, f/2.9 Ultrawide
Privacy Magic
The S26 Ultra features a gorgeous 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X QHD+ display with an adaptive 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate and a blinding peak brightness of 2600 nits. We’re far past the days where a new Samsung phone will wow you with their new panels, but the screen here is still plenty enjoyable enough to look at for all kinds of content. The colors are sharp, it gets quite bright, and the viewing angles are still terrific.
But the headline feature for this iteration is the hardware-level Privacy Display. This isn’t some cheap, aftermarket screen protector you slap on; the technology is integrated right into the hardware itself. Once you toggle it on, the wide-angle pixels essentially deactivate, leaving anyone peering from a 45-degree angle or greater staring at a murky, nearly blacked-out surface. It’s an incredibly useful tool for commuters, jet-setters, or simply anyone who needs to review sensitive files or check their finances in a crowded area without worrying about prying eyes. There are two levels to this Privacy Display that can be toggled by the user. The lower level of this option isn’t as strong as it may appear on camera. In person, if you are within earshot of the phone, you likely can still observe partial glimpse of images. It’s difficult to focus on what is there, but it isn’t as if the angle makes the phone screen appear black. The higher setting does get quite close to making the screen black for anyone not looking at it from straight on. The downside to this setting is that the image the intended private viewer gets is extremely washed out. It’s as if it's significantly overexposed making the great viewing experience the AMOLED panel has a mute feature to sacrifice for privacy.
Long Live the S Pen
The s26 Ultra’s S Pen works entirely without a battery as it draws electromagnetic power directly from the phone’s display
Battery Life and Charging
While many hoped for a larger battery, the S26 Ultra sticks with a 5,000 mAh cell. Fortunately, the efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip means it still easily pushes through an average of two days of moderate use, or about 7.5 hours of heavy screen-on time.
When you do need to plug in, Samsung finally upgraded the charging speeds. The S26 Ultra supports 60W fast charging, allowing the device to go from zero to 80% in just 30 minutes. It also supports Qi2 25W wireless charging, though it noticeably lacks built-in magnets for magnetic accessories right out of the box (you'll need a compatible case for that). I did just that and I was able to continue using my magnetic QI chargers and accessories.
Refining a Proven Camera Setup
Technically, the camera array looks identical to last year's model, but the internal tweaks are there to give an iterational improvement. Focus is snappy and quick, the Samsung camera app is still well intentioned and easy to work through on the fly, and I was overall pretty happy with the quick snaps I took of my toddler’s daily antics. I’ve always found Samsung photos to give a bit of an overexaggerated bokeh blur when taking portraits even on the lowest of sliders. It does a good job of identifying subjects and distinguishing foreground and background though. Samsung has also improved video stabilization with a new Horizon Lock mode and Enhanced Nightography Video for low-light shooting. I don’t have much to complain about with the photos and videos that I got from the S26 Ultra even at this premium price tag.
Shot on Galaxy S26 Ultra
Performance
Under the hood, the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is an octa-core powerhouse with 3.62 GHz base speeds, though Samsung pushed two specific cores to a blistering 4.74 GHz.
In practical terms, this engineering translates into an immense amount of raw power for the device. There isn’t much of any task a modern smartphone app requires that should cause the S26 Ultra any problems. At least I haven’t come across anything significant during my time with it. You don’t need a gaming phone for the highest levels of Android gaming either as the S26 Ultra competes in that department as well as any phone. Samsung’s internal cooling system works competently with the Adreno 840 GPU to sustain higher levels of performance for longer periods of time. It really has come to the point where performance has peaked on smartphones where a phone like this can have open all the tabs you could ever possibly need without breaking a sweat.
I’m not going to go too deep into this AI segment as I personally didn’t use Galaxy AI features in my day to day life, but the new NPU is supposedly a significantly bit faster than previous generations which would make it a massive jump for Samsung’s AI features like live translation, and photo editing.
Final Thoughts
There isn’t anything revolutionary here with the S26 Ultra. It’s the definition of an iteration year. I don’t think anybody needs to shell out north of $1,000 for a display that can filter out peeping eyes. If you have an S25 Ultra or even a S24 Ultra, there isn’t anything here that is significantly noticeable for you to warrant a look unless you just really want or need a new phone.
To be frank, I don’t foresee Samsung or any other smartphone maker to deviate much from their flagship designs over the next few years. We’ve come to a stagnate model of consumerism where something fresh in the market is only designated for the upper premium tier of smartphones. That’s a bit crazy to think about as the S26 Ultra already is a pricey phone and should be treated as the beast of the best. Unfortunately, that’s how the market is. That doesn’t mean the S26 Ultra itself as a product is bad. It’s an amazing standalone phone in a vaccum. Like I said, I do think it’s likely that the S26 Ultra will finish the year as the best Android phone accessible to the masses. It’s well-rounded in every department, and it’s well tested. In automobile terms, this is like the 6th model year of a car line. All the kinks are ironed out and it’s likely at the peak of its performance. The best of the lineup, albeit a bit stale to look at and use now if you’re up to date on your products.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees and support our channel by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra might be getting stale in design language, but it's still likely the top Android phone to pickup in 2026.