Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review

Samsung announced the Galaxy S26 Ultra at its Unpacked event on 25 February 2026, and it went on sale from 6 March at a starting price of $1,300 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration.^[4] In India the same base model costs Rs 1,39,999.^[3] This is not a hands-on review. It is a buyer's spec breakdown of the phone as sold, focused on what actually changed against the S25 Ultra generation and what that $1,300 entry price buys.

Start with the honest part. The headline hardware, a 6.9-inch display, a 200-megapixel main camera and a 5,000mAh battery, is carry-over from last year. What is genuinely new is a wider aperture on the main and 5x cameras, a body that is the thinnest an Ultra has been, and an anti-reflective Privacy Display that has no direct equivalent on any rival phone yet.

The display that keeps its job and adds one trick

The panel is a 6.9-inch LTPO Dynamic AMOLED 2X with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 1440 by 3120 resolution of roughly 500 pixels per inch, and HDR10+ support, with peak brightness rated around 2,600 nits.^[1] None of that is new, and the Corning Gorilla Armor 2 glass with its DX anti-reflective coating also carried over from the S25 Ultra.^[1][2] What is new sits in the pixel layout underneath it.

The platform is the 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy with an Adreno 840 GPU, paired with Android 16 and One UI 8.5.^[1] GSMArena's lab comparison with the S25 Ultra puts the gains at roughly 17 percent in CPU-heavy benchmarks, about 19 percent in the mixed AnTuTu test, and around 16 percent in the GPU-heavy 3DMark Wild Life Extreme run, so the uplift is real but not a generational leap.^[7]

Endurance is the other half of the story. Tom's Guide battery test, continuous web surfing over 5G at 150 nits, landed at about 16 hours and 10 minutes for the S26 Ultra against 14 hours and 27 minutes for the S25 Ultra on the same test.^[6] The 5,000mAh cell has not grown, so the credit goes to the chip, which Samsung claims runs 35 percent more efficiently on CPU tasks, and to a larger vapour chamber inside the thinner body.^[6] Charging is 60W over USB Power Delivery, with Samsung's own figure of 75 percent in 30 minutes, plus 25W Qi2.2 wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless for topping up earbuds or a watch.^[1]

The camera, where the change is invisible on the spec sheet

The quad rear array keeps the S25 Ultra's three zoom lenses, a 200MP main, a 10MP 3x telephoto and a 50MP 5x periscope telephoto, and pairs them with 100x Space Zoom in the software and a 12MP front sensor.^[1][3] The quiet upgrade is the ultrawide, which moves from a 12MP f/2.2 sensor on the S25 Ultra to a 50MP f/1.9 unit.^[5]

The apertures on the two long lenses also open up, with the main moving from f/1.7 to f/1.4 and the 5x periscope from f/3.4 to f/2.9, while the 10MP f/2.4 3x telephoto is the one lens that stays exactly as it was.^[1][5] That is a genuine low-light improvement on the main sensor and the 5x zoom, and it is the sort of change that never appears in a headline spec table.

Video stays put, with 8K at 24 or 30fps, 4K up to 120fps and 1080p at 240fps in 10-bit HDR.^[1] The S Pen is still included, which on a phone with no competitor offering a stylus at all is closer to a baseline than a differentiator.

Software, the AI layer, and what the money buys

Android 16 with One UI 8.5 comes with Samsung's seven-year promise of major OS updates and security patches, so a phone bought in March 2026 is contractually supported until 2033.^[1][2] On top of that sits the Galaxy AI layer, with AI Photo Assist for regenerating or cleaning up shots, Circle to Search, Call Screening and Audio Eraser, and that software is what most of the launch coverage spent its time describing.^[3]

The buying question is therefore whether Privacy Display, brighter apertures, a thinner body and a chip roughly a fifth faster justify a refresh over the S25 Ultra, or whether a secondhand S25 with a year of the same seven-year support left is the rational call. In the United States the ladder runs $1,300 for 12GB/256GB, $1,500 for 12GB/512GB and $1,800 for 16GB/1TB.^[4][2] India prices the base model at Rs 1,39,999, with the same storage steps above it.^[3] A full head-to-head against the iPhone 17 Pro, the other phone at this end of the market, is in our iPhone 17 Pro versus Galaxy S26 Ultra face-off, and if the decision is really about how long the phone will last, our guide to checking Android battery health is worth a read before trading in anything.

Frequently asked questions

Did the camera hardware actually change versus the S25 Ultra?

The core layout is the same family, with a 200MP main, a 10MP 3x telephoto and a 50MP 5x periscope telephoto on both phones, but the ultrawide upgrades from a 12MP f/2.2 on the S25 Ultra to a 50MP f/1.9.^[1][5] The optical change is real, with the main aperture opening from f/1.7 to f/1.4 and the 5x from f/3.4 to f/2.9, which should buy noticeably brighter images in low light. The 12MP selfie camera and the 8K video top speed are unchanged.

What is Privacy Display and how does it work?

It is an in-panel privacy mode with no adhesive screen protector required. Wider-angle pixels sit next to narrower ones in the display, and when the feature is on the narrow pixels take over, cutting the viewing angle until content on the screen is hard to read from the side.^[4] Two modes exist, Partial Screen Privacy and Maximum Privacy Protection, and the setting can be scheduled by time of day or applied to specific apps.

What does the $1,300 starting price buy?

The 12GB RAM and 256GB storage model, with 512GB at $1,500 and the 16GB/1TB model at $1,800.^[4][2] There is no microSD slot, so storage is a one-time choice. In India the 12GB/256GB configuration is priced at Rs 1,39,999.^[3]

How much faster is it than the S25 Ultra?

GSMArena's benchmark comparison puts the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 at roughly 17 percent ahead on CPU-heavy tests, about 19 percent ahead in the mixed AnTuTu run and around 16 percent ahead in the GPU-heavy 3DMark test.^[7] Battery endurance improves by about an hour and forty minutes, from 14 hours 27 minutes to 16 hours 10 minutes, in Tom's Guide web-browsing test, and the 60W wired charge still covers 75 percent of the cell in 30 minutes.^[6][1]

Is there a microSD slot, and how long will it get updates?

There is no microSD slot in any model; storage is fixed UFS 4.0 at 256GB, 512GB or 1TB.^[2] The phone ships with Android 16 and One UI 8.5 and carries Samsung's promise of seven years of major OS updates and security patches.^[1][2]