There’s little new in the look of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Instead, Samsung says the real upgrade is AI. But will it be enough to stand out in a smartphone market already packed with AI?
There’s little new in the look of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. The design is familiar, the size is similar to last year’s model, and the cameras remain in the same position.
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But Samsung says the real upgrade is artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
One of the Ultra's most distinctive new features is a built-in Privacy Display designed to stop "shoulder surfers".
It allows only the person directly in front of the device to see the screen, making it easier to check banking apps, messages or confidential emails in public.
"I think it's a great move by them and they're really taking advantage of in-house technology from Samsung Display to add something that other smartphone manufacturers don't have today," said Ben Wood, founder of CCS Insight.
Beyond privacy, the Galaxy S26 Ultra includes several new on-device AI features.
The Ultra is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, making it faster and more battery-efficient.
For consumers, that means improved sharpness to videos, less lag for gaming, and more options to use AI in photos.
The South Korean company also says its voice assistant, Bixby, should now understand natural language better, so users simply have to speak to their phone and Bixby will execute commands or even make suggestions to solve problems.
But Wood says the AI enhancements may feel less groundbreaking.
"This is a relatively safe bet for Samsung. They've essentially taken the design language of the S25, evolved it a little bit, and we've seen that everywhere," said Wood.
"They're infusing it with an AI story. The challenge is that AI is everywhere now and quite frankly, a lot of the features that we're seeing here today are already available from Google, and Samsung is still having to tread this very fine line between what's Samsung AI and what is Google Gemini AI, and I think those lines are getting very blurred,” he added.
The S26 series comes in three models — the 26, the 26 Plus and the 26 Ultra.
The Ultra is available in four colours and includes the S Pen stylus that Samsung users will be familiar with from earlier series.
"People are keeping their phones for longer, but they are going for more premium devices, so something like the S26 family is essential to Samsung," said Wood, adding that there are longer software updates.
"However, they have really, really tough competition from Apple, so this product's going to be very, very important for them this year."
