At a look
Professional’s Ranking
Professionals
- Slick software program
- Nonetheless one of the best AI instruments
- Unique Privateness Show
- APV codec and Horizontal Lock video
- Sooner charging
Cons
- Barely any {hardware} upgrades
- S-Pen positioning is irksome
- No Qi2 magnets
- Costly
Our Verdict
It’s not a game-changing replace, however Samsung does simply sufficient to maintain issues attention-grabbing with the S26 Extremely. Highlights embody the novel new Privateness Show, and far faster charging, superior video options, and a number of the greatest software program round.
Value When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Greatest Pricing At the moment
Greatest Costs At the moment: Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely
Samsung’s newest flagship has landed, and as has been the pattern for the previous few years, it’s extra of an iterative replace than a reinvention, even for the Galaxy S26 Extremely I’m reviewing right here.
It has a extra rounded design, a wider aperture on a number of the cameras, sooner charging, the compulsory improve to the most recent Snapdragon chip, and that’s about it for {hardware} adjustments.
Fortunately, there’s extra to discover than meets the attention. Samsung has given us a groundbreaking new display screen know-how referred to as Privateness Show, some superb software program additions to the digital camera app, and loads of AI-powered options, too.
The query is, does the world-first display screen tech and software program tweaks provide sufficient to make this a worthy improve, or can S25 Extremely homeowners skip this one with out worry of lacking out? I’ve been utilizing it as my principal gadget for the previous couple of weeks to deliver you the ultimate verdict.
Design & Construct
- A thinner, extra rounded design
- Sturdy with Corning Gorilla Armor 2
- New colors and an annoying S Pen tweak
The Samsung S26 Extremely seems to be acquainted, however there are simply sufficient adjustments right here to distinguish it from its predecessors – when you look shut sufficient. The brand new telephone options extra rounded corners than the final, absolutely ditching the sharp corners of earlier Ultras, and matching the opposite telephones within the S26 lineup.
Luke Baker
The S26 Extremely seems to be good, however I can’t assist however really feel it has misplaced part of its identification. Prior to now, you possibly can spot the Extremely instantly, because the sharp edges made it stand out from the remainder of the lineup. Now, although, you possibly can simply get it confused with the S26+, because it’s solely the 2 small further digital camera rings that give it away.
it’s simply probably the most comfy Samsung Extremely flagship to carry horizontally
On the plus facet, it’s simply probably the most comfy Samsung Extremely flagship to carry horizontally. The sweeping radius means you aren’t in for any uncomfortable palm-poking, and that may make all of the distinction throughout marathon Genshin Impression periods.
One other large design change is with the digital camera lenses. The three largest lenses at the moment are raised on slightly island, with their common visitors light-style structure, and the bezels are a lot slimmer this time.
Luke Baker
It’s fairly much like the design of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I feel it seems to be fairly good, however it does include a draw back. Whenever you place the telephone screen-up on a desk, it’s tremendous wobbly, extra so than any of the earlier generations and most rivals. A case could also be a should, even on this single respect.
As for the development, it’s largely much like the final technology. With anti-reflective Corning Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the entrance, and matt-finish Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the rear. What has modified, although, is the body.
Samsung has quietly misplaced its titanium body, going again to the model’s common Armor Aluminium as an alternative. Apple did the identical with the 17-series, and nobody appeared to care an excessive amount of, so Samsung has gone the identical approach. I can’t say I’m satisfied titanium made an enormous distinction to sturdiness, however it’s technically a downgrade nonetheless.
Luke Baker
Stylus followers will likely be happy to listen to that the S-Pen remains to be included, however the brand new form of the telephone means it now bends across the nook barely. Essentially, it really works the very same approach, however you now have to recollect to place it within the right orientation, in any other case it’ll stick out in an odd approach.
I’ve discovered this variation probably the most irritating, because it’s a lot simpler to knock the S-Pen and pop it out accidentally. In fact, when you’re utilizing a case, even a super-slim one, then the issue will likely be eradicated, however caseless warriors will have to be cautious.
In relation to color choices, the S26 Extremely is accessible in 4 shades. There’s Black, White, Sky Blue, and Cobalt Violet. In the event you order instantly from Samsung, there’s additionally Pink Gold and Silver Shadow to select from.
I’ve the hero Cobalt Violet mannequin in for testing, and I’m fairly keen on the look. The color shifts dramatically in numerous lighting situations; at instances, it seems to be virtually silver, and at others, the deep purple hues shine by way of.
Display screen & Audio system
- Primarily the identical large 6.9-inch AMOLED panel
- New world-first Privateness Show function
- Upgraded stereo audio system
The fundamental show specs for the S26 Extremely match these of its predecessor; nevertheless, behind the scenes, some very intelligent engineering has gone into this panel.
Luke Baker
It’s all to allow a brand new function referred to as Privateness Show, which is a mix of {hardware} and software program and may forestall your display screen from being seen at an angle. It’s good if it is advisable learn a delicate electronic mail on a prepare, for instance.
It’s good if it is advisable learn a delicate electronic mail on a prepare
As I perceive it, about half of the pixels (‘slim pixels’) on the display screen have tiny rings like lenses round them, which forestall gentle from shining out to the edges. The opposite half (‘vast pixels’) behaves usually.
Whenever you activate Privateness Show, you’re primarily or solely utilizing the slim pixels, which makes the display screen appear to be it’s turned off when seen from round 45 levels off-axis and better (each horizontally and vertically).
Clearly, there’s a caveat right here. Because the display screen isn’t utilizing the entire out there pixels with Privateness Show activated, it’s decrease decision and dimmer, too. Because of this, it’s not one thing you’d need to go away enabled the entire time.
Fortunately, the software program makes that simple to handle. You may rapidly toggle the function on and off within the fast settings panel, or you possibly can set it to mechanically allow throughout sure occasions.
Luke Baker
I set mine to activate every time I opened my banking app, and in addition had it defend pop-up notifications and password fields. I feel it’s particularly cool that the function will be confined to sure areas of the show. As soon as it’s all arrange, you may overlook it’s doing something – however nosey neighbours gained’t.
There have been some early complaints in regards to the high quality of the S26 Extremely’s display screen, even with the Privateness Show switched off, together with blurry textual content and eye pressure, however I’ve not had these issues and Samsung also refutes these claims. There’s a chance, like 3D, that some users may not get on with how the display works.
Aside from this clever new trick, which is the main reason to buy (or perhaps avoid) the phone, the display is pretty much identical to last year’s.
Luke Baker
Samsung knows a thing or two about displays, and although the S26 Ultra might not offer a spec bump to excite the screen nerds, I still think it’s one of the best-looking screens on the market.
It’s bright enough for the outdoors, it’s crisp, detailed, and the colours are rich and vibrant. What’s not to like? Plus, you get that awesome anti-reflective glass coating, which is still exclusive to the Ultra, and makes a noticeable difference compared to traditional glass displays.
Samsung’s ProScaler technology has been upgraded for this generation, too, and it makes low-res content look even better, as it automatically upscales and sharpens everything on your screen.
Luke Baker
The speakers seem to be the same as they were on the past few Samsung Ultra phones, and that’s alright with me. They’re still among the best of any phone, with plenty of clarity, no distortion, and more bass than most.
Unfortunately, my chief complaint remains relevant. The right speaker is very easy to muffle with your palm (when held in landscape mode) – I suspect the S-Pen is to blame for this awkward positioning, but it continues to be an annoyance.
Specs & Performance
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
- Up to 16GB RAM
- Up to 1TB storage
The S26 and S26 Plus received the Exynos treatment in Europe, but the Ultra still gets Qualcomm’s latest and greatest SoC. As usual, it’s a special “For Galaxy” version, which essentially equates to a slight overclock, and should give this phone an edge over other Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered handsets.
Luke Baker
The RAM and storage options are the same as last year, and if you want 16GB of RAM, you’ll need to shell out for the pricey 1TB model. The other variants are only available with 12GB of RAM. I have been testing the base model for the purposes of this review.
To noone’s surprise, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a rocket
To noone’s surprise, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a rocket. You can easily max out the settings in pretty much any Android game, and heavy computational tasks like editing multiple streams of 4K video are no issue at all.
Samsung has re-engineered the thermal solution for this model. It features the largest vapor chamber that Samsung has ever put in a phone, and the Thermal Interface Material has been repositioned, which should make the phone stay cooler for longer.
Luke Baker
With my normal use, the phone rarely got too warm, but despite Samsung’s best efforts, it still seems somewhat thermally constrained. Running the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, the phone got super hot and posted a stability score of just 59.5%. It’s not the worst we’ve seen, but it’s notably lower than the Honor Magic 8 Pro, for example.
Honestly, you only need to be worried about that if you’re really pushing the performance to the limits. I played plenty of Genshin Impact on the highest settings for hours, and it never became uncomfortable to hold. But hey, if you’ve got ambitions to emulate Steam games, it’s worth knowing about.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra benchmarks
Cameras
- Almost the same hardware as before
- New image processing
- Mind-boggling new stabilisation mode
Lately, it feels like Samsung has been upgrading one camera with each generation of Ultra, and I was almost certain that it would be the 10Mp 3x lens’ turn this year. However, that’s not what happened, and Samsung has taken a very different approach with the S26 Ultra.
The phone uses the same stack of sensors as last year, with the exception of the aforementioned 3x telephoto. Bizarrely, this tiny 10Mp sensor has been made even smaller, shrinking from 1/3.54-inch to 1/3.94-inch. I can’t fathom why. This lens was already underperforming, and this move is unlikely to improve matters.
Luke Baker
Otherwise, the only hardware change is with the lenses. Both the 200Mp main camera and the 50Mp 5x telephoto get a wider aperture, which should help improve low-light performance. The main camera has gone from f/1.7 to f/1.4, while the telephoto has gone from f/3.4 to f/2.9.
The image processing pipeline has been changed for the selfie camera, too. It now benefits from the same AI-powered signal processing as the rear cameras and the same object-aware engine for portrait mode shots.
So, while the hardware changes may be minimal, the output has the potential to be quite different. But could I see a difference in reality? I took lots of photos side by side with the older model, and honestly, the photos look almost identical.
The S26 Ultra has a tendency to look a little brighter in low light conditions, and the noise reduction has been increased slightly, but it’s a subtle change. The newer model seems to favour slightly longer exposures, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the situation.
I noticed the biggest difference in photos of people: faces appear slightly brighter than before, and details are slightly sharper
I noticed the biggest difference in photos of people: faces appear slightly brighter than before, and details are slightly sharper if you pixel-peep. It’s not a night-and-day change, but it’s noticeable.
With all that said, Samsung photos looked great on the previous model, and they continue to look great here. So while I would love to see some innovation, the S26 Ultra is still an incredibly reliable pocket camera.
Video mode gives us more to get excited about. There’s a brand new horizontal lock stabilisation mode, which will keep the horizon level no matter how much you tilt the phone. You can even spin the phone 360 degrees, and the resulting video will look like you’re just holding it steady.
If you have professional video ambitions, the new APV codec will make the biggest difference to your footage. It’s essentially Samsung’s answer to Apple’s ProRes, providing greater image fidelity, editing flexibility, and humongous file sizes. It won’t be for everyone, but if you’re the target audience, you’re going to love it.
Battery Life & Charging
- The same 5000mAh battery
- Faster 60W wired charging
- Faster 25W wireless charging, without Qi2 magnets
The Galaxy S26 Ultra, rather disappointingly, has the same battery capacity as last year’s phone. A 5000mAh cell is nothing to be sniffed at, but with Chinese brands offering 7500mAh SiC (Silicon-carbon) and beyond, the S26 Ultra’s battery doesn’t impress too much.
In use, though, the S26 Ultra battery is perfectly sufficient. I can’t get two days from this phone like I can with the Oppo Find X9 Pro, but it still rarely fails to get me to the end of the day, even on travel days with lots of screen-on time.
Luke Baker
When it comes to charging, we get some welcome upgrades. The S26 Ultra now charges at up to 60W with a wire, which can take you past 50% charged in just 15 minutes, or above 80% in half an hour. It’s an impressive showing – finally.
The S26 Ultra now charges at up to 60W with a wire, which can take you past 50% charged in just 15 minutes
Wireless charging has been improved, too. The S26 Ultra now supports 25W wireless charging, up from 15W. This means you can take full advantage of Qi2-compatible chargers, but the magnets are not built in as we and you hoped they would be, so you must pick up a suitable magnetic case once again.
As ever, there’s no charger in the box, just a cable, so you’ll have to buy fast enough ones to hit those speeds.
Software & Apps
- One UI 8.5, based on Android 16
- New Galaxy AI features and apps
- Bixby is back
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra runs One UI 8.5, which is based on Android 16. Fundamentally, it looks and feels like the same Samsung software that we’re all familiar with, but there are boatloads of new features to get stuck into, as well as more in-depth customisation than ever before.
There’s so much to play with here that the biggest challenge becomes remembering all the things your phone can do
Luke Baker
You can now completely customise the layout of your Quick Settings shade. You can resize the icons, change the orientation of the sliders, the options are almost limitless. The iOS influence is noticeable here, but it looks good, and it’s very practical, so I’m fully on board.
Samsung has added even more to its already packed lineup of AI features and productivity tools. There’s so much to play with here that the biggest challenge becomes remembering all the things your phone can do, and where to find each one.
One of the biggest changes is that Bixby has returned, and it’s now a super-charged LLM-powered assistant. Handily, it ties into your phone’s settings a little better than Gemini does, so you can ask it about your phone’s capabilities or to change a setting, and it should be able to help.
Of course, you can still use Google Gemini if you prefer (though it can’t access settings), or flip-flop between the two as you see fit.
Luke Baker
Another highlight is the new Call Screening feature (similar to Google’s on Pixel phones), which speaks to unknown callers with an AI-powered voice, asking who they are and why they’re calling. It then gives you a summary, and you can choose whether you want to pick up or not.
Now Nudge is a great time saver that’s built into Samsung’s keyboard. If you give it the required permissions, it will take your predictive text suggestions to a whole different level. For instance, if someone sends you a WhatsApp message asking for the photos from last night, Now Nudge will pull the relevant images from your gallery and suggest sending them.
Of course, there’s the usual AI party tricks built in, and you’ll probably use them once and then forget they ever existed. Photo Assist now lets you add things to images by typing, and Creative Studio is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Image Playground, wherein you can create stickers, wallpapers, and generate plenty of other slop to annoy your friends with.
My main criticism of Samsung’s One UI is just how cluttered it has become. Samsung adds more and more features every year, rarely removing any, and it tends to add all of Google’s latest, too. As an example, it’s not exactly clear whether Samsung expects Galaxy owners to use Bixby or Gemini, and why. The same goes for a lot of other features and apps, too.
Luke Baker
What I can’t criticise is the functionality. This OS does everything you could ever need it to, and plenty more besides. It does so while looking fresh and feeling fast as can be.
Plus, Samsung continues to offer some of the best software support terms in the business, promising seven years of OS updates and security patches, matching Google Pixel.
Price & Availability
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is available in three varieties. The base model comes with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM for £1,279/$1,299. The 512GB+12GB model costs £1,449/$1,499, and the 1TB model, which comes with 16GB of RAM, costs £1,699/$1,799.
A reminder that shopping from the Samsung store gets you access to two exclusive colours and for a limited time, including retailers like Amazon, you possibly can double the storage at no cost.
This makes it one of the costly flagship telephones available on the market (ignoring foldables), placing it in competitors with the likes of the Google Pixel 10 Professional XL, iPhone 17 Professional Max, Xiaomi 17 Extremely and others.
Take a look at our information to one of the best telephones out there proper now.
Do you have to purchase the Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely?
For the previous few years, I’ve felt the identical approach each time I overview a Samsung flagship telephone. The keynote leaves me underwhelmed and puzzled. As an illustration, why, when there’s a lot innovation occurring elsewhere, does Samsung {hardware} really feel so stagnant? And extra particularly, why will we nonetheless have that uninspiring 10Mp 3x telephoto digital camera?
However then I truly begin utilizing the factor, and it wins me over but once more. The expertise is premium all through, and it leaves me with no doubts that the Galaxy S26 Extremely is among the greatest Android telephones out there in the present day. It’s extremely fast, it’s filled with tons of helpful options, and it nonetheless outperforms most of its rivals for video taking pictures.
In fact, we additionally get the superb new Privateness Show know-how, which is exclusive to this telephone. It’s one of many greatest improvements in show tech we’ve seen in recent times, and it’s no gimmick, although has some downsides. Anybody who makes use of public transport will adore this function. Samsung is main the cost with its AI options, too.
So, whereas the Galaxy S26 Extremely isn’t the earth-shattering improve I hoped for, it’s a telephone that’s greater than the sum of its components. It’s an absolute delight to reside with, and the one solution to really perceive that’s to attempt it for your self.
Specs
- One UI 8.5, primarily based on Android 16
- 6.9-inch, 1440 x 3120, AMOLED, 120Hz
- Privateness Show
- Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
- 12/16GB RAM
- 256/512GB/1TB storage
- Cameras:
- 200Mp principal sensor
- 50Mp ultrawide
- 10Mp 3x telephoto
- 50Mp 5x telephoto
- 12Mp selfie digital camera
- As much as 8K @ 30fps rear video
- Stereo audio system
- Twin-SIM + eSIM
- Wi-Fi 7
- Bluetooth 5.4
- 5000mAh battery
- 60W wired charging
- 25W wi-fi charging
- 163.6 x 78.1 x 7.9mm
- IP68 licensed
- 214g
- Colors: Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, White
- Samsung.com unique colors: Silver Shadow, Pink Gold