Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

What S26 Ultra has that S26 and S26+ don’t

Samsung’s 2026 S series is S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra, and all three share a 2600-nit peak, 8K video at 30fps and the same seven-year update promise. Paying for the Ultra gets you the S Pen, Privacy Display, the fastest charging and 4K video at 120fps, and Samsung lists only Snapdragon for it, where S26 and S26+ can ship with Exynos 2600 depending on the market.

Spec	S26 Ultra	S26+	S26
S Pen	Built in	No	No
Privacy Display	Yes	No	No
Chip	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy	Snapdragon or Exynos 2600, by market	Snapdragon or Exynos 2600, by market
Wired charging	60W, 75% in about 30 minutes	45W	25W
Wireless charging	Up to 25W	Up to 20W	Up to 15W
4K video	Up to 120fps	Up to 60fps	Up to 60fps
ProScaler	Yes	Yes	No

If you’d never use the pen or the privacy screen, start with Galaxy S26+, or Galaxy S26 for the compact model.

What changed from S25 Ultra

S26 Ultra keeps S25 Ultra’s 5,000 mAh capacity and its 31-hour video playback rating, so the upgrade is about everything else. Besides Privacy Display, Samsung points to four changes:

• Brighter lenses. The 200MP main camera moves to f/1.4, which Samsung says takes in 47% more light than S25 Ultra’s, and the f/2.9 lens on the 50MP 5x telephoto takes in 37% more.
• Chip and cooling. Samsung claims up to 19% more CPU, 24% more GPU and 39% more NPU performance, and it redesigned the vapor chamber with thermal interface material along the sides of the processor.
• Faster charging. Super Fast Charging 3.0, at 60W.
• A slimmer body. It’s 7.9 mm thick and weighs 214 grams.

Galaxy S25 Ultra vs S26 Ultra goes through the rest.

Privacy Display

This is the 2026 feature, and it’s part of the screen rather than a film you stick on. S26 Ultra controls how its pixels spread light, so someone sitting beside you sees less of what’s on it, in portrait or landscape. You can switch it on yourself, have it come on when you enter your PIN or pattern or open apps you’ve chosen, limit it to notifications with Partial Screen Privacy, or go further with Maximum Privacy Protection.

Cameras and video

Camera	S26 Ultra
Main	200MP, f/1.4; 2x optical-quality zoom
Ultrawide	50MP, f/1.9
Telephoto	10MP, f/2.4, 3x optical
Telephoto	50MP, f/2.9, 5x optical; 10x optical-quality
Digital zoom	Up to 100x Space Zoom
Front	12MP, f/2.2

Pro Video records 4K at up to 120fps, and the phone also shoots 8K at 30fps. Named video modes include Nightography Video and Super Steady with a horizontal lock, and S26 Ultra is the first Galaxy to support APV, a professional-grade codec that Samsung says keeps edits visually lossless. Samsung’s AI image processing now reaches the selfie camera too. Photo Assist and Creative Studio are Galaxy AI editing tools rather than camera hardware.

Battery and charging

The battery is 5,000 mAh typical (4,855 mAh rated, measured to IEC 61960). Samsung rates it for up to 31 hours of video playback, using a 720p file stored on the phone and played over Bluetooth earphones on LTE.

Super Fast Charging 3.0 gets it to 75% in about 30 minutes with a 60W adapter, and the phone also accepts QC2.0 and AFC/PD chargers. Super Fast Wireless Charging runs at up to 25W.

Screen and build

The 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen (6.7 inches accounting for the rounded corners) runs at 1–120Hz and peaks at 2600 nits, with Vision Booster. Samsung adds ProScaler image scaling and an mDNIe engine it says has four times the processing precision of the previous generation, and points to more even bezels than on S25.

The display sits under Corning Gorilla Armor 2 in an Armor Aluminum frame. S26 Ultra is IP68: dust-tight, and rated for 30 minutes in up to 1.5 meters of fresh water under Samsung’s lab conditions. Colors are Cobalt Violet, White, Black and Sky Blue, plus Pink Gold and Silver Shadow sold only at Samsung.com.

Software, Galaxy AI and security

It launched with Android 16 and One UI 8.5. Samsung bills the S26 series as its most intuitive Galaxy AI phone yet, and the list is long: Now Nudge and Now Brief, Circle to Search with Google, an upgraded Bixby, Gemini and Perplexity as optional agents, Photo Assist, Creative Studio, Document Scan, Call Screening, Privacy Alerts and Private Album.

Security runs through Knox, Knox Vault, KEEP and the Personal Data Engine, and Samsung uses post-quantum cryptography for software verification, firmware and some Knox Matrix services. Wireless is Wi-Fi 7 (you need a Wi-Fi 7 router to use it), Bluetooth 6.0 and UWB.

Price

On 19 September 2026, Samsung’s US store sold S26 Ultra from $1,299.99 before trade-in. The 256GB and 512GB models have 12GB of RAM, and the 1TB model has 16GB. Storage and color choices vary by carrier and country, and trade-in and carrier offers change what you actually pay, so compare a few offers before you buy.