Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra offers a subtle set of hardware improvements

Samsung has announced the latest version of its flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and as in previous years, the high-end phone is where the company is making the most changes. The S26 Ultra includes a new processor, an improved camera system and like Samsung's other phones, a new crop of AI-powered software features.

On first blush, the Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't all that different from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung is still using a 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED screen, with an 120Hz refresh rate and support for an S Pen stylus. The S26 Ultra also features the same flat sides, pronounced camera bump and utter lack of Qi2-compatible magnets. Despite those similarities, the new flagship does feature some differences: for one, it's ever so slightly thinner at 0.31-inches than the S25 Ultra is at 0.32-inches. The phone also comes in new colors, including a purple-ish "Cobalt Violet," light blue "Sky Blue," black, white and exclusively through Samsung's online store, "Silver Shadow" and "Pink Gold." For stylus fans, the Ultra’s new S Pen now comes with a curved top so it can fit that better fits the phone’s corners.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Inside, the Galaxy S26 Ultra uses Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip, a modified version of the flagship mobile chip it debuted last year, and either 12 or 16GB of RAM. In terms of storage, the Galaxy S26 Ultra can come with either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of memory. Regardless of which version you pick, you'll get a 5,000mAh battery with support for Samsung's wired and wireless fast charging, and Wireless PowerShare for topping up accessories like wireless earbuds.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 200MP f/1.4 wide, 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide, 10MP f/2.4 3x telephoto, 50MP f/2.9 periscope telephoto and 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera. If you were to just compare the megapixel counts of the S26 and S25 Ultras, they're identical, but Samsung has made subtle changes to the newer model. The aperture of both the wide and periscope cameras is wider on the S26 Ultra, which means they should be able to capture more light and better footage in a larger number of settings.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Of course, plenty of the flashiest parts of Samsung's new smartphone are software features. The improved photo and video performances of the Galaxy S26 Ultra's cameras is partially driven by software tweaks. Samsung is also adopting Perplexity as a second, system-level AI assistant. The AI can be called with a button press or "Hey Plex," powers improvements to Bixby and can act inside Samsung apps. That doesn't mean Gemini isn't still available, though. Google's AI will gain the ability to handle things like booking a rideshare or filling an online grocery cart in the background on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,300 and is available to pre-order today. The phone will become generally available on March 11.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-galaxy-s26-ultra-offers-a-subtle-set-of-hardware-improvements-180000725.html?src=rss