Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

March 31, 2026 by admin

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – Design and Features

The Galaxy S26 Ultra looks like the S25 Ultra. It has the same square-off edges and rounded corners, even what looks like a single camera wave, and five lenses protruding from the back of the device. But just because a device looks the same as its predecessor doesn’t mean it’s wrong – the Galaxy S26 Ultra is still a great device, especially if you can get it in a bright color.

However, it would have been nice if Samsung had taken a cue from the iPhone 17 Pro Max that came out late last year. Because while the S26 Ultra’s camera is far from the best I’ve ever seen, it didn’t feel good to revert to a shaking phone whenever I put it down on the table. That can be mitigated with the right case, but for a $1,299 phone like this, anything that feels annoying without an added accessory doesn’t feel great.

And, like other phones with a camera bump, the S26 Ultra is thin, measuring just 7.9mm in diameter. It’s smaller than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, though it has a more powerful SoC and another serious camera.

The device that Samsung sent me to review is the Cobalt Violet colorway. At first glance, it looks like the same blue-black color option that’s so popular in high-end phones, but under the right light it gives off a very cool purple tint. It seems that the bright colors of this phone are subtlebut you can always slap a case on the phone to make it stand out more.

Also like its predecessor, the buttons on the Galaxy S26 Ultra are all located on the right side of the display. There is a volume rocker on the top, as well as a lock button on the side. Unlike something like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, however, the lock button doesn’t double as a fingerprint scanner — it’s built into the display itself.

Below, you’ll find the USB-C charging and data port, as well as the SIM tray and S-Pen. There’s also a small slot there, but don’t get excited if you want a microSD slot – it’s just a speaker. You also won’t find a card reader inside the SIM tray, like older Galaxy devices, so you’ll want to make sure you get the right storage configuration when you buy the device.

Samsung is known for putting great displays on its phones, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra is certainly no different. You get a powerful 6.9-inch AMOLED display at 3120 x 1440, with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It’s beautiful. I’ve had this phone for a few weeks at this point, mostly because of the flu, but at the time I was glued to this screen. Colors are clear and programs, games and comics look great it is beautiful Here.

The higher refresh rate can drain the battery a little faster, of course, but these faster displays have come a long way in the past few years, so far combined with the best battery life I’ve had on a phone in a while.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – Software and AI

For the past two or three years, Samsung has been making a big deal of AI features built into its Galaxy phones, and I’m still not sure I see the hype. I even made sure to turn on all AI features while setting up the phone, and I haven’t noticed a difference.

The most obvious thing it does is the Now Brief, which has been around for several generations at this point. At a glance, it tells me what’s next on my calendar, but I can click on it to get news, weather, and YouTube videos it thinks I’ll enjoy. However, I’m not sure how wisdom This system is like that, as it recommends playlists from Spotify, which I have never opened on the phone, instead of Apple Music, which I have used every day since I took the Galaxy S26 Ultra out of the box. Maybe it’s to hold a grudge, who knows?

However, there are some subtle aspects that Galaxy AI can help with. One of the main features is Call Assist, which can monitor calls. Since I enabled it, I haven’t been notified of a single robocall, and it will give you a simple text of any call it blocks.

In addition, there are many tools for doing everything from writing your text messages to editing your photos. But these tools have been around for a long time, and they work as well as you’d expect here, with mixed results. The real star of the Galaxy AI program is the non-flashy stuff that scans, translates and transcribes your calls. It’s the same as before.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – Performance and Performance

With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, it’s clear that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will be a fast phone, but it seems to be tuned more for productivity than gaming. Because while the on-chip GPU is more powerful, the CPU performance improvement is really the star of the show. This chip also has a beefy NPU (Neural Processing Unit), which really helps all the AI ​​features in the phone feel lighter.

For example, on Geekbench, which tests the pure performance of the CPU, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is in line with the Redmagic 11 Pro and the OnePlus 15, which have the same chipset. In the single-core test, the S26 Ultra gets 3517 points, compared to 3683 from the OnePlus 15. Now, in the multi-core test, the Samsung flagship gets 11229 points, which exceeds the 10100 points obtained by the OnePlus 15.

Similarly, in the Geekbench Vulkan graphics test, the Galaxy S26 Ultra gets 28270 points, compared to 27972 points from the OnePlus 15, which is great for tasks such as video editing on the device. However, the results are completely changed in 3DMark.

The S26 is relatively stable in 3DMark, achieving 80.6% stability in the Steel Nomad Light stress test, which means that after a 10-minute burn, the results only change by about 20%. But maybe that’s because the chip wasn’t pushed as hard as it could have been.

In the Steel Nomad Light test, the S26 Ultra scores just 2245 points, compared to 2870 points from the OnePlus 15, a whopping 27% difference. Then, in the Wild Life Extreme test, the S26 Ultra scores 5758 points, compared to 7111 points from the OnePlus 15, which is a 23% deficit. I’ve tried and tested the Galaxy S26 Ultra in these tests probably multiple times across several system upgrades, and gaming performance doesn’t seem to be the S26 Ultra’s strong suit. For a better option out there, you’ll want one of the best gaming phones.

That doesn’t mean the Galaxy S26 can’t play games though. In my time with the phone I’ve been playing everything from Wuthering Waves to MTG Arena, and I haven’t noticed any kind of performance slowdown.

Fortunately, like every Galaxy phone of the last few years, the S26 Ultra comes with a sports cover, which you can open over a mobile game by swiping from a small rectangle on the screen. From here, you can put the phone in advanced mode, which should help with game performance.

The Privacy Screen

A lot about the Galaxy S26 Ultra looks like it’s built entirely from the S25 Ultra, but the biggest new feature here is the biggest new thing of all – a software-controlled privacy display. This will change the display’s pixels in a way that will reduce the screen’s viewing angle. In other words, it makes it difficult for anyone to see what’s on your screen while they’re looking over your shoulder or sitting next to you. And, well, it works very well! I even actively asked my partner to try to look at the screen over my shoulder, and he couldn’t do it, which is a big thing if you always deal with sensitive information, or if you have nosy friends.

However, even if it works well, having it gives the display a strange blue color that washes out a lot of colors. You can reduce this by enabling it only when you have a notification or in certain applications, but it makes the phone less visible in any way.

I ended up turning off the display for about a week using the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but I don’t usually use my phone to do anything too sensitive. The display dimmer has started to drag, but if privacy is a big concern of yours, it’s a small pill to swallow to protect your information. Either way, it’s a real workhorse as well as a complete book, and I’m sure a lot of people hope it becomes a standard option on other phones going forward.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – Camera

Nothing has changed for the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera. You still get a 200MP main shooter on the back, along with a 50MP Ultrawide and a 50MP telephoto lens. In fact, the same feature found in the S25 Ultra from 2025. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The photos are beautiful and powerful, capturing a lot of detail. Even at night, I was amazed at how well it retained details, even in the darkest parts of the scene. For example, I found a large pile of snow in New Bedford a few weeks ago, and I took a photo when it was dark. the snow pile itself was brightly lit, so it obviously looks good, but even the rear windows have all their details, which are almost noiseless until you start getting close to them.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – Camera models