Samsung just dropped the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra, and honestly, the company’s commitment to AI is so intense it almost feels like a personal attack on anyone who just wants a regular phone. The new lineup is packed with Galaxy AI features powered by partnerships with Google and Perplexity, but before you get excited, let’s talk about what’s actually useful here and what’s just noise.
The baseline story is straightforward: prices went up $100 across the board. The S26 starts at $900, the Plus at $1,100, and the Ultra stays at $1,300. Samsung’s blaming the RAM shortage caused by the AI boom, which is a fair excuse, but it still stings when you’re trying to upgrade. The real question is whether these phones justify the bump.
The Privacy Display Actually Matters
Here’s the thing that stopped me mid-eye-roll: the Privacy Display on the S26 Ultra. This isn’t another flashy AI gimmick. It’s built directly into the display hardware and limits side-angle visibility by using a “black matrix” and narrow pixel architecture. When you turn it on, the screen goes almost black from the sides while remaining perfectly visible head-on.
It sounds simple, but it’s genuinely solving a real problem. No more worrying about someone reading your banking app over your shoulder on the subway. No more uncomfortable angles when checking sensitive notifications. This is the kind of feature that works invisibly in the background, which is exactly how it should be.
The rounded corners on the Ultra still bug me though. Samsung’s moving away from the sharp, Note-era boxy design that actually felt intentional. Everything’s getting softer and blander. Yes, it’s more comfortable to hold. Yes, it lines up better with the rest of the lineup. But we’re losing the personality in the name of mainstream appeal.
AI That Actually Saves Time
Most of Samsung’s AI announcements felt like table stakes. Summaries, photo editing, briefs, nudges… we’ve heard it all before. But AI call screening is different. Getting dozens of spam calls a day is genuinely miserable, and having the phone intercept them, summarize what happened, and let you decide if it’s worth your time? That’s how AI should work.
The new Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are solid too, with two-way speakers, adaptive noise control smart enough to block sirens, and the ability to cancel out specific sounds. The pink gold color is disappointingly muted though. I was expecting something bold and glam, but it’s basically blush cream. Samsung played it safe when this would’ve been the perfect moment to add some visual personality to the lineup.
The Camera Stuff Needs to Go Bigger
Samsung’s showing off a new “Galaxy camera experience” that unifies capture, editing, and sharing. The demos looked wild, like a flying saucer abducting a cow or a cupcake magically un-biting itself. But here’s the reality: the S26 Plus is using the exact same camera hardware as the S25 Plus. Why? That’s baffling for a $1,100 phone.
The S26 Ultra is supposed to get improvements to one of the telephoto cameras, but it’s not enough. We need bigger sensors. We need real innovation here. Xiaomi’s already pushing 1-inch type sensors. Oppo’s experimenting with detectable zoom lenses. Samsung’s sitting with the same hardware it had last year. For a company claiming to focus on pro-level photography, that’s a missed opportunity.
Practical Features Are Rare
The Super Steady with Horizontal Lock feature that automatically maintains a level horizon while filming is genuinely useful. It reminds me of Asus’s gimbal-like feature that made smooth videos easier to capture. Now Asus is out of the smartphone game, so hopefully Samsung can deliver on this.
The revamped cooling system on the S26 Ultra is smart too. Less heat throttling while gaming or using AI-heavy features means you’re not fighting your phone while trying to actually use it. These are the kinds of incremental improvements that add up over time.
What About Everything Else?
Verizon’s already throwing trade-in offers at people, with the S26 Plus available at $0 monthly credit if you’re on Unlimited Ultimate or Unlimited Plus plans. Best Buy and AT&T are running reservation programs that give you $30 credit and the chance to win a $5,000 Samsung gift card. The usual carrier theater, basically.
Samsung’s also integrating Perplexity as an AI agent you can summon with “Hey, Plex.” It’ll work across Notes, Calendar, Gallery, and other apps. The idea is smoother multi-step workflows, but it’s also another layer of complexity that could confuse users. Motorola’s doing the same thing with multiple AI partners, which makes sense from a strategy perspective but feels messy in practice.
The S26 gets a slightly larger 6.3-inch display and a bigger 4,300-mAh battery compared to last year. The Plus largely sticks with the S25 Plus formula. The Ultra’s frame is aluminum instead of titanium, and it uses Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 across the board (in the US and China at least).
The Missed Opportunities
There’s no built-in MagSafe or Qi2 magnetic charging standard. For a $1,300 phone in 2026, that’s embarrassing. Apple nailed this years ago. I’ve literally watched my S25 Ultra slide off magnetic chargers because there’s no way to hold it in place. We shouldn’t be having this conversation in 2026.
The S Pen on the S26 Ultra still lacks Bluetooth functionality, which it had on the S24 Ultra. Why are we going backward? Samsung’s clearly disinvesting from the stylus, which is fine, but then just say it instead of quietly removing features. The S Pen might be on its way out entirely, which would free up internal space, but we won’t know until someone actually uses the phone long-term.
The lack of a smaller Ultra option is another miss. Apple gives you the 6.3-inch Pro and the 6.9-inch Pro Max. Samsung only offers the Ultra at massive sizes. Some people with small hands actually want flagship performance, but Samsung refuses to deliver it.
Real Talk About Pricing
The $100 price increase is real and it hurts. Samsung’s betting that loyalty and financing options will keep people buying anyway. It’s probably right. But it also means the used Galaxy S25 Ultra is looking pretty attractive right now. You can grab last year’s model at half the price with a camera setup that still rivals the current one and software support until 2031.
Whether the S26 Ultra is wild enough to justify the extra cash depends entirely on how much you care about the Privacy Display and whatever AI improvements actually land. The rounded corners aren’t going to convince anyone. The privacy tech actually might.
The Bigger Picture
Samsung’s clearly betting its entire future on AI being the thing people care about most. The company’s talking about “agentic AI experiences” and framing these as “AI phones” instead of just phones with AI. It’s a bold positioning, but it assumes people actually want their devices making independent decisions on their behalf. That’s not a given.
Competition is heating up too. Google’s Pixel line is getting smarter with every release. Apple’s AI features are finally landing properly. OnePlus already has the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the wild with a massive 7,300-mAh battery and 80-watt charging. Samsung’s got good phones here, but “good” doesn’t feel like enough when the price keeps climbing and the actual innovations feel incremental.
The real test will be whether these AI features actually improve your daily life or whether they’re just Samsung flexing what’s technically possible. So far, the Privacy Display is the only thing that makes me stop and think “yeah, I actually want that.” Everything else is probably fine, but fine isn’t what flagship pricing is supposed to deliver.
