If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
Fresh off equipping Team USA athletes with smartphones at the Winter Olympics, Samsung has unveiled its latest release, with a phone that seamlessly merges the conveniences and tools demanded by users today, with forward-thinking, AI features that anticipate the needs of tomorrow.
Samsung was an official partner of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics and the tech giant handed out Galaxy Z Flip7 Olympic Edition phones to nearly 3,800 Olympians, in addition to Team USA stars like freestyle skier Alex Hall and team figure skating gold medalist (and “Quad God”) Ilia Malinin.
Now, Samsung has introduced the latest model in its Samsung Galaxy series, with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, a phone that promises the “most powerful hardware ever on a Galaxy S series,” and “more agentic AI experiences,” per a company release, “setting the stage for Galaxy devices to become trusted companions that understand and anticipate user needs.”
NEW RELEASE
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Right out of the box, the new phone ups the ante with a lightning fast processor, stunning photo and video capture, and one of the most intuitive AI tools we’ve tested to date. Perhaps more importantly, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is designed for how we use our phones these days, with apps and features that hit that sweet spot of work and play.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra retains the same sleek design and light weight of its predecessor, with both phones using a 6.9-inch display (the base S26 models boasts a just-slightly larger 6.3-inch display compared to the 6.2-inch screen on the Galaxy S25). I loved the new aluminum frame, which I find more chic and minimalist than the previous titanium siding. Samsung says its so-called “Armor Aluminum” also offers more durability and grip, though to be honest, I would still use a case if you want to prevent the phone from slipping through your fingers. A new custom processor — officially the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy — offers a fast and seamless experience, whether you’re scrolling apps, streaming video or switching between your camera functions to capture content.
Samsung
Speaking of the camera, we appreciated the enhanced camera features on the S26 Ultra, which makes Samsung’s already impressive setup even more powerful and dynamic. The new phone is built with a 50MP Ultra-Wide Camera, 200 MP Wide Camera and a 50MP Telephoto Camera with 10x optical zoom. For selfies, the phone has a 12MP Front Camera. I tested the camera out while on a trip to Barcelona and you really can’t take a bad shot, thanks to its quick auto-focus and improved depth of field. Built-in AI Image Signal Processing (AI ISP) intelligently helps to reduce noise and draw out more details from every image.
Low-light capture is also much improved, and when we brought the photo to Barcelona’s award-winning Paradiso Bar, we didn’t have to do much in terms of adjusting settings to frame up our drinks for a pic (hot tip: ask the bartenders to make you their version of an ice-cold martini). Video capture, meantime, is enhanced with “Nightography,” which automatically adjusts for dim environments to preserve vividness and quality. I also liked tapping into the Photo Assist feature, which uses Galaxy AI to do everything from removing people next to you in a photo to highlighting a particular section or action in your photo (like the bird I happened to capture flying by when I was at Park Guell). Whether you’re an amateur enthusiast or professional photographer, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is packed with both easy-to-use and advanced features that will take your content to the next level.
Details are still pulled out in low light (at left) while Photo Assist helps to bring out a focal point in your images (at right)
Tim Chan
Where the S26 Ultra really shines for me is its buzzy “Privacy Display,” which lets you change how visible your screen is to others with just a tap of a button. You no longer have to purchase a separate privacy screen protector to prevent prying eyes from looking at your stuff. When turned on, people sitting next to you won’t be able to see what’s on your phone — something I found useful when I was testing out the S26 Ultra on the plane.
Tim Chan
Other helpful tools for my work include a Live Interpreter feature (with more than 20 languages available); the ability to use voice prompts with Bixby or ask for help using AI assistants Gemini and Perplexity; a digital one-pager via “Now Brief” to see all my news, weather and daily tasks in a single view; and the Audio Eraser, which helps to remove or reduce background noise in my voice recordings, say, from an interview on the red carpet. The Audio Eraser tool can also work on audio and video that you haven’t personally recorded, and I liked playing around with the settings while watching YouTube unboxing videos for example, to bring out the main narration and bring down the often-annoying background music. Also: when it comes to streaming video on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, needless to say everything comes across crisp and clear with realistic contrasts and coloring on screen.
Battery life in our testing was excellent — we could go almost two full days on a single charge, with regular usage of the camera and light streaming, along with running apps like Instagram and email. A quick 30-minute charge got my phone up to around 70% battery life.
EDITOR-APPROVED
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
There are a few things that users might find cumbersome about the new Galaxy phone: the cameras are raised too high for the phone to lie flat on its back, meaning I always had to turn the phone over when setting it down. The 6.9-inch Ultra model I tested, meantime, is thin and lightweight, but still a little too large to completely control with one hand. I also experienced a bit of shutter lag when using the camera, though it won’t be an issue for most casual users.
Those minor issues aside, this is the best smartphone Samsung has released to date, with the technical prowess needed to keep up with the demands of today, while introducing progressive forward-thinking features that ready users for tomorrow. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is an all-in-one device that acts as your work assistant, entertainment hub, content creation platform and cultural concierge in one.
The new phone is available in six elegant and elevated colors, including the “Cobalt Violet” we got our hands on, plus a “Sliver Shadow” and “Pink Gold” colorway that are available exclusively at Samsung.com.
Leave a Reply