All You Need To Know About The Samsung Galaxy S26 Series
Korean electronics giants Samsung have just released its Galaxy S26 range, and as the biggest Android phone brand, all eyes are on what it offers.
It still includes three phones – the standard S26, the premium S26+ and the top-of-the-range S26 Ultra – and all three have got a refresh from last year. The headline news is that across the range, AI integrations have advanced, plus the S26 Ultra boasts the world’s first Privacy Display to stop people from glancing at your phone when you look at your bank balance, or get a message notification.
The question I have is: is it enough to hold their position as the top Android phone – or even tempt Apple fans away from the iPhone? Let’s find out.
Camera
As the tech revolution rolls on, all models have had camera software upgrades, like improvements to how skin tone and other detail come out in mixed lighting. Document scans have improved in quality too, and an upgraded Photo Assist option means you can tell your phone what kinds of edits you want in natural language. There’s even a cool feature that you can change your outfits, though I’d like to test this out before singing its praises.
With innovation focused on its AI capabilities, the cameras for the S26 and S26+ have stayed the same as the S25 series. Expect a 12MP ultra-wide lens for taking scenic shots, a main 50MP wide lens with 2x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom (perfect for concerts). The selfie camera is a decent 12MP. That’s a great range of options, and two lenses with optical zoom is amongst the best on offer.
The 26 Ultra features the same four top-tier lenses as the S25, including a 50MP telephoto lens with a whopping 5x optical zoom. The main difference from last year is that the brightness range has improved, allowing improvements in its night photos and videos, plus better stability.
So if you’re upgrading to an S26 for the camera alone, it might not be worth it. But thankfully, there are enough other improvements that make it worth considering.
Design and display
Thin and with more angular corners than other phones, you’ll know a Samsung phone when you see it. That signature look is kept with the S26 – in fact the S26 Ultra is the slimmest yet, at 7.9mm wide. A notable difference is a raised camera bar at the back, as with the latest iPhones and Google Pixels.
It’s widely available in White, Black, Sky Blue and a new Cobalt Violet, while Samsung.com also stock Pink Gold and Silver Shadow exclusively.
In terms of the display, all three boast a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, but the most impressive aspect is the S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display, which blocks out portions of the screen to anyone looking side-on – useful as so much of our financial information is now on our phones. That feature is a welcome leap forward, and one that other phone manufacturers will no doubt use as inspiration for future models.
Battery performance
The battery is another aspect that’s largely stayed the same from the S25 range – the notable exception is the standard S26, which has increased its battery capacity from 4000mAH to 4300mAh. The 26+ stays at 4900mAH and the Ultra is 5000 mAh, but these days, battery life is more about how efficient the phone is, and Samsung are good at optimisation.
Charging speeds are decent too, with an upgraded 60W max for the S26 Ultra with wires, and 25W for wireless charging, which also applies to the S26+.
It’s a shame there’s no Qi2 wireless charging like with iPhones and Google Pixels –hopefully the S27s will rectify that next year.
Tech and features
Samsung are great at upgrading their chipset every series so the overall performance improves, and the S26 sees the S26 and 26+ come with a new version of their inhouse Exynos chip, rather than the Snapdragon chip they used on the S25s. Rumours are the improvements to the Exynos 2600 chip means performance is boosted, but still, the S26 Ultra uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which presumably offers a top-tier performance.
You’ll find great AI integrations, like Now Nudge, which helps to surface helpful things like photos when you need them. And Proactive Now Brief is similar, giving you reminders for things like events and reservations. All phones include an upgraded version of Bixby, its conversational Gen AI agent.
In other news, Samsung have dropped their 128GB storage option, either because we now store more on our phones, or the chip shortage means they’re being spent on higher-level products. So the S26 series begins at 256GB, an upgrade that’s reflected in the price.
All the expected connectivity – Bluetooth (v6.0 for the Ultra and S26+, and v5.4 for the S26), Wifi 7 and 5G – are present, and the operating system is the latest Android 16, with One UI 8.5.
Happily, everyone gets a generous seven years of security updates, making it a phone to last.
Price and availability
Samsung have kept their prices down for the last couple of years so it had to increase this year, even when accounting for their larger storage.
The Galaxy S26 starts at £879 (£20 more than the comparable S25 model), while the S26+ starts at £1,099 and the S26 Ultra starts at £1,279. They’re available to pre-order now, and they’ll hit the shops on 11th March.
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