Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: What is known so far
Samsung has officially confirmed February 25th as the release date for the Galaxy S26 series and is now accepting pre-orders. This is simply a promotional offer where you can get a €30/$30 discount for signing up for email notifications. We’ll get to the pricing later, but first, let’s look at all the current rumors surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with privacy display
Privacy screens are nothing new – some laptops do have that feature, but it operates on an “all or nothing” principle. Either the entire screen is fully visible, or the viewing angles are so limited that while you can see it head-on, people looking over your shoulder can’t see anything.
Samsung has developed a way to control this with pixel-level precision – the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (and only the Ultra) can set pop-ups with sensitive information to “private”, making it difficult or nearly impossible for others to, for example, read passwords or the unlock code you received via SMS.
One UI 8.5 offers intelligent control options for this feature. For example, it can be completely disabled when you are at home and automatically enabled as soon as you leave the house.
Furthermore, the Ultra will be equipped with a new, highly durable Gorilla Glass. This is likely a new version of Gorilla Glass Armor with a special and exclusive anti-reflective coating (the S and S+ models are not included here).
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will also bring further display upgrades, some of which were long overdue. It will be equipped with a 10-bit display. Yes, Samsung’s flagship phones have always used 8-bit panels until now, even though Samsung Display sells some of the best OLED panels in the industry to Samsung’s competitors.
Apart from that, it will be a 6.9-inch display with a refresh rate of 1–120 Hz (LTPO) and a resolution of 1440p+.
Magnetic Charging
Samsung has adopted the stripped-down version of the Qi2 magnetic profile – wireless charging with a magnetically attached charger is supported, but the phones themselves do not have built-in magnets.
If you want to use magnetic chargers and various other magnetic accessories such as car mounts, you’ll need a special case with integrated magnets. Such cases already exist for older S models, so you might be wondering what has changed.
In terms of magnets, not much has changed, but the charging hardware has been improved.
60 watts wired charging, 25 watts wireless charging
For several years, Samsung smartphones had a maximum charging power of 45 watts when wired. That’s finally changing, albeit only slightly: The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will support 60-watt charging.
The initial results were underwhelming – a test device of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra reportedly managed to charge the battery from 0% to 75% in 30 minutes. That’s hardly faster than the old Galaxy S25 Ultra, which reached 72% in 30 minutes.
The company has already launched a new 60-watt charger called the “Samsung 60W Power Adapter” (model number EP-T6010NBEGWW). It supports USB-PD (5V, 15V, and 20V) and PPS (5-20V) with up to 3A. Its standby power consumption is only 5mW.
Samsung will also increase wireless charging power from 15 watts to 25 watts. We are not aware of any leaked tests on this yet, but we’re not expecting miracles.
A Qi2-enabled Samsung power bank was leaked last month. The EB-U2500 supports 15W wireless output and up to 20W input via USB-C. It features an integrated stand and an LED strip that indicates the battery’s charge level.
This magnetic battery is expected to sell for €60 in Europe. Its most interesting feature is its unusual shape – the cutouts on the top presumably allow the battery to rotate 270° without coming into contact with the camera lenses.
Same 5,000 mAh battery
One might expect the faster charging time to be due to a larger battery, or that Samsung is employing some of the silicon-carbon technologies that have led to massive performance improvements in batteries over the past twelve months. Instead, according to the latest information, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s battery will have a capacity of 5,000 mAh. That matches the capacity of all previous S Ultra models. Yes, even the very first model, the S20 Ultra.
We’ve heard rumors about an increase in battery capacity to 5,200 mAh, but even if these rumors prove true, the 200 mAh increase would hardly be worth mentioning compared to what the competition offers, with the exception of Apple and Google with their latest models.
Only Snapdragon chipsets, no Exynos
As usual, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will receive special treatment – it will be equipped with the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset in all regions. Some early reports suggested that all S26 models sold in Korea would instead be equipped with the Exynos 2600, but the most recent Geekbench results have disproved these speculations. It will use a Snapdragon processor across the board.
The US model was also tested with a Snapdragon processor. This naturally applies to the Ultra model as well. The S26 and S26+ will be equipped with an Exynos processor in some regions.
It’s not yet entirely clear whether this Snapdragon is a “Galaxy” variant, as we know from previous generations, and what exactly that would mean. These details will be revealed on the release day.
There is nothing new to report regarding storage – the smartphone will have 12 GB of RAM, with 16 GB available as an option, as well as three storage variants: 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will feature a 200MP main camera, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x zoom, a periscope telephoto lens with 5x zoom, a 50MP sensor (f/2.8, 1/2.52″), and a 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens (f/1.9, 1/2.5″).
You might think there are no changes compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but that’s not the case – the 10 MP 3x telephoto module has a smaller 1/3.94-inch sensor compared to last year’s Ultra’s 1/3.52-inch sensor.
The camera lenses are supposed to be equipped with a special coating that reduces stray light, but this is a rather minor improvement after a year of development time.
Regarding the main camera of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, it is expected to have a larger aperture of f/1.4. There were rumors that Samsung would reintroduce the variable aperture system previously used in the Galaxy S9 and S10, but it is unclear whether it made it into the final version.
S Pen
As far as the S Pen of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is concerned, the rumor mill has unfortunately not been very productive so far.
Some speculated that magnets interfere with the S Pen’s functionality, which is why Samsung opted against magnetic Qi charging. Whether that’s true or not, the S Pen remains a hallmark of the Ultra model and will also be included in the 2026 version – without new features, but also without any downgrades.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with Linux terminal
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could have a fully-fledged Linux terminal. The problem so far has been with the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF), which is required to run the Linux terminal. The responsibility lies with Qualcomm, as Snapdragon chips do not support AVF – while Tensor, Exynos, and Dimensity chips do.
Snapdragon chips are therefore missing an important feature, so it’s unclear how Samsung will circumvent this problem. But if they succeed, this could pave the way for Linux apps to run natively on the Ultra.
“Something smarter”
Samsung is already teasing the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, and it looks like new AI features will be a key part of the upcoming Unpacked presentation.
This includes a smarter Bixby with agent-based AI. This means it can interact with apps (HERE Maps, Uber, The Weather Channel, etc.) and perform tasks on command, just like a real, autonomous employee.
Design
Samsung will add a small, sublime area around the camera lenses of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra in this generation..
However, this could be purely decorative, similar to the larger camera rings of the S25 Ultra. The underlying camera hardware remains essentially unchanged.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to be slightly slimmer and lighter at 7.9 mm and 214 g compared to the S25 Ultra at 8.2 mm and 218 g.
According to Evan Blass, the Ultra will be available in the following colors: black, white, silver shadow, sky blue, cobalt violet and rose gold.
Official images of the silver and rose gold versions are still missing.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra price
The base model of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage is expected to launch at the same price as its predecessor, namely €1,470. However, the models with 512 GB and 1 TB of storage could be slightly more expensive.
The S26 series is expected to launch with the usual pre-order benefits, i.e., a free memory upgrade, an additional trade-in credit, and the pre-order bonus.
