The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra might have brought the biggest change to Samsung’s flagship series in recent years, primarily thanks to the new Privacy Display feature. But there’s more to it than that. Here are the new features you need to know about.
Privacy Display stops peeping toms from spying on your phone
Ever felt worried or uncomfortable about someone looking at your phone over your shoulder in public? Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra can help solve this with its Privacy Display feature. It uses a unique AMOLED display technology to limit the screen’s viewing angle so that people around you can’t see what’s on your phone unless
It’s a combination of hardware and software tech that basically works like a built-in privacy screen protector, limiting viewing angles so people beside you can’t see your screen. You can turn it on or off, or even apply it to specific apps only, or set it to only block PINs, passwords, and notification pop-ups.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, larger camera apertures, faster charging
Beyond that, the Galaxy S26 Ultra features the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, custom-made by Qualcomm for Samsung, which is claimed to offer a 19% boost in CPU performance, a 24% boost in GPU performance, and a 39% boost in NPU performance.
In the imaging-department, the Galaxy S26 Ultra now features larger apertures on the 200MP main shooter and 50MP 5x telephoto sensor, along with the same 12MP selfie shooter from before. Here’s a quick look at the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s rear camera setup:
- 200MP f/1.4 main
- 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide-angle
- 50MP f/2.9 5x telephoto
- 10MP f/2.4 3x telephoto
Beyond hardware, Samsung is boasting software and AI upgrades that should allow you to capture better-looking shots. This includes a customised Application Processor (AP) and ProScaler to help fix photos taken with shaky hands or under poor shooting conditions, improved night photography capabilities, and an enhanced AI image signal processor (ISP) and object-aware engine for the front camera.
Battery-wise, the Galaxy S26 Ultra continues to carry the same 5,000mAh cell from its predecessor, but it now charges faster via USB-C at 60W, and wirelessly at 25W.
Now, onto the software side of things. The Galaxy S26 Ultra will ship with Samsung’s One UI 8.5, based on Android 16. This includes new Galaxy AI features such as Creative Studio for voice prompt image editing, Audio Eraser for Netflix, YouTube, and Instagram, Now Nudge, which suggests actions based on understanding context from your texts, Circle to Search that’s smarter and more proactive, agentic AI features, as well as AI call screening.
