The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is Samsung’s top smartphone for early 2026 – and will likely remain its best non-foldable phone until 2027.
This has a whole lot going for it, but the headline feature is arguably its Privacy Display – a system that can hide parts of the screen when viewed from the side, so you can keep messages, notifications, and other sensitive content secret, even when people are around you.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra also has a stupendously powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, paired with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and a large vapour chamber. So this is one seriously high-performing smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has superb cameras too, with a 200MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 50MP periscope with 5x optical zoom, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 12MP front-facing camera – giving it more lenses than almost any other phone.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is also infused with all sorts of AI capabilities, with Samsung’s Galaxy AI delivering powerful photo editing tools, live translations, and much more.
There’s masses of storage too, and with an included S Pen stylus this is great for productivity, sketching, and writing by hand.
Plus, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra also has extensive water resistance and is all-round tougher than it looks, with an Armour Aluminium 2 frame, Corning Gorilla Armour 2 on the front, and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protecting the back.
This phone also has a big 5,000mAh battery with higher power charging than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, at up to 60W. That combination means it can deliver up to 31 hours of video playback, and charge to 75% in just around 30 minutes.
It also has a huge 6.9-inch 1440 x 3120 AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 500 nits and a 120Hz refresh rate, and it runs Samsung’s take on Android 16 – so the software is up to date, and it comes with the promise of seven years of updates.
