Samsung Electronics has launched its latest flagships to kick off this year's premium smartphone race, with a new focus on privacy features and agentic artificial intelligence designed to further personalise the user experience.
The world's biggest smartphone manufacturer unveiled the Galaxy S26 series in San Francisco on Wednesday. As is tradition, the line-up features three devices – the entry-level S26, S26+ and premium S26 Ultra.
The smartphones now feature Perplexity, joining Google Gemini and Samsung’s own Bixby to lay the “foundation for more agentic AI experiences – setting the stage for Galaxy devices to become trusted companions”, Seoul-based Samsung said.
The AI service from the California-based Perplexity can be triggered by saying, “Hey, Plex”.
Agentic AI is designed to make autonomous decisions and act with minimal human supervision compared with the more commonly used generative AI.
Perplexity, meanwhile, made headlines in August last year when it reportedly made an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google's Chrome browser, a bold move challenging the latter's internet dominance.
The move is part of Samsung's strategy of “building an open and inclusive integrated AI ecosystem that gives users more choice”, with the company's own Galaxy AI “acting as an orchestrator”, said Choi Won-joon, president and chief operating officer of Samsung's mobile division.
Samsung is also working with Google to develop what it calls AI OS, a move "from an OS to an intelligent system that truly understands and works for you", said Sameer Samat, president of Android Ecosystem at Google. He said more details will come out "in the coming months".
Unique to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, meanwhile, is Privacy Display, an advanced lighting system that is essentially a digital version of privacy screen protectors that dim views from the sides.
Privacy Display, however, is dynamic; it can be customised to obscure key information such as PINs, passwords and notifications, or even entire apps.
After teasing the technology, reports have surfaced of a number of other smartphone makers, particularly those from China, testing their own versions and planning to release them soon.
“For people to really start using AI and make it mainstream, we need to make sure that it's accessible, and they have the trust and confidence in it,” said Omar Saheb, regional vice president of marketing and online business at Samsung Electronics Middle East and North Africa.
With the Galaxy S26, there are “agents talking to each other, orchestrated at the operating system level and being able to take action across different applications, all at once”, he told The National.
Samsung remains a top smartphone developer and, like the rest of the field, has increased its efforts to advance AI on its devices, as companies entice users with the latest technology.
The company has been consistently on top of the market share leader board, but in recent years has swapped places with Apple for the number-one spot: in the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung came in second with 18 per cent, behind Apple's 25 per cent, Counterpoint Research said.
Apple is expected to unveil its next generation of iPhones in September, though there are rumours the California-based company may delay or split the launches, and may even eventually introduce its much-anticipated foldable iPhone.
