Two years ago, Samsung boldly declared that the era of the AI smartphone has arrived. With its new Galaxy S26 Ultra, we have some reinforcements.
This, according to Samsung, marks the beginning of the agentic AI smartphone era, meaning we'll have more virtual assistants, well, assisting us within our hands.
That, as well as giving us more privacy without having to physically attach anything. Let's go.
Design versus the Galaxy S25 Ultra
Design-wise, nothing has significantly changed from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. We reiterate our stand that we appreciate identity, so this doesn't bother us much.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is, however, a tad lighter than its predecessor and, keeping in line with Samsung's slim trend, also thinner.
There are six colours to choose from, two of which are online exclusives; in this round, pink gold gets our nod.
The device definitely still feels very sturdy with a no-nonsense design. And, don't forget, the S Pen is still there, ready to be deployed from the lower-left edge.
Welcome, agentic AI
There are two main additions to this year's Galaxy S line-up. The first is the integration of agentic AI, which, by definition, autonomously makes decisions and acts with minimal human supervision compared with the more commonly used generative AI.
Samsung already has Bixby and Google Gemini in its stash. Now, they've added Perplexity, probably best known for its attempted hostile takeover of Google Chrome.
In short, Bixby, Gemini and Perplexity will co-operate to enhance the S26 Ultra's AI features and functions, working in the background to streamline tasks or queries. You can trigger Perplexity by saying, “Hey Plex”, or by holding down the side button, which you can toggle between that and Gemini.
There are a number of smartphones that come shipped with the Perplexity app installed, but being embedded within Samsung's software gives it a wider reach.
One new slick trick is Now Nudge, which jumps the gun on you. For example, in a conversation, if someone asks you for certain photos, Now Nudge will make a suggestion to retrieve said images so you don't have to open the Gallery app, saving you precious time.
It's a cool feature, and never before have we appreciated a little technological meddling.
These and the rest of the S26 Ultra's new AI features are scattered across apps, such as contacts, photos and calendar, which should make it easier to retrieve stuff.
'Safe browsing' with Privacy Display
The second key newcomer, exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, 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 is dynamic. It can be customised to obscure key information such as pins, passwords and notifications, or apps.
The technology has caught on fast. Reports have surfaced that a number of other smartphone makers, particularly those from China, are testing their versions and planning to release them soon.
It's a very useful thing as you won't have to worry about anyone trying to snoop into your business. And we're actually more worried about makers and vendors of physical privacy screen protectors, who'd be losing out on customers to this feature.
Camera and battery
For the second year in a row, the megapixel count on the Galaxy S26 Ultra remains the same, with a little improvement in aperture, meaning it should gather more light.
In simplest terms, optical zoom is one that uses actual hardware to move the lens (remember the DSLR boom?), while optical quality zoom uses tricks such as AI to serve the purpose, but results in lower resolution. In short, the latter is effectively a marketing gimmick for digital zoom.
Shots, as always, look good, with sharp detail, and videos are even more stable thanks to a beefed-up super-steady feature. One good AI feature is Photo Assist, which can cleanly alter images with text or voice prompts.
Moving over to its battery, it remains 5000mAh, which we would've expected to have been bumped up, given all the enticements it has to use it more. And just like last year, we lost 5 per cent in our one-hour YouTube-at-full-brightness test.
One thing that was boosted is the amount of juice you get in half an hour: Samsung now says you can get up to 75 per cent battery level, as the device now has support for 60W adapters, the first advance in this spec in two years.
That's up from 65 per cent on a 45W power brick from the S25 Ultra. Our tests showed us getting up to 69 per cent, which is not bad at all. Using a 45W charger, meanwhile, had us settling at a still-healthy 57 per cent.
One thing to note: the device doesn't have magnets for Qi2 wireless charging support, so you still have to use compatible cases with magnets for this purpose. Magnets provide stable wireless charging connections, so it's a head-scratcher why Samsung seems late to this.
The verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a very interesting phone. Agentic AI is rising the ranks, and having more than one AI genie in the bottle is surely a welcome addition, if the company is to make good on its promise to make this smartphone a “trusted and reliable” companion.
But it may not be for everyone; we found ourselves still doing things the way we used to. For example, Now Nudge politely fetching photos on our behalf still had us going through the Gallery and personally picking out said images. Ergo, we were largely still on the usual drill. We cannot, however, question its helpfulness. We loved the now-easier (and faster) photo editing stuff as well.
Big salute goes to Privacy Display. For those who care so much for their devices, you may still have to slap on a regular protective case. We should have, however, tried out how Privacy Display would work if we had that activated and a privacy screen protector on.
But yes, we agree that Samsung has branched off another AI arms race. Remember: Apple, having already partnered with OpenAI, is also collaborating with Google to give Siri a lift. Maybe in two years (or sooner) we'll have quantum AI joining the party.
