Discover the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, featuring the Galaxy S26 Ultra with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Exynos 2600 chips, Privacy Display, and pricing details.
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Samsung has finally unveiled its new Galaxy S26 series flagship smartphones at the long-awaited Galaxy Unpacked event. As expected, all the leaks that surfaced online before the launch turned out to be accurate. In fact, the top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra went on sale a few days ago, and many tech bloggers have already posted their reviews.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is powered by the most powerful chip currently available—the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. Early tests show that the phone delivers impressive performance, though it still falls slightly behind some dedicated gaming models. Thanks to this new processor and ample RAM, the device can handle high-resolution photos and videos in real time while also supporting Samsung's proprietary Galaxy AI.
For certain markets, the base models feature the latest Exynos 2600 chip, built on a 2nm process. This new chip offers strong performance, low power consumption, and improved cooling, which means gamers won't experience frame rate drops during extended play sessions.
Design-wise, Samsung hasn't introduced anything groundbreaking. The phones largely mirror last year's flagships, with the only notable change being the camera module—it now sits on a slight raised platform, which might cause the phone to wobble when placed on a flat surface. Speaking of cameras, the updates are minimal, with the focus once again placed on post-processing enhancements.
One genuinely new feature is the Privacy Display technology, exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This hardware-software solution prevents others from peeking at your screen, and users can choose to disable it, enable it for all apps, or only for selected ones. Based on demonstrations from bloggers, the technology works effectively, making third-party privacy screen protectors unnecessary.
Pre-orders for the new Galaxy S26 series are now open. The first customers will receive their devices in early March. The Galaxy S26 Ultra with 256GB of storage starts at $1,300, while the top-tier 1TB version costs $1,800. The standard Galaxy S26 begins at $900, and the Galaxy S26+ is priced $200 higher.