Max Headroom 
Samsung today announced its newest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra. Samsung’s latest devices are focused on AI, and Samsung says they have the most “intuitive, proactive, and adaptive Galaxy AI features” to date.
The 6.3-inch Galaxy S26 is Samsung’s smallest and most affordable smartphone, followed by the 6.7-inch Galaxy S26+. The 6.9-inch Galaxy S26 Ultra is the high-end model. All three devices feature OLED displays, but only the Ultra works with the S Pen stylus.
New to the Galaxy S26 Ultra is a built-in “Privacy Display” that makes it harder to view what’s on the screen when looking at the phone from a side angle. It’s clear when looking at it head on, but someone sitting next to you will have a hard time seeing your phone’s display. Privacy Display works at the pixel level, controlling how pixels disperse light. It can be set to activate only for certain apps or situations like entering a PIN, and there are partial and maximum privacy options.
Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra has the best camera lineup, featuring a 200-megapixel wide lens, a 50-megapixel ultra wide lens, and two telephoto lenses. The 10-megapixel telephoto lens has 3x optical zoom, while the 50-megapixel telephoto lens features 5x optical zoom and 10x “optical quality” zoom.
There’s a new Nightography feature for clearer video in low lighting conditions, and several AI photo features. Photo Assist lets users describe the change they want to make to a photo, from restoring missing elements to removing objects. It can also change a photo from day to night, or change a person’s outfit.
Creative Studio uses sketches, photos, or prompts to create and edit AI-generated visuals like stickers, wallpapers, and invitations.
The smartphones use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which Samsung says is 19 percent faster than the prior-generation CPU in the Ultra. The GPU is 24 percent faster, and there’s a 39 percent improvement in neural processing. The Ultra model also includes an updated vapor chamber with thermal material at the sides of the processor to better dissipate heat. Samsung says the processor also includes a “ProScaler” feature that improves image scaling for photos and videos.
Most models feature 12GB RAM, though the 1TB Ultra model has 16GB. Samsung added faster charging, and the device is able to charge to 75 percent in 30 minutes. Wireless charging at up to 25W is supported.
Along with the previously mentioned photo editing AI features, there are several other AI additions.
- Now Nudge – Now Nudge offers suggestions to help users avoid distractions. If someone asks for photos from a recent event, the Galaxy S26 can automatically suggest them so there’s no need to switch apps and search for them.
- Now Brief – Samsung’s daily AI-powered briefing is more proactive and more personalized, and it is able to surface reminders for important events based on personal context.
- Circle to Search – Circle to Search supports improved multi-object recognition so it can identify and locate multiple items in an image.
- Call Screening – Call screening detects unknown callers and asks them why they called, summarizing the information.
- Privacy Alerts – Machine learning notifies users when apps with device admin privileges unnecessarily try to access sensitive data.
- Private Album – With private album, users can hide select photos and videos without creating a separate folder or signing into a Samsung account.
- Bixby – Bixby serves as a conversational device agent that can adjust settings or help users with troubleshooting.
- Other chatbots – Galaxy users can choose other chatbots like Gemini and Perplexity, which can be activated with a button press or voice prompt.
- Background processing – The Galaxy S26 series can handle multi-step tasks in the background, which allows AI agents to complete tasks while the user does something else.
Samsung also introduced the Galaxy Buds4 and Buds4 Pro, which are designed to be used with the Galaxy S26 devices. The Galaxy Buds4 earbuds feature an updated fit and improved sound quality. The Buds4 Pro include Active Noise Cancellation, upgraded Adaptive EQ, an option for accepting or declining calls with head gestures, and support for activating AI agents.
Pre-orders for the new Samsung smartphones are available starting today, with a launch to follow on March 11. The Galaxy S26 starts at $899.99, the Galaxy S26+ starts at $1,099.99, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,299.99. The Galaxy Buds4 are also available for pre-order starting today.
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This article, “Samsung Launches Galaxy S26 Ultra With Built-In Privacy Display and New AI Features” first appeared on MacRumors.com
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