The Samsung Galaxy S26 is a series of flagship Android-based smartphones manufactured, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of its flagship Galaxy S series. They collectively serve as the successor to the Galaxy S25 series released in 2025. The S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra were announced on February 25, 2026 at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco, alongside the Galaxy Buds 4 series, and were released on March 11, 2026. The Galaxy S26 series were an evolution of the prior year's series, with upgraded hardware and design refinements. Succeeding the S25, S25+, S25 Ultra and S25 Edge respectively, the S26 was produced in a standard model with a display size of 6.3-inch (160 mm), the S26+ has a larger 6.7 in (170 mm) display and the S26 Ultra has a larger 6.9 in (170 mm) display. The latter still has the S Pen and its dedicated slot, but introduces a new hardware-level technology called the Privacy Display, the first smartphone in the world to have a feature that decreases screen visibility from certain angles for enhanced privacy.
History Before its official announcement, rumors about the Galaxy S26 began to surface as early as July 2025, where it would be produced in three different versions: a Galaxy S26 Pro, an S26 Edge, and an S26 Ultra. First builds of One UI 8.5 for the Galaxy S26 series were also spotted, suggesting that the line-up would be shipped with Android 16 and One UI 8.5. In October 2025, it was reported that Samsung had cancelled development of the Galaxy S26 Edge due to poor sales of the Galaxy S25 Edge. Reports also confirm that the Galaxy S26 Pro would be known as the standard Galaxy S26, while the Galaxy S26+ would launch next year. Soon after, reports suggested that the Galaxy S26 launch would be delayed due to the cancellation of the S26 Edge, along with development issues with the line-up. In November 2025, reports confirm that the Galaxy S26 series would be unveiled on February 25, 2026, in San Francisco. In January 2026, reports suggested that the Galaxy S26 series would be available on March 11, 2026. In addition, renders of the supposed devices, alongside alleged specs, were also reported. A week before its launch, a picture was posted showing the actual Galaxy S26+ that was listed for sale on Craigslist. The Galaxy S26 series were announced during the Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on February 25, 2026, with its introduction of a Privacy Display, along with 60W Super Fast Charging on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Pre-orders began on that same day and were made available on March 11, 2026, in multiple countries.
Line-up The Galaxy S26 series currently includes three models: the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Dimensions The Galaxy S26 features a flat 6.3 in (160 mm) display (a slight increase from its predecessor). The Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 Ultra offer similar internal hardware and screen sizes to its predecessor, at 6.7 in (170 mm) and 6.9 in (180 mm), respectively.
Performance The Galaxy S26 series reintroduces chipset split: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy powers the S26 and S26+ in North America, China, and Japan, while the Exynos 2600 for the rest of the global markets. The S26 Ultra, however, will use the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset as standard worldwide.
Design The S26 and S26+ smartphones continue to have an aluminum body and a glass back, similar to the design of their predecessors. Both devices use Gorilla Glass Victus 3 for both the front display and rear glass panel. The S26 Ultra, on the other hand, reverts to an aluminum frame (which was last used on the Galaxy S23), but still features a glass back; however, the phone now features more rounded corners. It still has the Gorilla Glass Armor 2 for its front display and rear panel.
Specifications
Display The Galaxy S26 series features a Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display across all models with HDR10+ support and a 120 Hz refresh rate, reaching up to 2600 nits. Each device also includes an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor. The S26 Ultra uses Corning’s Gorilla Armor 2 protection on the front, while the S26 and S26+ use Gorilla Glass Victus 3 on both the front and back.
Privacy Display
The Galaxy S26 Ultra features the Privacy Display, a display technology developed and supplied by Samsung Display. The technology was originally developed under the name Flex Magic Pixel. When the feature is enabled in device settings, the viewing angle of the screen becomes significantly narrower, making the display difficult to see from the side while appearing normal to the user. The feature serves a similar purpose as external privacy screen protectors used to prevent others from viewing a phone screen in public places. However, unlike privacy films that add an additional polarizing layer on top of the display and may reduce brightness or clarity, Privacy Display is implemented at the panel level during manufacturing by selectively applying polarization to specific display elements. It can also be enabled or disabled through software as needed. The feature can be applied only to specific areas of the display, such as notification pop-ups, or to certain applications where privacy protection is needed.
Camera
The Galaxy S26 and S26+ use a triple rear camera system consisting of a 50 MP wide‑angle main camera, a 12 MP ultrawide camera, and a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3× optical zoom, alongside a 12 MP front‑facing camera. The camera hardware specifications are unchanged from the Galaxy S25 and S25+. The Galaxy S26 Ultra features a quad‑camera system comprising a 200 MP primary camera with an f/1.4 lens, a 50 MP ultrawide camera, a 10 MP 3× telephoto, and a 50 MP periscope telephoto with 5× optical zoom. Compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the primary camera aperture widens from f/1.7 to f/1.4, and the 5× telephoto aperture widens from f/3.4 to f/2.9. The Galaxy S Ultra series introduces the new All Lens On Prism (ALoP) mechanism powering its 5× telephoto camera, instead of the traditional periscope lens found in previous models. On the software side, all models incorporate Samsung's ProVisual Engine for image processing and include a Horizon Lock option within the Super Steady video stabilization mode. Horizon Lock keeps the horizon level during video recording when the device is tilted or rotated, including rotations of up to 360 degrees. The mode supports recording at resolutions of up to 4K.
Batteries The Galaxy S26 models have similar battery capacities to the S25 series, except for the smallest model (which now has a slight increase of 300 mAh). For the first time in the series, each of the three devices now offer a distinct wired charging speed: the S26 supports up to 25 W, the S26+ accepts 45 W, and the S26 Ultra arrives to 60 W, with the latter marking the highest wired charging speed ever featured on a Galaxy smartphone. All three support Qi2.2 inductive charging up to 25 W, and can charge other Qi-compatible devices wirelessly using battery power. Although the devices support Qi 2.2, they lack built-in magnets (required by the Qi standard), due to potential interference with the vertical camera array (on the three devices) and the S Pen on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Memory and storage Like its predecessor, all Galaxy S26 models were launched with 12 GB of RAM. The three models now start at 256 GB, dropping the 128 GB option previously available for the base model. The 1 TB version of the S26 Ultra has 16 GB of RAM, and is available worldwide.
Connectivity All models in the Galaxy S26 series, support 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, and USB Type-C 3.2 for data transfer and charging. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is supported only on the S26+ and S26 Ultra models.
Software The Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra came pre-installed with Android 16 and Samsung's custom One UI 8.5 software overlay and Samsung has promised 7 years of security patches and OS upgrades, which is similar to the previous flagships, the S24 and S25 series, eventually ceasing to receive updates in March 2033.
References
External links
Galaxy S26 & S26+ – official website Galaxy S26 Ultra – official website