Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review: Still the most comprehensive Android with welcome improvements

Every year, Samsung asks itself how many innovations are enough to make customers swap last year’s Ultra for this year’s. For the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the answer is surprisingly honest: not many, but where you’ll feel it. A display no one else can see. A camera that lets in almost half as much light at night. Charging that finally leaves the six-year ceiling of 45 watts. And around that, a lot of artificial intelligence, most of which is genuinely useful — if you speak English, that is. The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at 35,699 CZK, and after two weeks of testing, I have a pretty clear idea of who it’s for and who it isn’t.

Rounded corners and the end of the titanium era

This year, Samsung did something surprisingly many people wished for since the S24 Ultra — it rounded the corners. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s design is closer to the base S26 model, and compared to the angular style of the Note era, it feels significantly more comfortable in hand. The thickness has dropped to 7.9 mm (from 8.2 mm on the S25 Ultra), and the weight to 214 grams (from 218 g). Numerically minor, but you’ll feel the difference instantly in your palm — the phone is more compact than you’d expect from a 6.9-inch display.

The titanium frame has been replaced by aluminum, specifically Armor Aluminum alloy. This allowed Samsung to unify the color of the frame and the back, making the phone appear more cohesive. It’s available in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, and White, with Silver Shadow and Pink Gold as online exclusives. My test Sky Blue looks fantastic — the white is almost vibrant and practically glows in hand.

The display is covered by Corning Gorilla Armor 2, and the back by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. IP68 resistance is a given. After two weeks without a case or screen protector, I don’t have a single scratch, but for a phone costing 36,000, I would still recommend a case — the surface is simply large, and aluminum is slippery.

The S Pen remains and is thinner than last year. The bottom edge is newly beveled to follow the phone’s curvature — a minor detail, but it means you have to pay attention to the correct orientation when inserting it, otherwise the pen protrudes slightly. Personally, I use the S Pen rarely, but I consider its presence in the Ultra model an important part of the series’ identity.

A nice bonus for those concerned with repairability: Samsung secured the battery using plastic pull-tabs, so its replacement doesn’t require aggressive chemicals or heat. Most internal modules, including cameras and speakers, are separate and easily accessible.

Privacy Display: a screen no one else can see

If there’s one thing that sets the S26 Ultra apart from everything else on the market, it’s the Privacy Display. It’s not a software trick or an applied film — Samsung integrated privacy protection directly into the hardware structure of the 120Hz AMOLED panel. The technology, internally referred to as Flex Magic Pixel, uses two types of pixels: standard “wide” pixels for normal viewing and “narrow” directional pixels that limit light emission to the sides.

In practice, it works in three modes. With Privacy Display off, the phone behaves like any other. Partial Privacy covers only incoming notifications with a black block. Maximum Privacy then darkens the entire display content for anyone looking from the side. Activation is via quick toggles, and the function can also be set for specific applications — typically banking or messages.

It’s a feature I demonstrate to everyone who asks what’s new on the phone. And the reactions are always the same — astonishment. On public transport or in a cafe, it makes more sense than you’d expect. Samsung points out that it’s not a 100% guarantee of invisibility, but as an additional layer of protection, it’s an ingenious solution.

However, there are two catches: when Privacy Display is on, the image is slightly dimmer and less saturated even when viewed from the front. In practice, I got used to it during the day and don’t perceive the difference during normal use, but you’ll see it in a direct comparison with the mode off.

Due to directional emission, Samsung also switched to circular pixels instead of the previous oval ones. Upon closer inspection, subtle pixelation is noticeable even with the privacy mode off. And more importantly, the panel is still 8-bit with FRC dithering (Frame Rate Control), which creates the illusion of shades that the hardware doesn’t natively support by rapidly switching colors. Marketing talks about “a billion colors,” but the reality is a sophisticated trick. For most users, this is irrelevant, but more sensitive individuals may experience greater eye strain, similar to more aggressive PWM dimming. Chinese competitors with native 10-bit panels are ahead in this regard.

ALoP Optics: a quiet revolution in the camera

The camera specifications on paper look familiar — a 200Mpx main sensor, a 50Mpx ultrawide, a 10Mpx 3× telephoto lens, and a 50Mpx 5× periscopic telephoto lens. The numbers are the same as on the S25 Ultra. However, the difference lies behind them, in the optics.

This year, Samsung implemented ALoP (All Lenses on Prism) technology, which fundamentally changes the internal arrangement of the telephoto lens. Classic periscopic systems stacked lenses vertically, which was limited by the phone’s thickness. ALoP allows for horizontal stacking of lenses directly on the prism, enabling Samsung to increase the optical diameter without increasing the module’s dimensions — in fact, it’s 22% smaller.

And what are the results? The main sensor received an aperture of f/1.4 (from f/1.7), which means a 47% increase in captured light. The 5x telephoto lens improved from f/3.4 to f/2.9, meaning 37% more light. In practice, you’ll feel this when shooting in low light and at night — images are cleaner, with less noise, because the sensor can work with lower ISO values.

Daytime photography is at the level you expect from Samsung — colors are accurate, dynamic range is consistent, and zooming to 10× still produces usable results with surprising detail. Portrait mode flawlessly separates the subject from the background, and skin tones appear natural. The ultrawide sensor with 50 Mpx, f/1.9, and dual PDAF focusing finally also works as a decent macro lens.

Tip for photographers: hidden 24Mpx mode and Camera Assistant

You won’t find this in tests, but it’s information that can fundamentally change the quality of your photos. In the Expert RAW app, there’s a 24Mpx mode that offers an optimal balance between detail and dynamic range. It avoids pixel binning artifacts in 12Mpx images and excessive noise in full 200Mpx resolution. If you shoot in RAW and want the maximum, this mode is the sweet spot.

The second tip concerns the Focus Enhancer feature. By default, when attempting macro photography, the phone automatically switches to the ultrawide lens, which produces flat images without depth of field. The solution is to install the Camera Assistant module (available for free in the Galaxy Store). In it, disable automatic lens switching. This allows you to force the use of the 3× or 5× telephoto lens for macro shots — the result is photos with professional bokeh and significantly better detail. Although the minimum focusing distance of the 5× telephoto lens has increased to approximately 52 cm (from 26 cm on the S25 Ultra), which is a trade-off for ALoP, it’s sufficient for everyday detailed shots.

Video: Horizon Lock replaces gimbal

The biggest new video feature is called Horizon Lock and it works within Super Steady mode. The principle is simple — no matter how you shoot with the phone, the horizon remains level. Even when rotated 360 degrees, the resulting video is stable, with at most a slight sway. The technology is inspired by action cameras and in practice eliminates the need for an external gimbal for regular dynamic shooting.

The Ultra also handles shooting in 8K at 30 fps and is the only S26 series model to support the APV format — a practically lossless video format that Samsung positions as a competitor to Apple ProRes. For regular users, APV doesn’t make much sense (files are huge), but for content creators, it’s a significant expansion of post-production possibilities.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: performance you don’t think about

The S26 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process. Two primary Oryon cores clocked at 4.61 GHz are complemented by six more efficient cores. Samsung reports a 39% increase in NPU performance, 24% in GPU, and 19% in CPU compared to its predecessor. Important note: The Ultra is the only S26 series model to receive Snapdragon even in the Czech Republic. The base S26 and S26+ run on Exynos 2600.

In benchmarks, the phone is at the top — Geekbench 6 single-core 3,733, multi-core 11,444, 3DMark Wild Life Extreme 7,587. In practice, however, its behavior under load is more important. Samsung completely redesigned the cooling to a four-layer system: a redesigned vapor chamber with 21% higher efficiency, a graphite pad and film for rapid heat dissipation to the aluminum frame, thermal pads on key components, and for the first time, more extensive use of thermal paste directly on the processor and memory chips — a technique more common in laptops than in phones.

The result? When playing demanding games or extended 4K video recording, the phone does get warm on the back, but there’s no dramatic performance throttling. The improvement over the S25 Ultra is noticeable.

Memory configurations start at 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage, with higher configurations offering 512 GB or 1 TB with 16 GB RAM. UFS 4.1 storage and LPDDR5X memory are the fastest you can currently get in a phone.

Battery: finally 60 watts, but capacity remains stagnant

Battery capacity remains at 5,000 mAh. In the context of Chinese flagships, which commonly offer 6,000–7,000 mAh thanks to silicon-carbon technology, this is a conservative choice. Samsung compensates for this with chipset and software efficiency, and it must be said that battery life in practice is above average — easily over one and a half days of normal use. On a day when I started with a full battery at 8 AM, the phone lasted until 11 PM the following day.

The main novelty is in charging. After six years at 45 watts, Samsung finally switched to 60W wired charging (Super Fast Charging 3.0). From zero to 76% in 30 minutes, full charge in 52 minutes. Wireless charging supports up to 25 W, which is also an improvement.

Weak point? Samsung once again did not integrate magnets for Qi2 into the S26 Ultra. No official explanation has been given, but technical analyses suggest that magnets could interfere with the S Pen digitizer. Thus, for magnetic accessories, you’ll need a third-party case. However, when Apple manages MagSafe even in the cheapest iPhone 17e, it’s a disappointment from Samsung.

One UI 8.5: AI agents that mostly stay silent in Czech

The Galaxy S26 Ultra runs on Android 16 with One UI 8.5 and a guarantee of 7 years of software and security updates. The software is the most ambitious part of this year’s generation — Samsung is moving from reactive assistants to proactive AI agents designed to anticipate your needs. Most of them work solidly. The problem lies elsewhere.

Now Nudge is the most interesting new feature. The system analyzes on-screen content and offers contextual suggestions — if someone texts you “send me photos from Barcelona,” a link directly to photos from that location will appear. If you arrange dinner on Friday, a calendar link with your free times will pop up. The concept is great and works surprisingly well in English. However, Now Nudge does not work in Czech, and Samsung has not yet announced a localization date.

Call Screening has the same problem — AI answers unknown calls for you, asks the caller for their name and reason, and transcribes the response live on the display. If it identifies the call as spam, it automatically ends it. The feature supports 13 languages, including Polish, but Czech is missing. The same applies to Scam Detection (real-time fraudulent call detection) — it currently only supports Korean with a planned expansion to English.

What does work in Czech, however: text writing assistant (generation, summaries, tone change, spell check), Circle to Search (now capable of searching for multiple objects at once), Document Scan (automatic document scanning with shadow and crease removal), AI photo edits in Gallery including text prompts, and screenshot categorization into eight categories. It’s now also possible to give photo editing commands by voice — for example, changing the color of clothing in a portrait or transforming a spring photo into a winter one works quickly and surprisingly accurately.

In addition to Bixby and Gemini, the system now also integrates the AI search engine Perplexity, which works across system applications and can be activated by holding the side button. Three assistants in one phone sounds like chaos, but in practice, their competencies overlap less than you might expect.

Audio Eraser now also works on videos from third-party apps like YouTube or Instagram — it mutes unwanted background sounds and amplifies voices. It’s more of a supplementary gadget than a daily-use feature, but it’s useful for emergency video editing with poor audio.

Good Lock: where Samsung still leads

For demanding users, Good Lock remains one of the strongest arguments for Samsung. In combination with One UI 8.5, new modules are added: LockStar allows manual adjustment of Always On Display brightness and adding custom texts or 3D effects to unlock animations. Home Up adds the ability to clean the share menu of unused applications and combine different Edge panels into one. QuickStar offers editing of the top panel in landscape mode and replacing system icons with custom images.

Compared to last year’s One UI 7, which received criticism for losing notification panel clarity, 8.5 is a step back towards usability. It’s not a return to previous perfection, but Samsung has at least stopped actively worsening what worked.

Czech prices and introductory offers

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is sold in the Czech Republic in the following configurations: 256 GB / 12 GB RAM for 35,699 CZK, 512 GB / 12 GB RAM for 40,599 CZK, and 1 TB / 16 GB RAM for 47,999 CZK. As part of an introductory offer, Samsung is offering a higher memory variant for the price of a lower configuration, trade-in for an old device, and a bonus for a review (Samsung Music Frame speaker or Samsung Jet 65 vacuum cleaner, limited quantities). Students with an ISIC card can get an additional 7% discount at selected retailers.

Final Verdict

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is not a phone that will amaze you with one big leap. It’s a phone that will convince you with a dozen smaller improvements, each of which makes sense. Privacy Display is a feature you didn’t know you wanted — and once you have it, you won’t want to give it up. ALoP optics advance night photography without increasing dimensions, 60W charging is finally respectable, and Horizon Lock in video eliminates the need for a gimbal.

On the other hand — a 5,000 mAh battery in 2026 seems conservative, the 8-bit panel with dithering is a compromise that Samsung doesn’t communicate sufficiently, the absence of Qi2 magnets is disappointing, and a large part of the AI features simply don’t work in Czech. If you have an S25 Ultra, the reason to upgrade is weak. However, if you’re switching from an older model or another brand, the S26 Ultra is currently the most complete Android phone on the market — with the caveat that you’ll pay for that completeness even where Samsung could have offered more.

Editor’s rating: 89%

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