It’s an undeniable fact that the Galaxy Ultra series has been recycling old specs for years. It’s also a fact that the changes made are minimalist compared to those made by Chinese manufacturers. Another fact is that Samsung’s focus lately has been on software that is supported for longer and is exclusive for a period of time. So this year they finally dare to offer new features but is it all too late?
SPECIFICATIONS
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
6.9″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen, LTPO
WQHD+, 120Hz, HDR10+
Corning Gorilla Armor 2
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor for Galaxy (3nm)
2x Oryon V3 Phoenix L 4.74 GHz chips
6 x Oryon V3 Phoenix M 3.62 GHz
Adreno 840 GPU
RAM 12/16GB LPDDR5x
12GB virtual Memory
Storage 512/1000 GB UFS 4.0
Main Camera 200MP f/1.4, OIS (Wide Angle)
50MP f/1.9 (Ultra Wide Angle)
10MP f/2.4, OIS (3X Telephoto)
50MP f/2.9, OIS (5X Telephoto)
Front Camera 12 MP f/2.2
5000 battery mAh
Wired charging 60W
Wireless charging 25W
Reverse 4.5W
Dual SIM/Telephony/5G
NFC Yes
Audio jack No
Waterproof IP68
Ultrasonic under-screen fingerprint scanning system
Face scanning
Price RM 6799 (12/512GB)
RM 7999 (16/1000GB)
SCREEN
The screen is a 6.9″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz LTPO and HDR10+ support. Same as. last year with thin bezels, DX anti-reflective coating and built-in S-Pen stylus support. The color display is bright and beautiful. Under bright sunlight, the screen is bright enough to see. There is an anti-reflective coating that helps the screen to look clearer.
This year's hero is the Privacy Display system that makes it difficult for people next to you to peek or spy on the screen. It works as advertised with two setting modes that can be activated. The first mode is only activated on certain applications, received notifications, password screen or entering the lock screen pattern. The second mode increases the level of privacy by activating it all the time.
This feature is useful for those who take public transportation to work or hate having their screen seen by colleagues. However, when Privacy Display is activated all the time, the screen color looks a little dark and the brightness is reduced.
BIOMETRICS
An ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is placed under the screen with its position making it easy to scan fingers when needed. Quite ergonomic, especially when the device is used only in one hand. The facial scanning system is also fast and accurate. In slightly dark conditions it is still quite capable of detecting faces.
Only in pitch darkness does the face need to be close to the camera so that the screen light can illuminate the face. Both biometric systems work quickly but only the fingerprint scan can be used for banking applications or account identity verification such as Google.
DESIGN
The corners of the phone are becoming more rounded and little by little the boxy DNA of the Galaxy Note is being eroded. I just admit that I prefer the square screen and body design because it looks more solid, beautiful and unique. There aren't many devices with a square body without rounded corners on the market.
The titanium frame is no longer continued as we return to the Armor Aluminum introduced three years ago. The device feels a little heavier but is still comfortable in the hand. As a user of durable frames, I don't miss the loss of the titanium frame. I still believe it's just a gimmick borrowed from Apple.
The boxy body on the sides provides ample finger space. On the right side are the audio adjustment button and the power button that also summons Google Gemini/Bixby. On the top is the microphone button. The upper speaker grille is placed near the selfie camera hole.
Meanwhile, below is the S-Pen storage compartment, dual NANO SIM tray, USB-C charging port and another speaker grille. USB-C supports fast USB 3.2 data transfer and DisplayPort 1.2 output allows Samsung DeX desktop mode to be used on a monitor or TV.
Because of the increasingly rounded corners, the back of the S Pen is now slightly tilted to follow the shape of the body. If the S Pen is not attached in the correct orientation, it will look strange. This is why the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Ultra have been boxy in their bodies to avoid issues like this.
The rear camera consists of a 200MP wide-angle lens, a 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 50MP periscope 5X telephoto and a 10MP 3X telephoto. On the front, a 12MP sensor is used again. The only improvement is in the lens, which is now faster than the S25 Ultra. The three vertically arranged cameras are now placed in an oval-shaped camera bump like the one used on the Z Fold7 and last year's Galaxy A series.
Next to the other two cameras is a sensor for NFC. There is no NFC logo placed like the Sony Xperia but the reader should know to facilitate card payments using Samsung Wallet and add value to the Touch n’ Go card. The back panel is made of polycarbonate material to support Qi wireless charging. There is no built-in magnet like on the iPhone so you need to buy a frame with a magnet if you want the S26 Ultra to be more compatible with the MagSafe charging system.
The body of the device also passes the IP68 dust and water resistance standards. It is awkward to see Samsung once again offering only IP68 while Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Tecno and Honor have been offering IP69 devices for the past two years.
USAGE AND SOFTWARE
The One UI 8.5 operating system is used and it is based on Android 16 with visible changes to the icons, menu arrangement on the application tray, quick shortcut tray design and various other iconography that are now getting closer to Google Pixel.
Appearance customization, lock screen and widget shapes now use the Material 3 Expressive design introduced last year. Samsung's identity is still in the design of quick shortcuts and Side Panel that allows applications and some additional features to be accessed. For those who have (or have) used Samsung devices, this is nothing new, it is just continued to be supported.
One big change that is useful is in Screen Recorder. It now allows only certain parts of the screen to be recorded. Let's say you only want to record a Hari Raya announcement on YouTube, Screen Recorder automatically records only the part of the YouTube/TikTok/Reels video that is being watched. You no longer need to edit and crop using Gallery like before. As a hardcore Screen Recorder user, this feature is very useful even though it is not advertised by Samsung.
Gemini is becoming more useful with better integration of Samsung and Google applications. But the most interesting feature of Gemini is still not available in Malaysia. At launch, the Google Personal Intelligence AI agent feature was shown. It becomes an AI agent that can call Uber services or buy goods online with just voice commands.
All of this is very interesting because it is what Apple has promised but has not yet offered to everyone. Personal Intelligence is currently only available to S26 users living in the United States and South Korea. Samsung has not given a timeline for when it will arrive in other countries. Two years ago we were promised Malay support would arrive in the near future. Until now it has not arrived with only Indonesian being provided.
The AI Now Brief feature that provides a daily summary in the morning, afternoon, evening and late at night. It provides a daily agenda, weather forecast, summary of health status and sleep patterns. For those who want to see their daily summary locally, this is a useful feature before starting or ending the day.
There is also a Now Bar that displays real-time information such as football results directly from the lock screen. It can be seen as Dynamic Island but with an oval balloon at the bottom of the screen. It is just a Google Chrome notification that is now larger and more noticeable. The Now Bar can also control the music that is being streamed. It is still not 100% like Dynamic Island because there is no real-time Grab notification feature like there is on iPhone and Oppo devices.
Samsung continues its promise to offer 7 Android version updates and 7 years of security patches. Currently, only Samsung, Google and Honor provide long-term support for their devices. This is becoming increasingly important as the price of devices is increasing due to the RAM crisis, which means that they need to be used for longer. Speaking of RAM, the device is offered with a choice of 12GB or 16GB of RAM. If this is not enough, RAM Plus can add 2, 4, 6, 8 or 12GB of memory virtually.
Chat Assist can still automatically convert typed texts to the selected language before sending them via WhatsApp and Messages. Note Assist can automatically summarize generated documents for those who do not have enough time to read.
Photo and video editing using AI has also been improved. Images generated in Photo Studio look more realistic than last year with a wider selection of styles. In video recording, Audio Eraser can automatically remove background noise. This is especially useful if you are recording outdoors and you do not want the video to be deleted by the platform for violating the copyright of the song being played.
Audio Eraser can also be activated when watching YouTube videos or other streaming platforms. Videos that were previously noisy will now be more comfortable to watch as it filters out noisy audio in real time. This is a technology that exists in Samsung smart TVs and is now also offered on their flagship phones.
BENCHMARKS
As usual, I used four benchmarking apps to see how the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy on the S26 Ultra performed. The scores recorded were then compared to phones with chips such as the list below.
Xiaomi 17 – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Realme GT8 Pro – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
iQOO 15 – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Honor Magic8 Pro – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Vivo X300 Pro – Dimensity 9500
OnePlus 15 – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Oppo Find X9 Pro – Dimensity 9500
Apple iPhone 17 Pro – A19 Pro
AnTuTu 3D
Score Device
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 3,136,285
Xiaomi 17 3,530,586
Realme GT8 Pro 3,066,488
iQOO 15 3,726,305
Honor Magic8 Pro 3,424,247
Vivo X300 Pro 3,507,869
OnePlus 15 3,720,096
Oppo Find X9 Pro 3,472,342
Apple iPhone 17 Pro 2,634,345
Geekbench 6
Single Core Multi Core Device
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 3651 10,819
Xiaomi 17 3294 9416
Realme GT8 Pro 3482 8153
iQOO 15 3480 9789
Honor Magic8 Pro 3587 9853
Vivo X300 Pro 3507 10469
OnePlus 15 3553 10484
Oppo Find X9 Pro 3158 9298
Apple iPhone 17 Pro 3560 8835
3DMark Wildlife Extreme
Chip Score
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 7375
Xiaomi 17 5491
Realme GT8 Pro 5461
iQOO 15 6788
Honor Magic8 Pro 7659
Vivo X300 Pro 7075
OnePlus 15 6741
Oppo Find X9 Pro 6127
Apple iPhone 17 Pro 5873
The device's user experience is very fast and smooth in line with the benchmark scores noted above. The flagship device powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 does not disappoint in terms of performance running common applications or high-performance tasks. Despite only being equipped with 12GB of RAM (compared to the Chinese device with 16GB of RAM) I feel that it does not have a major impact on performance.
Games like COD Mobile, Wuthering Waves and Genshin Impact can all be played on high settings without any major issues. The device still gets a bit warm but I feel it is not to the point where it is uncomfortable to hold in the hand.
CAMERA
The main camera consists of a 200MP f/1.4 wide-angle lens (OIS), a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide-angle, a 10MP f/2.4 3X telephoto (OIS) and a 50MP f/2.9 periscope telephoto (OIS). This is paired with a 12MP f/2.2 front camera. There is no change in sensor size but the wide-angle lens and periscope zoom on the S26 Ultra are faster than the S25 Ultra.
Let’s start with what I like. The camera has a very stable zoom mode and is the easiest to use on Android. Other devices may have 100X zoom but the process of placing an object in the viewfinder is easiest on Samsung devices because they are the ones who make the sensor and they pioneered extreme zoom in the smartphone industry.
The photos taken are beautiful in a variety of situations and regardless of lighting levels. The HDR mode is excellent at balancing dark and bright areas. In terms of portrait mode, it is increasingly clever at differentiating objects from the background. The camera is fast and very useful because it has four different lenses.
I use the Document Scan feature most often to get work done. Even if I'm sitting on the side of the stage, when this feature is activated, the picture will be flattened like I'm right in front of the stage without errors. It's also very useful when you need to scan news broadcast documents, MyKads and receipts to make expense claims at the end of the month. This feature is available on other devices but Samsung's system is the most consistent, easy and robust. You can see for yourself below the sample I managed to capture.
But let me quibble a little about the negatives. I use a Samsung phone for "Samsung recipe" photos. I like the photos to be processed even though they look unnatural and sharp. This is what I want in a work camera. No need to edit the photos using Photoshop before using them in an article.
On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung is moving more towards Apple. Photos that look natural but boring. Need to be edited to look pop and beautiful. I don't like Apple-style cameras and Samsung's decision to follow Apple's lead is disappointing.
Xiaomi has Leica style, Realme has Ricoh style, Oppo has Hasselblad, Vivo has Zeiss and Huawei even has its own Xmage. Why does Samsung seem to be ashamed of Samsung's style that many of their fans never complain about? Follow the comments of Apple users who don't use your camera. Samsung needs to have more identity with its own color science, algorithms and flavors.
If it's really hard, put a "Classic Samsung Look" button like "Leica Original" on Xiaomi devices. This way Samsung fans can use the old algorithms they've loved for a long time.
Here are the photos taken at 1x, 3x, 10x, and 30x zoom settings. The photos taken still have a satisfactory level of sharpness up to 10X only. At the 30X setting, the image starts to break up and at 100X only I feel the image is completely unacceptable in quality.
BATTERY
The battery is still only 5000 mAh with charging increased to 60W compared to 45W last year. Wireless charging is 25W compared to 15W last year. A little faster and as a result the charging time is reduced from 80 minutes to 60 minutes at optimal temperature.
In heavier use, SOT up to 8-9 hours can be consistently achieved and in more casual use the device can last all day. Although the battery performance is still good, imagine if Samsung used a larger capacity battery it would be much better.
There have been rumors that Samsung has started testing producing their own high-capacity SiC batteries. There was no battery revolution this year and again we are waiting for it to happen next year.
COMPETITORS
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Xiaomi 17 Ultra Honor Magic8 Pro
6.9″ Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 2600 nit 6.9″ LTPO AMOLED, 120Hz
Dolby Vision, 3500 nits 6.71″ LTPO OLED, 120Hz
Dolby Vision, 6000 nits
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy (3nm)
2x Oryon V3 Phoenix L 4.74 GHz
6 xOryon V3 Phoenix M 3.62 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5(3nm)
2x Oryon V3 Phoenix L 4.6 GHz
6x Oryon V3 Phoenix M 3.62 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5(3nm)
2x Oryon V3 Phoenix L 4.6 GHz
6x Oryon V3 Phoenix M 3.62 GHz
Adreno 840 Adreno 840 Adreno 840
12/16 GB LPDRR5X 16 GB LPDRR5X 12/16 GB LPDDR5X
512/1000 GB UFS 4.0 512/1000 GB UFS 4.1 512/1000 GB UFS 4.1
Primary Camera
200MP f/1.4, OIS (Wide Angle)
50MP f/1.9 (Ultra Wide Angle)
10MP f/2.4, OIS (3X Telephoto)
50MP f/2.9, OIS (5X Telephoto) Primary Camera
50 MP, f/1.7 (Wide Angle), OIS
50 MP, f/2.2 (Ultra Wide),
200 MP, f/2.0-3.0 (Telephoto 4.3X), OIS
Main Camera Leica Lens
50MP f/1.6, OIS (Angle Wide)
50MP f/2.0 (Ultra Wide)
200MP f/2.6, OIS (3.7x Telephoto)
Front Camera
12 MP f/2.2 Front Camera
50 MP f/2.2 Front Camera
50MP f/2.0
IP68 IP69 IP69K
No audio jack No audio jack No audio jack
Audio Stereo Audio Stereo Audio Stereo
5000 mAh
Wired 80W
Wireless 25W
Reverse 4.5W 6000 mAh
Wired 90W
Wireless 50W
Reverse 10W 7100 mAh SiC
Wired charging 100W
Wireless charging 80W
Reverse charging 5W
RM 5,999 (12/256GB)
RM 6,799 (12/512GB)
RM 7,999 (16/1000GB) RM5,499 (16GB/512GB)
RM5,999 (16GB/512GB) RM4,599 (12/512 GB)
RM5,199 (16/1000 GB)
IN THE BOX
Here is what you get in the box with your purchase.
1x Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
1x USB-C to USB-C charging cable.
1x Manual.
1x SIM Pin.
CONCLUSION
The final fact in the review is that this year there is indeed a change that makes the S26 Ultra unique from other devices, namely the privacy screen technology used. The S26 Ultra is a very competent device for die-hard fans of the Samsung ecosystem because it is by default the best on the market right now. Software supported for a long time, various interesting additional features, the best S Pen in its class and finally faster charging (even if only 10 minutes faster).
But I can't say the camera system is better than the S25 Ultra even though the lens is faster to use. The image post-processing algorithm used by Samsung this year is too "Apple" for me who prefers Samsung-style photos. But if you really want a camera that takes Apple-style photos, the S26 Ultra will suit your taste.
Another thing is that the AI Personal Intelligence agent feature is only supported in the United States and South Korea? When will it arrive in Malaysia? No one knows. Promises may remain promises like Malay language support on Galaxy AI which has not yet arrived after waiting for 2 years.
In Malaysia, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at RM5999 (12/256GB) apiece in Pink Gold, Silver Shadow, Cobalt Violet, Black, Sky Blue and White color options.
Pros
A body design that is still solid despite returning to aluminum.
A unique and useful privacy screen feature.
One UI 8.5 is very smooth.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy offers elite-level power.
Support for 7 Android version updates and 7 years of security patches
Good battery life with faster charging.
Video stabilization mode is very useful.
Cons
Battery capacity is still small and charging is slow compared to competitors.
AI Agent navigation feature is not yet accessible in Malaysia.
Price increase due to RAM crisis.
