Samsung officially confirmed the February 25 launch date for the Galaxy S26 series and is now accepting pre-reservations – this is just a promo campaign that offers a $30/€30 discount if you sign up for an email notification. We will talk about prices later, but first let’s look at what’s new.
It goes without saying that this isn’t based on official information. Here is a list of all the most plausible rumors concerning the upcoming flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (speculative renders, source)
Privacy display
Privacy displays are nothing new – some laptops have them, but there it is an “all-or-nothing” affair. Either all of the screen is fully visible or all of it has restricted viewing angles so that you can see it head-on, but people peeking over your shoulder can’t see anything.
Samsung has come up with a way to control this on a per-pixel level – the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (and only the Ultra, to hell with the other two models) will be able to set popups with sensitive info to “private”, which will make it hard or next to impossible for others to read, say, the unlock code you have received over text.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra will have a Privacy Display feature
One UI 8.5 will have smart controls over when this feature is active. For example, it can be fully disabled when you are at home and it can then get automatically enabled when you go out.
The S26 Ultra will bring other display upgrades too, some of which are long overdue. It will feature a 10-bit display panel. Yes, Samsung’s flagships have been using 8-bit panels all this time, even though Samsung Display sells some of the very best OLED panels in the industry to Samsung’s competitors.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra will have a new high-strength glass
Additionally, the Ultra will debut a new high-strength Gorilla Glass. Presumably, this is a new formulation of the Gorilla Glass Armor, which features a special and exclusive anti-reflection layer (again, the S and S+ models are second-class citizens).
Those things aside, it will be a 6.9” display with 1-120Hz refresh rate (LTPO) and 1440p+ resolution.
Magnetic charging, sort of
Samsung has adopted the stripped-down version of the Qi2 Magnetic Profile – wireless charging with a magnetically-attached charger is supported, but the phones themselves will not have built-in magnets.
Magnetic cases for the Galaxy S26 series
If you want to use magnetic chargers – and the various other magnetic accessories such as car mounts – you will need to buy a special case with embedded magnets. Such cases already exist for older S models, so you may be wondering what has changed.
Well, not much on the magnet front, but the charging hardware did get some upgrades.
60W wired charging, 25W wireless
Samsung phones have had a hard cap of 45W wired charging for a few years now. This is finally changing, though only by the smallest step – the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra will support 60W charging.
Early results have been less than impressive – an S26 Ultra test unit allegedly managed a 0% to 75% charge in 30 minutes. This is barely faster than the old S25 Ultra, which got to 72% in 30 minutes. We’ll talk about the battery in the next section, but let’s just say that it will be a short section.
The company already launched a new 60W charger dubbed the “Samsung 60W Power Adapter” (model number EP-T6010NBEGWW). It supports USB-PD (5V, 15V and 20V) and PPS (5-20V) at up to 3A. Its standby power draw is a very low 5mW.
The new 60W adapter that can max out the Galaxy S26 Ultra
Samsung will also bump up the wireless charging to 25W, up from the previous 15W. We haven’t seen leaked tests for that yet, but we’re not expecting miracles.
A Qi2 Samsung power bank leaked last month. The EB-U2500 supports 15W wireless output and up to 20W input over USB-C. There’s a built-in kickstand and a bar of LEDs that shows the battery charge.
A new magnetic battery for the Galaxy S26 series
This magnetic battery is expected to sell for €60 in Europe. The most interesting thing about it is its weird shape – the cutouts at the top are presumably to allow the battery to rotate 270° without bumping into the camera lenses.
Same 5,000mAh battery
You may expect that the faster charging is the result of a bigger battery. You may expect that Samsung will adopt some of that Silicon-Carbon magic that has resulted in massive battery gains over the last 12 months or so.
Well, you’d be wrong – the latest information on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra battery is that it will have 5,000mAh capacity. That’s the same as all S Ultra models so far. Yes, even the first-ever model, the S20 Ultra. If that doesn’t put it into perspective, Samsung discontinued the S21 Ultra last week – it’s that old.
We did hear some rumors of a bump to 5,200mAh, but even if those rumors somehow prove to be true, the 200mAh increase will be negligible compared to what competing brands (at least the ones not named “Apple” or “Google”) have managed with their latest models.
All Snapdragon, no Exynos
As usual, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will receive special treatment – it will use the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in all regions. Some early reports indicated that all S26 models sold in Korea will use the Exynos 2600 instead, but recent Geekbench results have put those speculations to bed. It’s all Snapdragon, everywhere. The US model was also benchmarked with a Snapdragon. That is for the Ultra, of course. The S26 and S26+ will be getting Exynos in some regions.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra will use a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in all markets
It’s not quite clear whether this Snapdragon will be a “for Galaxy” variant, which is what we’ve had in previous generations, or what that would entail. These specifics will be cleared up on launch day.
There is nothing new to report on memory – the phone will have 12GB of RAM with a 16GB option along with three storage tiers, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.
Minor camera upgrades
The Galaxy S26 Ultra will have a 200MP main camera, a 10MP 3x mid-range telephoto, a longer 5x periscope with a 50MP sensor (f/2.8, 1/2.52”) and a 50MP ultra-wide (f/1.9, 1/2.5”).
We’d say that there are no changes from the S25 Ultra, but there are – the 10MP 3x tele module will have a smaller 1/3.94” sensor, compared to 1/3.52” on last year’s Ultra.
The old Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra camera setup
The camera lenses are said to have a special coating that reduces lens flare, but that’s a fairly minor improvement for a year of development.
As for the main camera, it is said to have a wider f/1.4 aperture. There was some talk of Samsung bringing back the variable aperture system it used in the Galaxy S9 and S10, but it’s not clear whether that made it into the final design.
S Pen
Sorry for the terse headline on this section, but it covers all that we have to say about the stylus.
S Pen in matching colors
Some were speculating that magnets interfere with the S Pen’s operation and that was why Samsung hadn’t adopted magnetic Qi charging. Whether that’s true or not, the S Pen remains a trademark feature of the S Ultra and will be present in the 2026 edition too – with no new features to report, but (thankfully) no cutbacks either (we all remember what happened last year).
Year of the Linux terminal
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra may have a full Linux terminal on board. This will be a boon for all developers that use DeX for work – and all those developers can probably fit in one room.
Jokes aside, this is a more meaningful change than it first may appear. The issue was with the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF) that was required for the Linux terminal to run. This one is on Qualcomm as Snapdragon chips just don’t support AVF – Tensor, Exynos and Dimensity chips do, Snapdragon chips are missing a critical feature.
It’s not clear how Samsung will manage to circumvent this issue, but if it does, it may open up the door for Linux apps to run on the Ultra (without requiring workarounds).
“Something smarter”
Samsung is already teasing the upcoming Galaxy S26 lineup and it sounds like new AI features will be a major part of the upcoming Unpacked presentation.
That feeling when you can see into the future. 😌
🔮 What do you see in our future? pic.twitter.com/zA7XVAIzf3
— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) February 9, 2026
This will include a smarter Bixby with agentic AI capabilities – this means that it will be able to interact with apps (HERE Maps, Uber, The Weather Channel, etc.) and carry out tasks just like you could, but without you having to actually do anything other than give the command.
Bixby with AI
Design
Another terse headline – Samsung will add a small raised area around the camera lenses this generation, but this may be purely decorative like the larger camera lens rings on the S25 Ultra. Remember, the phone will use essentially the same camera hardware underneath.
Galaxy S26 Ultra in Cobalt Violet
Okay, okay, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to be a bit slimmer and lighter at 7.9mm and 214g, down from 8.2mm and 218g on the S25 Ultra. Cool. Can we renegotiate that 200mAh battery bump that isn’t happening? Because we’re not sure that we can feel a 4g difference. 200mAh may be more tangible.
Anyway, you can see the raised area better in this leaked poster:
According to Evan Blass, the S26 Ultra will be available in these colors: Black, White, Silver Shadow, Sky Blue, Cobalt Violet and Pink Gold. The one pictured above is Cobalt Violet.
Price
The base 12/256GB Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to launch at the same price as the 2025 Ultra, i.e. €1,470. The 512GB and 1TB models may get small price bumps, however.
Keeping prices level is good, considering that the skyrocketing memory prices will significantly affect the smartphone business – Samsung is already warning of possible price hikes.
The S26 series will likely launch with the same pre-order perks as usual, i.e. a free storage upgrade, extra trade-in credit and the pre-reservation bonus.
Full (rumored) specs for the Galaxy S26 Ultra
