Samsung Galaxy S26 series – first impressions straight from the launch

All three phones in the S26 series have extended Ai where, according to Samsung, many things should be handled in the background without you as a user having to actively ask for it. We shall return to that.

Because we start with Ultra, which has got extra many features that the other two lack. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is thinner than its predecessor but it’s marginal and not immediately noticeable unless compared side by side in detail. As before, only the S26 Ultra in the series has support for a stylus, which is also integrated into the bottom corner of the phone as usual. Now, however, it is rounded in and nicely integrated into the rounded shape of the phone. The entire S26 series also has exactly the same style.

The S26 Ultra is the phone in the series that received a new type of privacy screen. It should therefore prevent curious people in the lift, public transport or other crowded places from sneaking a peek at what you see on the screen. What sets this apart from established filters is that this screen, using a mix of hardware and software, can partially or completely prevent people watching from the side from seeing what is being shown. At the same time, the viewing angle is not restricted when the function is not active. It works well, but takes a bit of the screen’s shine away when the function is active, even for those of you looking straight ahead.

If we look back in time, Samsung has alternately used its own Exynos chips, but in some cases and more recently Qualcomm’s Snapdragon in a special, tuned “for Galaxy” version. It has also differed between different parts of the world. Now the S26 Ultra gets Snapdragon, which can therefore be considered the more high-performing one, while the S26 and S26 Plus get Exynos. However, we should add that Samsung’s chip manufacturing has made progress and preliminary information suggests that the difference in performance is small and may even be in favor of the Exynos.

In any case, the S26 Ultra has a clear advantage in that it finally got a bit faster charging. Samsung lets us know that it is at 60 W and that this should mean that the phone charges 75 percent in 30 minutes. It is still slower than most competitors but faster than the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus which remain at 25 W. More notably, Samsung has not adopted the latest battery technology as Motorola, Oneplus, Honor, Xiaomi and others have done and therefore the S26 Ultra remains at 5000 mAh, significantly lower capacity than others.

Another area where the Ultra makes marginal improvements is the cameras, because there we get slightly larger apertures and thus potentially slightly better dark photos and videos, which I can also confirm after comparing side by side with the S25 Ultra in the dark parts of the demo area. The rest of the S26 series has the same cameras as the S25 series.

What all three phones have, for example, are three different Ai assistants, so Gemini has got company and competition. All three have their own words to wake up the services in question, but only one at a time can be accessed via hotkey. From the start it is Gemini, but it should be possible to change.

Samsung’s own Ai assistant has been refreshed and integrated into the phones. Among other things, Bixby should be able to help you with the settings in the phone, just describe what you want to change and Bixby will do it. Another AI service that has taken a place in S26 is Perplexity, which also has its own activation phrase, Hey Plex. It is also adapted for a couple of Samsung’s own apps and some third-party apps in the phone so it can be useful right away. Bixby does not know Swedish from the start, but uses Perplexity for answers that require a web search.

These two, Bixby and Perplexity, therefore take their place together with Google Gemini, because Samsung believes that most users today use several Ai services and not just one, so freedom of choice is in demand.

Samsung specifically says that AI should simplify everyday life and that you as a user should not have to think about the technology but only about what you want to do. It may seem contradictory when Samsung simultaneously integrates three assistants with different call words. There, Samsung promises to give advice on which assistant is best suited for different questions. In addition to these, we also get more AI that then works in the background. An example of that is what is called Now Nudge. If, for example, you receive a meeting invitation, the phone can immediately check if it conflicts with something in your calendar. In the same way, the phone’s AI acts proactively if a friend wants you to share pictures from a joint event, then the AI ​​looks up which pictures apply.

The S26 series can be pre-ordered now and the prices are

S26 (256 GB): SEK 11,990

S26 (512 GB): SEK 13,990

S26 Plus (256 GB): SEK 14,490

S26 Plus (512 GB): SEK 16,990

S26 Ultra (256 GB): SEK 16,990

S26 Ultra (512 GB): SEK 18,990

S26 Ultra (1TB): SEK 22,490