Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review: A Private Screen Only Goes So Far

The Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy S-series phone, needed a gimmick to give it extra oomph over premium devices like the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Google Pixel 10 Pro. So that’s exactly what Samsung did with the phone’s “Privacy display” feature that, with the tap of a button, makes it harder or nearly impossible for anyone to peep at your screen.

The Privacy display feature works as advertised, and it’s more than just a hardware-level privacy screen protector, but it’s not without some minor tradeoffs. The rest of the Galaxy S26 Ultra is as you’d expect: feature-packed but not exactly groundbreaking. The phone is slimmer and lighter (though the camera bump and rings remain massive), so it feels better to use and slip into a pocket. The cameras take excellent photos and video. And I’ve got nothing to complain about for performance and battery life.

For a phone that starts at $1,300 and has it all—including a built-in stylus—I felt pretty indifferent while reviewing it. To be fair, I could say the same for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Pixel 10 Pro, and any other premium phone. These are all just better versions of previous models. Unless you’re upgrading from a much older phone, in which case all of the features might really wow you, the only temptation to get the Galaxy S26 Ultra is for the Privacy display feature, but the novelty may quickly wear off.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is once again Samsung's best non-folding smartphone and our favorite flagship Android phone of 2026 so far, but it lacks any standout feature.

Part of the reason why phones—flagship phones in particular—are now so forgettable is that they’re mainly a specs-bump upgrade. The changes are mostly internal and hard to notice, especially year over year.

You might look at a chart and think the Galaxy 26 Ultra is basically identical to the S25 Ultra, considering it shaves off only 0.3mm in thickness and only sheds 4g in weight. Those numbers can’t tell you how the phone feels, and boy, does the Galaxy S26 Ultra feel so much better than Samsung’s previous flagship.

The corners are now rounded to match the design language of the S26 and S26+, and the frame feels less chunky in the hand thanks to the change from titanium alloy in the midframe to Samsung’s “Armor” aluminum. The hand-feel really makes all the difference when you’re picking up the phone hundreds of times a day, holding it up to snap photos during a concert, or backpocketing it. The aluminum frame has been plenty durable, and resistant to water and dust thanks to its IP68 rating. Apple also switched from titanium to a