1. MY S26 ULTRA REVIEW

Few things have brought me as much enjoyment in recent months as sinking my teeth into the new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. I’ve been using it for several weeks now. I started with the assumption that it might not include many changes, which is true, but little by little it has won me over.

2. EVOLUTION OF EXPERIENCE

My experience has changed like the seasons. At first, when I saw the specifications, I was a bit underwhelmed, but with daily use, I’ve realized that some amazing features have emerged, and they make a big difference in everyday use.

3. DESIGN AND S PEN

The first thing I have to highlight is its design. I tested it in cobalt violet, and I find it a very elegant color. Samsung’s new smartphone is now a bit lighter and thinner than the S25 Ultra. It feels more compact in the hand, despite being a phone with a 6.9-inch screen, but its aesthetics follow the design language the South Korean brand has been using. Inside, it includes a redesigned S Pen, which also performs exceptionally well. It remains a very useful tool for taking notes, writing, or editing with AI.

4. SCREEN AND PRIVACY DISPLAY

Normally, I start by talking about the back of the phone, but this time I’m going to indulge myself by starting with the screen. A 6.9-inch LTPO AMOLED panel, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a very welcome Armor 2 anti-reflective coating. Above it, they’ve continued to use a 12-megapixel front camera, which is still high-resolution, but I find it a bit lacking for its price range. The important thing isn’t the screen itself, but what we can do with it once we turn it on. This is the main new feature, and it impressed me. Samsung has integrated the industry’s first Privacy Display. I tested it in public places, with people around me, and some even asked me if my phone was locked at that moment. We’ve already discussed what this new screen entails. Thanks to a slight modification in the pixel hardware, we can make the light only shine straight through, making it impossible to view from angles. It’s fantastic, although it’s true that the brightness is also reduced. Something that would be worth refining in the next generation.

5. PERFORMANCE AND AI

I really like it, and I’m sure it will be Samsung’s flagship feature throughout the launch campaign. Although I’d also highlight its performance and impressive speed. It incorporates the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, created and developed for Galaxy, the most powerful in the industry. And in my tests, it handles everything it throws at it with ease. It doesn’t matter if it’s multitasking tools, games, multimedia content, or AI-powered image editing. Whatever you throw at it, it performs equally well. I mentioned AI, and it’s worth repeating: Samsung continues to be one of the pioneering brands in integrating AI seamlessly and with features that are a lifesaver for many users. Among its new features, this time it includes image editing using only text. We can ask it, for example, to change the clothes in a photo of ourselves, to transport us to another place in the world, or any other idea that comes to mind, and it does it in a matter of seconds. I’m still surprised that this, which other companies already charge for, is offered for free.

6. BATTERY AND CAMERA

Where there aren’t any major changes is in its battery and camera system. The S26 Ultra again includes a 5000 mAh battery. Yes, it easily lasts all day, because it’s very well managed thanks, in part, to the redesigned vapor chamber. But a slight increase would have been nice. It also doesn’t include in-body magnetic charging, but it does have a new 60W fast charging. A small but welcome improvement, allowing the phone to go from 0% to 100% in about 45 minutes. As for its camera system, they haven’t gone overboard either. 200-megapixel main sensor, with a larger aperture, improving its brightness by 47%, a 50-megapixel telephoto lens, with 5x optical zoom and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens.

7. PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO

The sensors haven’t changed much because it takes photos and videos that continue to be a true fantasy. It is capable of capturing a wealth of detail and color, even at night. The new main sensor aperture and its Nightography system make images look better when the sun has gone down. In video, I have noticed a significant improvement in quality, capable of recording in 8K 30 fps, quite something. But the wonder comes with a stabilization that is a marvel. You can rotate the phone completely and the video still looks the same, thanks to the fact that it locks onto the horizon.

8. SOFTWARE AND VERDICT

On the software side, we find Android 16 with One UI 8.5, a layer that I think is perfect for models like the S26 Ultra. It integrates perfectly with AI and, as if that weren’t enough, it guarantees updates until 2033. It is true that the S26 Ultra continues in Samsung’s trend of continuity, that there are no loud novelties and that, if you have an S25 Ultra, it is not worth changing. Its price starts from 1,449 euros, with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. But it still seems to me one of the most complete Android phones in the entire framework, for power, cameras, AI, and screen. After two weeks of use, not recommending it seems impossible to me.