Samsung’s high flagship smartphone for 2026 has lastly arrived, but it surely won’t be the monumental improve we had been all hoping for, a minimum of on paper. After some hands-on time forward of Unpacked, nonetheless, I could be flawed.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely has a really comparable spec sheet to final 12 months’s S25 Extremely, and the S24 Extremely earlier than that. The display specs are basically unchanged, the battery is similar dimension, and it doesn’t look dramatically completely different, both.
What’s new, by way of {hardware}, is the specifically tuned Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy SoC, which ought to make a noticeable distinction on the subject of gaming and heavy computational workloads.
Luke Baker
There’s additionally a barely wider aperture on the primary digital camera and 5x telephoto, which ought to enhance low-light digital camera efficiency considerably. And it prices faster, now supporting 65W speeds with a wire (up from 45W) and 25W wirelessly (up from 15W), although not with Qi2 magnets built-in as many may have hoped for.
In fact, we additionally get a number of new colors. The S26 Extremely is on the market in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, or White, with Silver Shadow and Pink Gold out there completely on Samsung’s web site.
Samsung is asking it the “slimmest Extremely ever”, however after evaluating it aspect by aspect with my S25 Extremely, the distinction is so slight that you just’ll wrestle to note. It’s 7.9mm down from 8.2mm, however does nonetheless have the S Pen inbuilt.
All of those upgrades are welcome, however they’re in all probability not sufficient to make you rush out and purchase the most recent mannequin. Don’t fear, although, as a result of the spec sheet solely tells a part of the story, and Samsung’s software program experience brings loads of cool options that you just gained’t discover wherever else.
Luke Baker
Meet Privateness Show
Samsung’s new Privateness Show is undoubtedly essentially the most distinctive and thrilling function to reach with the S-series telephones in years, and it’s unique to the Extremely. Truly, it’s unique to any cellphone in the meanwhile.
This intelligent new know-how dims the pixels on the cellphone’s show once they’re seen off-axis, however leaves them seen from the entrance. This implies anybody viewing your cellphone from an angle gained’t have the ability to see what you’re .
We’ve seen comparable results from display protectors and movies that may be utilized to your display, however this one is software-enabled and may be toggled on and off within the fast settings menu. What makes it even cooler, although, is that it may be confined to particular areas of the show in addition to particular apps, like for banking.
So, for instance, you possibly can apply Privateness Show to your pop-up notifications solely, or simply to cowl your passcode, whereas the remainder of your display behaves usually.
It’s a extremely spectacular impact, and it’s not only a get together trick. Who hasn’t clocked somebody glancing at their messages on the prepare? With Privateness Show, worries about prying eyes are a factor of the previous.
Samsung arguably has the most effective number of native productiveness instruments amongst Android manufacturers, however with the S26 sequence, the providing turns into much more compelling.
Now Temporary, which was launched with the S25 sequence, continues to enhance, offering extra personalised updates primarily based in your habits and routines. There’s additionally a brand new addition referred to as Now Nudge, which is a function constructed into Samsung’s keyboard.
Luke Baker
It’s accessed in an analogous strategy to the standard predictive textual content choices on the high of the keyboard, but it surely’s contextually conscious and may pull in knowledge from elsewhere in your cellphone.
As an illustration, for those who get a message asking “do you’ve gotten the images from final evening?”, Now Nudge can routinely discover images in your gallery and can recommend sending them as a reply. It additionally works with issues like contact particulars, calendar occasions, and extra.
Name Screening is one other neat addition. Basically, the S26 Extremely can reply cellphone calls from an unknown quantity, and can ask who is asking and why utilizing an AI voice. You’ll then see the data in your display, and you may determine whether or not you need to reply or not.
There’s additionally a brand new doc scanning app, which makes use of AI to scrub up moiré and imperfections, in addition to a screenshots app that may routinely categorise and organise your screenshots into an simply searchable format – a bit like Google’s personal Screenshots app.
Luke Baker
Lastly, Audio Eraser, which was launched final 12 months as a strategy to take away distracting background sounds out of your movies, now works for content material consumption, fairly than simply creation. You should use it with apps like Netflix and YouTube, boosting dialogue and eradicating background noise. I didn’t see this one coming, and it might show very helpful.
New digital camera capabilities
Whereas the digital camera specs haven’t modified too dramatically, the actual digital camera upgrades are hidden elsewhere.
One of many options I discovered most fun is the brand new Horizon Lock stabilisation mode. With the mode enabled, you possibly can spin the digital camera 360 levels and be as shaky as you want, and the ensuing video will hold the horizon completely straight.
It might be a game-changer for filming motion sports activities content material, as your movies will look gimbal-smooth, even for those who’re hurtling down the aspect of a mountain.
Luke Baker
Samsung has additionally made important modifications to the selfie digital camera picture processing. It now makes use of the identical enhanced AI ISP and Object Conscious Engine because the rear cameras, offering far more correct topic cutout and depth results when taking selfies in Portrait Mode.
Final, however definitely not least, Samsung is introducing its new APV codec for skilled video work. That is basically Samsung’s reply to Apple’s ProRes, providing near-lossless compression on your video information.
I’m actually wanting ahead to testing this one correctly, it ought to supply far better flexibility when enhancing and color grading – and it really outdoes the iPhone, as a result of it really works at 8K, whereas Apple continues to be caught at 4K.
Luke Baker
Beefed-up Bixby
Keep in mind Bixby? Samsung’s voice assistant has been enjoying second fiddle to Google’s Gemini for the previous few years, however with the S26 sequence telephones, you would possibly end up calling on Bixby extra usually.
Bixby has been reshaped as an “Clever System Agent”, which implies it really works extra like an LLM. The important thing distinction is that Bixby has entry to extra of your cellphone’s options.
As an illustration, you possibly can ask Bixby to vary a setting, like activate Privateness Show or change the brightness, and it’ll do it with no need to dive right into a settings menu.
Luke Baker
You can even ask Bixby about what your cellphone is able to and find out how to entry sure options. When there’s this a lot performance jammed into a tool, I can see that being fairly useful.
Galaxy S26 Extremely first impressions
As a photographer and {hardware} geek, I have to admit, I used to be initially fairly underwhelmed by the Galaxy S26 Extremely. Nonetheless, after making an attempt it out, I began to see the potential.
The brand new cellphone comes with tons of small quality-of-life enhancements, and I’ve a sense that while you add all of them up, you’ll find yourself with an expertise that shall be fairly arduous to rival.
The digital camera modifications may additionally be extra impactful than they first seem. I’m particularly excited concerning the potentialities the brand new APV codec will unlock, and anybody who movies action-packed scenes may have a good time with the brand new horizon lock stabilisation. Picture processing tweaks might show transformative for selfie portraits, too. We’ll solely know for positive as soon as we put it by means of its paces.
Luke Baker
As is all the time the case with primarily software-based options, although, I can’t assist however marvel what number of of those will trickle right down to the S25 Extremely (and maybe even older units). We do know, a minimum of, that the spectacular Privateness Show is hardware-enabled, so for those who’re eager on that, upgrading to the S26 Extremely is the one strategy to get it.
I can’t wait to spend extra time with the S26 Extremely; it’ll be actually fascinating to see how significant these modifications are in real-world use.
Keep tuned for our full assessment, and for those who’re eager on selecting one up, the S26 Extremely will go on basic sale beginning 11 March from £1,279, however you possibly can pre-order now with offers reminiscent of double the storage.