The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra looks a little different from last year’s premium phone with slightly rounder corners and a raised platform for the camera array. There’s also a few new colors including the lushly crepuscular Cobalt Violet.
Also, instead of different colors for all the different tiers, all three variants of the S26 series will come in the same six colors.
Inside is where most of the changes appear. There’s a new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, so expect a performance bump over last year. A new vapor chamber will help keep the device cool as it handles more demanding tasks.
The battery capacity didn’t change (still 5,000 mAh), but it will now refill faster with an upgrade to Samsung’s Super Fast Charging 3.0 technology that delivers up to 60-watt speeds. Charging wirelessly is faster now, too, but sadly, none of the phones will come with the magnetic attachment feature that the new Google phones received.
The camera specs remain largely the same with a 50MP ultrawide, 200MP wide and two telephoto lenses on the back, as well as a 12MP selfie cam on the front. But wider apertures now allow more light to reach the sensor for more detail in lower light situations.
But the best thing to stay the same as last year is the price. The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,300 for 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage. You pre-order at Amazon, Best Buy, directly from Samsung or from carriers like Verizon.