Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus: Flagship Specs Comparison

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S26 series of phones at the company’s Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday. As suspected, the Galaxy S26 is the base model, the S26 Plus is the larger version of the S26 with more storage and battery, and the S26 Ultra is the most premium of the lot, offering higher-end specs than the rest. 

Not only is the Galaxy S26 Ultra a bigger phone with a larger display, but it also has top-notch camera specs that include a 200-megapixel wide and an additional 5x telephoto camera lens. It’s also available with more RAM and up to 1TB of storage. But while the other two models had a price increase compared with their predecessors (the S26 starts at $900 while the S26 Plus starts at $1,100), the S26 Ultra is the only one where its starting $1,300 price remains unchanged from last year’s S25 Ultra. 

Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra compares with the S26 and S26 Plus. 

Watch this: First Look at the Galaxy S26 Ultra: Camera, Battery and AI Updates

02:56

Design and display

The S26 Ultra is the largest phone of the trio, measuring 6.44 by 3.07 by 0.31 inches. The S26 Plus is in the middle at 6.24 by 2.98 by 0.29 inches, while the S26 is the smallest at 5.89 by 2.82 by 0.28 inches. The S26 Ultra has an aluminum frame instead of the titanium frame of the S25 Ultra. It’s also the only one with an integrated S Pen. 

Since the S26 Ultra is the largest phone of the lot, it makes sense that it also has the largest display. It has a 6.9-inch AMOLED with a 3,120×1,440-pixel resolution, while the S26 Plus has a 6.7-inch AMOLED with a 3,120×1,440-pixel resolution, and the S26 has a 6.3-inch AMOLED with a 2,340 by 1,080 pixel resolution. All three displays have a 1 to 120Hz variable refresh rate. The S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display feature is quite notable, allowing for a built-in way to control how visible your phone’s screen is to other people around you.

While the S26 and the S26 Plus have a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover screen, the S26 Plus has Gorilla Glass Armor 2 cover glass, which promises increased durability and scratch protection. 

Cameras

Samsung has always placed premium camera specs in its Ultra line of phones, and it’s no different with the S26 Ultra. It has four cameras: a 200-megapixel wide, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto, and a 50-megapixel 5x telephoto. The S26 Plus and the S26 have the same three cameras each: a 50-megapixel wide, a 12-megapixel ultrawide and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto. All three phones have a 12-megapixel front-facing camera. 

Storage, processors and battery life

Both the S26 and the S26 Plus offer 12GB of RAM plus 256GB or 512GB of storage. You can get the S26 in those configurations as well, but it also comes in a higher RAM and storage option; you can get the S26 Ultra with 16GB of RAM plus 512GB or a 1TB storage. That should certainly be enough to allay any storage capacity anxieties! 

All three phones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor. Battery-wise, the S26 Ultra has the largest capacity at 5,000mAh, while the S26 Plus has a 4,900-mAh battery, and the S26 has a 4,300-mAh battery (that’s a little bigger than the S25’s 4,000-mAh battery).

The S26 Ultra also has the fastest charging speeds. It has 60-watt wired charging and 25-watt wireless charging, while the S26 Plus has 45-watt wired charging and 20-watt wireless charging, and the S26 has 25-watt wired charging and 15-watt wireless charging. 

Check out the chart to compare more differences between the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra.