As has been traditional for a few years, Samsung launches its most iconic smartphone a few weeks before the MWC begins. This year it was the Galaxy S26 series, presented yesterday, and in which the South Korean has promoted the experiences provided by its Artificial Intelligence, making them more intuitive, proactive and adaptive.
With the new models and the help of the AI it incorporates, the user can with the Galaxy S26 from managing plans and finding information to capturing and perfecting content, reducing the number of steps necessary to do things. As Samsung’s third generation of AI phones, the Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra handle complex tasks in the background, allowing users to focus on results rather than how the technology works.
The Galaxy S26 series has been designed with Samsung’s most advanced features working together as a whole: extraordinary performance, an industry-leading camera system and Galaxy AI. This provides a solid foundation that gives Galaxy S26 series users the confidence to depend on their phone throughout the day without compromising security or privacy.
Building on decades of Samsung innovation in display technology, the Galaxy S26 Ultra introduces the world’s first built-in Mobile Privacy Screen to unlock a new category of visual experiences and reinforce Samsung’s commitment to privacy. Galaxy S26 Ultra also features a custom chipset and improved thermal management that enable faster and more powerful AI; all in the thinnest Ultra yet.
Together, these decisions allow the Galaxy S26 series to offer the most complete Galaxy experience yet.
Galaxy S26: Powerful performance designed for everyday use
Designed for all-day performance, the Galaxy S26 series is built on the most powerful hardware ever packed into a Galaxy S26 series, powered by a custom chipset. Across the range, the Galaxy S26 series is designed to deliver AI performance, power efficiency and thermal management, ensuring demanding tasks run smoothly and consistently, so users can rely on their device when they need it most.
In the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a custom mobile processor—Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy—delivers the best performance ever in its category, with significant improvements to CPU, GPU, and NPU to support faster, smoother experiences that stay with you all day.
An increase of up to 19% in CPU performance means the new Galaxy S26 Ultra responds faster and handles complex workloads intelligently, even when running multiple tasks at the same time. A 39% improvement in NPU performance powers always-on Galaxy AI features that run without interruption, allowing users to move from one task to another without lags or stutters. A 24% increase in GPU performance delivers richer visuals and a smoother gaming experience.
To maintain this level of performance, the Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone features a redesigned vapor chamber with thermal interface material located along the sides of the processor, allowing heat to be distributed more efficiently over a larger surface area. This improves thermal dissipation to keep the device cool and stable, even during demanding activities such as gaming, multitasking, and video recording. To support all-day use, Galaxy S26 Ultra also features Super Fast Charging 3.0, minimizing downtime by reaching up to 75% charge in just 30 minutes.
The Galaxy S26 camera system
The Galaxy S26 series brings the same focus on intuitive interaction to creativity and productivity, through the industry-leading Galaxy camera system. With an approach that integrates incredible photo and video capture, editing, and content sharing into a single seamless experience, creativity feels more natural and accessible even without professional tools or technical knowledge.
On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, larger camera apertures allow more light to reach the sensor, delivering clearer photos with greater detail in low-light conditions, even when zoomed. Nightography mode’s video enhancement keeps recordings clearer and more vibrant even in dimly lit scenes, whether capturing indoor concerts or recording moments around a campfire after sunset. Video capture is further improved with the updated Super Steady feature, adding a horizontal lock option for added stability and to facilitate consistent framing, even on uneven terrain or fast-paced activities. Galaxy S26 Ultra is the first Galaxy device to support APV, a new professional video codec designed to deliver efficient compression in high-quality production workflows. Optimized for professional creators, it ensures visually lossless video quality that remains true even after multiple edits.
Front camera improvements
Improvements to the AI ISP now also extend to the front camera, capturing more natural skin tones and greater detail in mixed lighting conditions.
Editing photos and videos is just as simple and straightforward, with AI-powered tools integrated into familiar workflows so users can quickly make changes and unleash their creativity without requiring design experience.
With improved Photo Assistant, users can simply describe what they want to change in their own words. Changing the scene from day to night is as simple as asking. You can also add elements to images and restore missing parts of objects, such as a bite taken from a cake. Personal details, such as a stain on clothing, can also be corrected with Galaxy AI’s new ability to change outfits in photos. Edits can now be made continuously, reviewed step by step, and easily adjusted or undone in the process, making the experience fluid rather than final.
The most intuitive Galaxy AI experience yet
The Galaxy S26 series is designed to make frequently used experiences feel direct and easy to use, with Galaxy AI reducing the steps between intention and action. It works more proactively and seamlessly on behalf of the user depending on the context, offering the right support at the right time and automating tasks with minimal manual intervention. As technology integrates and manages background tasks, users can focus on results.
The Galaxy S26 series integrates a selection of agents, including Bixby as an on-device conversational agent, now more intuitive and easier to interact with than ever on a Galaxy device. Users can navigate their devices and change settings using natural language, without needing to use exact commands or terminology.
Along with Bixby, the Galaxy S26 series integrates a selection of AI agents, including Gemini and Perplexity. Once set up, tasks can be completed with a single press or via voice command. Galaxy S26 can also handle multi-step tasks in the background, streamlining the process on behalf of the user.
Layers of protection in the age of AI
As mobile experiences become more personalized thanks to AI, protecting user privacy becomes even more critical. Samsung builds protection into every layer of the Galaxy S26, keeping personal data secure and offering transparency and control over how information is used.
Galaxy S26 Ultra introduces pixel-level privacy with the mobile industry’s first integrated Privacy Screen, a breakthrough in display technology that fundamentally changes the way privacy can be protected on a phone. Designed for everyday situations such as transportation, coffee shops and shared environments, Privacy Screen goes beyond any solution previously available on mobile devices — hardware and software working as a single system to protect privacy without compromising the viewing experience.
By controlling how pixels disperse light, the display keeps content clear, bright and comfortable for the user in everyday use, while limiting what others can see. Unlike traditional adhesive privacy filters, Galaxy’s built-in Privacy Screen preserves full viewing quality from all angles when disabled, and limits side visibility when enabled, even when switching between portrait and landscape orientation.
Users can customize when it activates — such as when entering PIN, patterns and passwords or when opening selected apps — and adjust privacy levels depending on the situation. Partial Privacy Screen Privacy cleverly limits the visibility of pop-up notifications, while Maximum Privacy Protection further obscures side views for added discretion, all with minimal impact on battery or usability.
New updates to Knox Matrix further strengthen protection on connected Galaxy devices, adding PQC-enabled end-to-end encryption for more services like eSIM transfers and greater visibility into firmware update status across the ecosystem through Your Device Security Status.
These experiences are backed by Samsung Knox, the multi-layer security platform that protects Galaxy devices from the chip level up. For on-device Galaxy AI, Personal Data Engine (PDE) enables personalized, context-aware AI experiences. To keep this process secure, Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection (KEEP) encrypts data for each application, while Knox Vault adds a physical layer of protection that isolates sensitive data within its own secure hardware. Along with settings that allow users to choose how AI features operate, Galaxy S26 combines hardware and software to offer a comprehensive, system-level approach designed to keep personal data protected.
These updates add to Galaxy’s existing security and privacy portfolio, which includes Auto Lock, Anti-Theft Protection, Private Sharing, Secure Wi-Fi, and more. These layers of protection are designed to offer greater transparency, choice and control through Samsung’s continued mobile security innovation in the age of AI. And with seven years of security updates, Galaxy S26 helps keep these layers resilient over time, supporting longer, more confident use for years to come.
