Tech Guide has taken a hands-on first look at the new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – it’s one of the most advanced smartphones we’ve ever seen.
We got our hands on the device at the Samsung Unpacked event at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
The S26 Ultra is the flagship device of the S26 series with a 6.9-inch display and a slightly refreshed design.
And, of course, it has the latest Galaxy AI, Google Gemini and Perplexity so there is no shortage of ideas and tools to get things done, work things out and be even more creative.
We looked at the new features like Privacy Display, Horizontal Lock, the new AI capabilities, AI Photo Assist, Document Scanner and the enhanced camera for even better low light photography.
PRIVACY DISPLAY
This is one of the standout features of the S26 ultra and it works at the pixel level.
It combines software and hardware to prevent anyone seeing your screen even if they’re right beside you.
This is a first of its kind display and controls how pixels can disperse light to limit what others can see from a side viewing angle.
What’s even better is that this feature can be used whenever you want with nominated apps.
It can also be set to work whenever you need to enter a passcode or when receiving a notification.
HORIZONTAL LOCK
We’ve seen plenty of optical image stabilisation technologies but the new Horizontal Lock is one of the most impressive.
This feature works while shooting in portrait or landscape mode and allows users to shoot a rock steady video even when the device is turned around and even upside down.
When playing back the video it looks like the device was being held perfectly still.
AI CAPABILITIES
The AI features aboard the Galaxy S26 Ultra are very impressive and can help you in many different scenarios and brings relevant and timely information to the surface when you need it.
For example, you may receive a message suggesting a date for a meeting. The onboard AI will notice this date and bring your calendar to your fingertips to allow you to check your availability and possibly suggest a new date if the original is unavailable.
Another example we saw was a message asking to see pictures taken in Australia on a recent holiday.
The AI immediately recognised the request and placed a shortcut to the gallery showing all the images that were shot in Australia on the trip in question.
LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
The cameras onboard the S26 ultra are among the best you’ll find on a smartphone and while the megapixel values have not increased, they have a wider aperture.
This means more light can hit the sensor which makes it even better at capturing images in low light conditions.
And it doesn’t just apply to shooting images it can also work when shooting lowlight videos.
AI also comes into play just smooth out the images and videos so you’re still getting remarkable results even when there’s not much light to work with.
Samsung had a darkened room with a replica of the San Francisco skyline – meant to simulate a shot taken at night – the device’s camera handled the situation with ease.
AI PHOTO ASSIST
Editing images using AI has been a feature for the last couple of years with Samsung devices but with the S26 series it has gone to a new level.
AI Photo Assist makes it easy to move or erase objects from an image, add relevant objects to the picture and even set a photo style in one step by step process rather than having to go back to the image to start a new edit.
We saw any image of a table full of food and it was easy to move one dish to the other side of the table and watch the Galaxy AI reconstruct that part of the image like that object was never there.
What we were also able to do was to add objects. In this case, the table was filled with Korean food and we asked to add drinks.
The AI responded in a few seconds by adding traditional Korean drinks to the table after examining the contents of the image and providing a relevant result.
DOCUMENT SCANNER
The new S26 series allows users to not take photos of documents but to scan them using the onboard cameras and AI.
We were able to scan documents and save them as files.
It would square up the image and even remove things like dog ears and creases and even allow you to adjust the lighting so it’s easier to read.
Samsung is expecting the S26 Ultra to make up around 70 per cent of the sales of the S26 series.
After this first short hands-on look at the Samsung S26 Ultra we’re expecting it to be one of the most popular devices of 2026.
* Stephen Fenech travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Samsung.
