Inside Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: how it sets a new benchmark for flagship phones

TL;DR: The Galaxy S26 Ultra is a massive step-up technically, in ways that have tangible benefits when you’re using it, from better photos to a sharper display, making it an unmissable smartphone for basically anyone.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is a headline-grabber, and no mistake – this phone is one of those that just grabs your attention from the moment you first see it. Samsung’s been on the forefront of the smartphone world for quite some time now with its annual flagship launches, meaning you know where to turn if you want a phone with all the latest and greatest innovations packed into it.

That describes the Galaxy S26 Ultra to a T, but sometimes a phone as monumentally techy as this one can be a little intimidating, so long is the list of fantastic features that it brings to bear. If you’re wondering how Samsung’s innovative R&D work actually translates into real features, we’ve got you covered, with a handy summary of some of the biggest steps forward that it brings with it.

An AI-enhanced camera that makes it all easy

Let’s be real – when most of us get a new smartphone, the first thing we do is take a test photo or three to see how the camera holds up. After all, for the majority of us, our phone’s camera is the one we’ll use 99% of the time as we live our lives. Samsung’s rightly proud of the camera unit it packs into the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which goes way beyond what you might expect from a phone camera.

The phone’s main 200MP camera is a stunning bit of design that gets you sharp and vivid photos in lighting conditions that might range from ideal to enormously challenging, but it’s just one tool in your arsenal. Our favourite might be the 50MP ultrawide – a format that has become so useful for people who want to get more in their shots, but one that often involves grainier photos. That problem is banished by the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which puts out gorgeous wide-angle photos with ease.

Then there’s its newest video feature – Super Steady with Horizontal Lock¹, which is genuinely jaw-dropping, and ensures that your videos are so steady you’ll almost not believe them. Even turning your phone upside-down won’t stop the video from coming out amazingly.

The cherry on top is that Samsung has years of practice in making AI features that actually help you out, and this is perfectly encapsulated by the AI edits that you can make to photos and videos you’ve taken. From erasing people from the backgrounds of images to tuning out annoying noise (with Audio Eraser²), you can get the perfect video or photo without having to be a pro-level editor. You can even use Photo Assist³ to auto-adjust images for you from simple voice or text prompts.

Improved ProScaler algorithm makes your games and videos sharper

When you’re staring at your phone, the quality of its display is one of the single biggest factors in making it feel great to use, so it’s no surprise that the Galaxy S26 Ultra has a superb display. It boasts some stunning specs, not least in the form of a 6.9" Dynamic AMOLED 2X QHD+ display, but it’s not just about the hardware. The phone also has some smart new features.

ProScaler⁴, for instance, can upscale your visual content on the fly, so that games and videos look natively sharp and natural without any extra work on your end, potentially upgrading older content beautifully.

Even more impressive in our opinion is the new Privacy Display⁵, which lets you toggle on a mode that limits the viewing angle of your Galaxy S26 Ultra massively, so that people besides you on public transport (for example) can’t see what’s on-screen. That could be game-changing for professionals or anyone who values their privacy.

Call Assist with live translation means there’s no such thing as a language barrier

In the AI age, it’s good to know that your phone can help you out in challenging situations – like making a phone call in a foreign language. Samsung’s Call Assist⁶ feature is now more powerful than ever, letting you enjoy real, live translation while on the phone through the power of the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This basically means that struggling to get a table on a holiday, or trying to work out when your hotel’s check-out time is, all just become so much easier to tackle, and the sky’s the limit in terms of how you use the feature.

An all-new Vapour Chamber keeps things cool under pressure

All of these high-performance features and components might have you wondering whether the Galaxy S26 Ultra gets hot under heavy loads – but one of its biggest upgrades this year comes under the hood. Its new vapour chamber, bigger than ever before⁷ and helping to circulate air over its components, is a massive innovation in smartphone design that you can’t even see.

It ensures that the phone remains cool and performant even when you’re multitasking on it and really testing the meaning of its “Ultra” name, which is far from true of plenty of competing handsets. Best of all, this has a meaningful outcome in terms of performance, since a cooler phone can stay faster and more responsive without any compromise.

If all of this leaves you raring to learn more about the Galaxy S26 Ultra, head to Samsung’s website, and you’ll find a huge amount of helpful information about the ways it’s pushing the envelope in the smartphone world.