Welcome to Galaxy S26 as Samsung unveils the annual update of its flagship smartphone

Samsung’s seasonal flagship launch has arrived bang on time. Welcome to the Galaxy S26 series, a trio f Smartphones that includes the Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra, along with a companion set of earbuds, the Galaxy Buds4 and Buds4 Pro.

So what’s new? Iterating an all-new smartphone design complete with sector-beating feature set is a tall order yet it hasn’t stopped the smartphone giants from continuing their annual parade of new silicon.

Galaxy S26 is an evolutionary update; while the Galaxy S24 introduced AI-driven features like circle to search and re-booted the Samsung naming convention, the Galaxy S25 was a paradigm shift, with deeply embedded AI across the entire operating system and UI. Galaxy AI is now the lynchpin around which the company’s devices revolve.

AI is still very much a USP for this kind of phone, with the increased power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset dedicated to making responses quicker and less cloud dependant. Mobile phone processors are so numerous and given such complex names that we’ll just have to take their word for it. The Ultra also offers up to 1TB of storage, which is pretty much the top-end spec in this day and age.

What does stand out is the display and the introduction of Samsung’s new privacy mode. This is a clever use of pixels that essentially narrows the screen’s viewing angle so that anyone on the oblique – sitting next to you on a plane for example – won’t be able to see what you’re looking at. There are obvious security and privacy benefits here for the paranoid, but most of us will welcome the ability to watch Industry on a plane without upsetting other passengers.

This new feature is perhaps the S26’s biggest advance over its rivals; the rest of the upgrades concentrate on speed, battery longevity, camera quality and charging. The latter are much improved – the Ultra model will go from 0 to 75% in half an hour on a 60W charger and wireless charging speeds are now up to 25W.

When it comes to cameras, the S26 Ultra takes the cake with an insectoid-like fascia featuring no less than five units. As with all modern smartphones, the camera’s impressive capabilities come courtesy of ferocious behind-the-scenes number crunching.

Samsung is more adept than many in this department, with AI-powered zoom (ProScaler) that acts to sharpen imagery, along with the ‘mobile Digital Natural Image engine’ (mDNIe), which does the image processing work of a hundred dark room assistants.

The Ultra gets an even more sophisticated camera set thanks to wider apertures. Coupled with the computational element, low light performance is more impressive than ever before, while the ‘Super Steady’ functionality now has a horizontal lock option to ape the output of a Steadicam. And if that wasn’t enough, the camera unit can deliver the Advanced Professional Video format, 8k at 30fps.

The heart sinks a little when it comes to the litany of generative AI functions, from the magic eraser through to ‘Photo Assist’, which allows you dictate your instructions into the phone and have it conjure up fantastical backgrounds and other scene elements. It’s all part of the pipeline that takes classic photography and turns it into content creation; Samsung is going all-out on the latter, although it still has to warn that ‘image generation may produce unexpected results’.

Other AI-driven innovations include a more agentic, context-shaped notification system, Now Nudge, that is said to be able to bring up relevant detail – a calendar, for example – when a phone call turns to scheduling a meeting. Samsung’s Bixby agent seems to have been downgraded from a ChatGPT-style PDA to a way of getting info about this hugely complex machine.

The S26 Ultra is the model to go for if you like big devices and are especially wedded to Samsung’s S-Pen – still a pretty unique mode of input in this sector and one much prized by its users. If you’re not too bothered by the onboard stylus (it tucks neatly into the phone’s base), then the S26 and S26 Plus should suffice. Still, at 214g and less than 8mm thick, the Ultra is extremely slender. All three phones have more recycled materials have been used than ever before.

AI fans can also benefit from the close integration offered by the new Galaxy Buds4 and Buds4 Pro earbuds. Better noise cancelling, a more stylish industrial design – with a real metal ‘blade’ element for the first time – and high-res, 24-bit audio support for services like Tidal all come as standard.

Available in Black, White and Pink Gold, the Buds4 also have a translucent-lidded charge case – no prizes for guessing which upstart phone brand is starting to make its presence felt amongst the big players.

The Galaxy S26 series is worthy of your consideration, especially if you’re deeply hooked into the Samsung eco-system and find AI indispensable. If you’re not, the S26 might be the device that turns you on to the technology.

Phones like these are about driving ever closer integration with the algorithm; the camera in particular is doing so much silent heavy lifting, analysing and processing of colour, focus, exposure, etc., all before the user is invited to make their own set of more overt changes.

Kadesh Beckford, Samsung’s Smartphone Specialist Product Manager in the UK, describes these innovations as being about ‘removing pain points for customers. We’re just allowing you to use what you want,’ he says of AI’s deep reach and integration.

The company reckons around 400m people use Galaxy AI right now, a number that will double by the end of 2026. ‘It’s effortless and easy,’ Beckford says with the zeal of a true convert, ‘it’s just going to help you.’

Samsung Galaxy S26 Series, available to order now. S26 colour options include Cobalt Violet, White, Black, Sky Blue, Pink Gold and Silver Shadow (the latter two exclusively on Samsung.com)

Galaxy S26 Ultra, from £1,279, Samsung.com

Galaxy S26+, from £1,099, Samsung.com

Galaxy S26, from £879.99, Samsung.com

Galaxy Buds4, from £159, Samsung.com

Galaxy Buds4 Pro, from £219, Samsung.com