Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review: The Privacy Display Arrives

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is the 6.9-inch flagship at the top of a four-phone family that also includes the S26, the S26+ and the newer Samsung Galaxy S26 FE, which arrived on 4 September 2026. It launched alongside the S26 and S26+ on 11 March 2026 in the UK, Ireland and across the EU, and it is the only one of the three that keeps the S Pen and its dedicated silo in the body. Storage starts at 256GB with 12GB of RAM, and the 1TB configuration steps up to 16GB and is sold worldwide rather than being a Korea-and-US curiosity. This is flagship money, firmly at the top of Samsung's range. It is aimed at people who want a stylus, the longest zoom Samsung sells, and seven years of Android updates from a phone they intend to keep.

• Display: 6.9-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, up to 2,600 nits, Gorilla Armor 2
• Privacy Display: panel-level viewing-angle control, switchable in software, applicable to the whole screen or just selected apps and notifications
• Chip: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, worldwide, with no Exynos variant
• Memory: 12GB RAM with 256GB or 512GB; 16GB RAM on the 1TB model
• Rear cameras: 200MP main at f/1.4, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, 50MP 5x periscope at f/2.9 using Samsung's new All Lens On Prism mechanism
• Battery and charging: 60W wired, the fastest Samsung has ever shipped on a Galaxy phone, plus Qi2.2 wireless up to 25W and reverse wireless
• Build: aluminium frame with a glass back, rounder corners than the S25 Ultra, ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, ultra-wideband, USB-C 3.2
• Software: Android 16 with One UI 8.5, seven years of OS and security updates running to 2033

Four things, and they are not evenly weighted. The Privacy Display is the headline and the only genuinely new capability. The main camera's aperture widens from f/1.7 to f/1.4 and the 5x periscope from f/3.4 to f/2.9, which is a real low-light gain rather than a spec-sheet flourish, and that periscope now uses an All Lens On Prism assembly instead of a conventional folded stack. Charging jumps from 45W to 60W, ending several years of Samsung being slower than everything from Shenzhen. And the frame reverts to aluminium, last used on the Galaxy S23, with softer corners that make the slab less architectural to hold. The 3x telephoto and the ultra-wide are carried over unchanged, and battery capacity is essentially flat.

Samsung Display developed this under the name Flex Magic Pixel, and the important detail is that it is built into the panel rather than stuck on top of it. A privacy film adds a polarising layer that dims the screen for you as well as for the stranger next to you, permanently. Here the polarisation is applied selectively to display elements during manufacture, so you toggle it on and off, and you can scope it to individual apps or just to notification pop-ups. That last option is the clever one: your banking app and your messages go narrow, your map stays wide. On a commuter train, a Ryanair seat or a hot desk, it is the rare flagship feature that earns its keep daily. Nothing else on sale in Europe does this.

The Qi2.2 support is real but there are no magnets in the body, because Samsung decided a magnet array would interfere with the vertical camera stack and the S Pen silo. You get the charging standard without the snap-on accessory ecosystem, which means buying a case to get the alignment everyone else gets for free. The 3x telephoto is still a 10MP sensor, now noticeably the weakest link in a camera system where everything else is 50MP or better. The phone remains heavy and large, and several reviewers pointed out that Samsung's own Galaxy Z Fold 8 weighs less. Pricing moved up again in a year of memory-cost inflation, and the Privacy Display is Ultra-only, so the cheaper S26 and S26+ do not get the one feature worth talking about.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra if you want a stylus in the phone rather than in a drawer, if you shoot at 5x often enough to notice a wider aperture, or if you work on trains and in cafes and the idea of a screen that hides itself is worth real money to you. It is also the safest long-term Android buy in Europe on update policy alone. Skip it if you own an S25 Ultra: outside the Privacy Display and faster charging, you are looking at the same phone with better glass over the periscope. Skip it too if you want magnetic wireless charging accessories, or if a 6.9-inch slab has never fitted your hand or your pocket.

If the stylus is not the point, the case for the Ultra weakens quickly. Samsung's own foldables now undercut it on weight while beating it on screen area, and the Chinese flagships sold in Europe will out-spec it on charging and battery for less. The iPhone side of the fence has its own answer, and if what you actually want is a big, boring, brilliant Android phone with a long update runway, the S26+ does most of this for meaningfully less. The three below are the alternatives most likely to change your mind before you click buy on a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.