Thinking of buying a Samsung Galaxy S26 over the coming weeks? There’s really only one model worth getting excited about if rumours are true (and they normally are).
Samsung has sent out invites to its next Unpacked event on 25 February, but the truth is there’s really nothing to unpack at this point.
We know pretty much exactly what’s going to be unveiled at the company’s big San Francisco shindig, thanks to the endless stream of leaks and rumours emanating from well-sourced tipsters and Samsung itself.
You can read our round-up of all the latest Samsung Galaxy S26 rumours here. I’m not going to run through all of the specifications here.
What I am going to supply is a handy TL;DR for you all: barring any late surprises, only the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is shaping up to be of any real interest.
Luke Baker
Same old, same old
Don’t get me wrong: the Samsung Galaxy S26 and Samsung Galaxy S26+ are almost certainly going to be very good phones.
If you’re upgrading from a phone that’s two years old or more, you’re likely to be very happy with a purchase of either. But in terms of year-on-year improvements over their Samsung Galaxy S25 predecessors, there’s precious little to get excited about.
From what we know, there’ll be a new Exynos 2600 processor (or the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 over in the US) in both models, as well as a fractionally larger screen (6.3-inch) and battery (4300mAh) in the standard Galaxy S26. That’s about it.
We won’t be seeing the Qi2 magnetic wireless charging upgrade that had been widely predicted, it seems. Even the Google Pixel 10 series – hardly a paragon of smartphone novelty – added that particular feature.
Luke Baker / Foundry
It’s all about the Ultra
If you’re looking for genuine progress in this year’s Galaxy S26 family, you’ll probably need to turn to the Ultra model.
I’m genuinely intrigued by reports of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Screen, which will apparently be able to blank out specific sensitive content unless you’re looking at it straight-on.
It’s an anti-shoulder-peeking technology that could have genuine security benefits and it’s set to work in a controlled way rather than all or nothing.
The S26 Ultra is also rumoured to be getting superior Colour-filter-on-thin-film-encapsulation (CoE) technology, which should make the screen brighter and more efficient.
Evan Blass
It’s also set to receive a revamped design with a slimmer (7.9mm), lighter (214g) body. As someone who has always sworn off even entertaining a Galaxy Ultra purchase owing to the range’s bulk, this is very interesting news indeed.
The premium model is also tipped to receive faster 60W wired charging (finally) and 25W wireless charging.
Topping it all off, the baseline Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could be the only variant that doesn’t receive a price bump this year. Given the lack of upgrades elsewhere in the wider S26 family, that’s a huge incentive to focus in on the Ultra model.
Samsung seems to want this to be the narrative, too, and has reportedly built just 700- and 600k S26 and S26+ units compared to 3.6 million Ultras.