Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review – Setting the Bar for Privacy and Performance

Currently, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is Samsung’s premier flagship phone for early 2026, surpassing its lesser siblings the Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 by dint of its larger screen and exclusive features including its unique Privacy Display, the use of a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor and the S Pen stylus. 

We previously unboxed it and delved into the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s key upgrades compared to its predecessor the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Here’s our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review where we share if it is a worthy heir to the S25 Ultra’s legacy. 

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review – Performance and Benchmarks

The biggest hardware upgrade for the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the use of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor compared to last year’s Galaxy S25 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor, offering 39% better NPU, 24% better GPU and 19% better CPU performance. Paired with this is the latest Android 16 and OneUI 8.5 and a commitment to 7 years of OS and security updates. 

In terms of storage our Galaxy S26 Ultra review sample utilises 256GB UFS 4.0 storage which has a similar read/write speed to the storage used in its predecessor along with 12GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM which also matches the older model. Of note is that Samsung has redesigned the thermal interface layer in the S26 Ultra to offer better heat dispersion when under heavy workloads. 

Another difference is that the Galaxy S26 Ultra uses slightly less durable Armor Aluminum 2 rather than the titanium used in its predecessor. On the bright side, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is also slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, which makes it currently the lightest Ultra series phone they’ve ever made.

To be fair, our Galaxy S26 Ultra review sample has remained scratch free even without a case protecting it even after a week of regular use. Even after being plonked on tables, jammed into pockets and generally tossed about like a normal phone, the chassis has remained intact and nick free. The screen with Gorilla Glass Armor 2 protecting it remains scratch free. Build materials aside, here’s how our Galaxy S26 Ultra review unit stacks up on paper:

 

Price	RM5,999 (12GB RAM/256GB), RM6,799 (12GB RAM/512GB), RM7,999 (16GB RAM/1TB)
Display	6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 1,440 x 3,120 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 2,600nits peak brightness
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
OS	Android 16 w/ OneUI 8.5
Memory	12GB LPDDR5X RAM, 256GB storage (review unit); 12GB RAM/512GB & 16GB RAM/1TB variants available
Cameras	200MP f/1.4 w/ PDAF and OIS, 50MP f/1.9 ultrawide angle with Super Steady horizontal lock and PDAF, 10MP f/2.4 w/ 3x optical zoom and OIS, 50MP f/2.9 w/ 5x optical zoom and OIS [rear] / 12MP f/2.2 w/ PDAF
Battery	5,000mAh w/ 60W wired, 25W wireless charging, reverse wireless charging
Size/Weight	163.6 x 78.1 x 7.9mm /214g

Compared to a stock Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy is clocked faster with 4.74GHz on the prime core while the stock model maxes out at 4.61GHz. On paper, this means that the Galaxy S26 Ultra is effectively the most powerful Android phone currently in the market.

In terms of benchmarks, our Galaxy S26 Ultra review sample scored the following with 8GB of RAM Plus virtual RAM which is the default setting out of the box. Alternatively, you can also assign up to 12GB of storage as virtual RAM. Here’s how it scored:

 

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	2,843
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	2,392
Solar Bay Extreme	1,092
Solar Bay Extreme Unlimited	1,019
3D Mark Solar Bay	8,626
3D Mark Solar Bay Unlimited	8,109
3D Mark WildLife Extreme	6,006
3D Mark WildLife Extreme Unlimited	6,068
Geekbench 6 Single Core	3,485
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	10,547
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	22,533
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	27,745
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	6,649
Geekbench AI (GPU quanticised)	3,129
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	21,098
PCMark Battery Life	16 hours 12 mins

Compared to the prior Galaxy S25 Ultra, our Galaxy S26 Ultra review sample with its newer chipset offered markedly better benchmarks with better single, multicore, graphics and NPU scores across the board. 

In the 3D Mark Steel Nomad Light stress test, the phone managed to offer consistent performance without radical throttling. Temperatures were rather hot but manageable, average between 43°C to 45°C while enjoying an 68.4% stability score. Compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy offers better performance overall with better loops scores but runs hotter.

When subjected to practical field conditions as a primary phone over the course of a week, the Galaxy S26 Ultra did not disappoint. The phone was able to tackle everything thrown at it including editing demanding 4K video on CapCut, bouncing across multiple open tabs in Chrome and demanding games like Genshin Impact on high settings without issue.

Samsung has also introduced several quality of life improvements with OneUI 8.5 with deeper integration with AI. Along with the usual Google Gemini AI and Circle to Search feature, Samsung has beefed up their own Bixby with more natural language comprehension  so you can open apps, change settings like volume and screen brightness, schedule appointments and more with just voice prompts. 

Even if you’re not sure what you want, you can state your intent and Bixby will attempt to find a solution for you. A query on why the volume on the phone is low yielded a polite response on how to use the volume slider and a few other alternatives including any relevant system settings.

Another helpful query was asking it to check to determine what meetings were happening next week and Bixby was able to show a list of appointments on Google Calendar. On that note, Perplexity is also preinstalled on the phone as well to answer research-based queries.

While all these features are helpful, Bixby unfortunately does not speak Bahasa Malaysia with the currently supported languages limited to Korean, English, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. This is a bit of an oversight but it’s not a deal breaker.

While battery capacity hasn’t changed and the phone still sticks with a 5,000mAh cell, Samsung has improved charging speeds and the phone supports 60W wired and 25W wireless charging. In benchmarks, the phone offers 16 hours and 12 minutes of battery life which is slightly longer than its predecessor. 

In the field, our Galaxy S26 Ultra review sample comfortably manages a full day of heavy usage with liberal usage of the camera, web browsing and social media with a few rounds of Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact. 

The improved 60W wired charging speeds mean that even if you’ve run the batteries down, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is rated to get a 75% charge in 30 minutes which corresponded with actual tests with a 100W UGreen charger we had, achieving a similar charge in about 35 minutes. Wireless charging has been improved as well at 25W along with wireless reverse charging to juice small items of gear like the Galaxy Buds Pro4.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review – Privacy Display

Arguably the biggest, most visually unique feature on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the new Privacy Display offers vibrant colour rendition and detail along with good clarity under direct sunlight thanks to its 2,600 nits peak brightness with the Privacy option turned off.

One thing to note though is that contrary to rumours, the Dynamic AMOLED 2X Privacy Display isn’t a 10-bit panel but is instead an 8-bit panel with frame rate control (FRC) to simulate 10-bit colour data. To tackle this, Samsung has integrated their ProScaler tech that enhances sharpness and contrast for content and their mDNIe tech that offers subtler and smoother colour gradation.

Many competing devices offer brighter displays, many with 10-bit panels as well as Eyesafe features for more comfortable extended viewing. In practical terms, users won’t notice any issues with colour rendition and movies, games and content are still served up with vibrantly rich hues and pin-sharp detail. While screen brightness isn’t the highest in the market, the display is still viewable under direct sunlight with minimal reflections or glare, which helps ensure the screen remains visible. 

@hitechcentury Hands-on and demo of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Display. @samsungmalaysia #galaxys26ultra #galaxyunpacked #samsungmalaysia #hitechcentury #learnontiktok ♬ original sound – Hitech Century

However, no phone or device in the market is able to do what Samsung’s Privacy Display is capable of.  When activated, the Privacy Display is able to selectively make parts or the entire screen incredibly difficult to see from an angle as it deactivates certain pixels, ensuring that only the viewer can see what is onscreen. Seeing this in action is impressive as it accomplishes what used to require a privacy screen protector. 

While it is useful for the security conscious, having the entire screen with its privacy mode on at all times also makes it slightly harder to see in daylight as it’s noticeably dimmer even when viewed from the proper direct-front angle and colours look slightly grayed out.

Fortunately, you’re able to selectively trigger parts of the Privacy Display so that it obscures sensitive features like notifications, passwords and PIN numbers. Selective use of Privacy Mode yields the best results, offering the customary colour rendition, brightness and quality expected of a Samsung panel with only security-sensitive features grayed out and harder to see for shoulder surfers. 

The Privacy Display is an impressive technological breakthrough though it still has a few kinks to work out. Hopefully future iterations improve screen brightness and at least make colours more consistent when Privacy mode is activated.

The accompanying stereo speakers, one in a slit at the top of the display and the other a downward firing design at the base of the phone, combine to offer excellent volume and detail for casual music listening, gaming and movie watching alike.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review – Cameras

Samsung plays it safe this time around with our Galaxy S26 Ultra review unit featuring a similar camera setup as its predecessor albeit with a brighter aperture on the main 200MP camera and one of the two telephoto zoom cameras.

In essence, the primary 200MP main camera gets an f/1.4 aperture versus the f/1.7 used in the Galaxy S25 Ultra while retaining optical image stabilisation. The second camera to benefit from a brighter aperture is the 50MP telephoto camera that now gets an f/2.9 aperture over the prior model’s f/3.4 while retaining 5x optical zoom. 

These upgrades aside, the secondary 10MP telephoto camera retains the same f/2.4 aperture and 3x optical zoom while the ultrawide angle camera still sticks with a 50MP f/1.9 aperture with phase detection autofocus.

 

Combined, this setup allows users to enjoy up to 100x Space Zoom for stills and up to 25x zoom for videos with the option to capture up to 8K@30fps video.  The front 12MP selfie camera is otherwise unaltered and retains a similar f/2.2 aperture with PDAF and up to 4K@60fps video capture on top of stills.

All this looks like a fairly modest upgrade but the biggest game-changer here also isn’t as obvious as the ultrawide camera gets an impressive Super Steady Horizon Lock mode that ensures captured video in up to 4K@60fps remains right side up even when the phone is violently jiggled or rotated like a built-in high-grade gimbal. Seeing this in action is an impressive sight though it does have its shortcomings as it needs daylight conditions or brightly lit locales for it to work.

Results are mostly similar in daytime conditions with excellent detail and colours out to 5x zoom and very usable shots at 10x zoom though beyond that shots start getting soft and at 100x, it’s more of a novelty.

@hitechcentury Testing out Super Steady with Horizonral Lock video on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. @samsungmalaysia #galaxyunpacked #galaxys26ultra #hitechcentury ♬ original sound – Hitech Century

Interestingly, the phone no longer has a manually selectable Night mode by default, instead triggering it automatically when lighting conditions require it though this can be disabled if you tap the icon on the camera menu if you don’t like the results. 

The brighter f/.,4 aperture on the main 200MP camera and the f/2.9 aperture on the 50MP 5x zoom telephoto camera both offer better detail and dynamic range across what is otherwise a solid camera setup compared to its predecessor. Low light performance was just as good on our Galaxy S26 Ultra review sample, with good dynamic range and good detail out to 5x zoom with shots getting softer beyond that. 

When it comes to videos, the rear main and ultrawide cameras offered smooth 4K@60fps footage with the Super Steady Horizontal Lock mode on the Ultra wide angle cameras allowing for super smooth videos even when undertaking extreme movement like running and sprinting.

Serious content creators will also appreciate the fact that the Galaxy S26 Ultra is also the first phone to support the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec for visually lossless 8K@30fps and 4K@120fps recording that also integrates LOG/HDR options. In fact, the phone even supports direct recording to external SSDs to compensate for the larger file sizes which further enhances its appeal for content creators.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra?

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has modest but tangible improvements with its unique Privacy Display, industry-leading Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset and brighter apertures on the main and 5x telephoto camera for better low light performance.  It is also one of the few, if not the only phone with an integrated stylus for productivity related tasks. 

However, there is also a modest RM200 price hike for the 512GB variant and a whopping RM800 bump up for the 1TB version. Fortunately, the base 256GB version which is what we have in for review has surprisingly remained the same price at RM5,999 though it still costs a pretty penny in 2026.

Users who already own a Galaxy S25 Ultra will likely find the Galaxy S26 Ultra a less than compelling proposition but others coming in from other ecosystems and brands looking to get in on the best Samsung has to offer will find lots to love.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review unit courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-s26-ultra/buy/