Samsung unveils Galaxy S26, S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra with first-of-its-kind new privacy screen

Every handset in the Galaxy S26 lineup will ship in a choice of Cobalt Violet, White, Black, and Sky Blue. Samsung has reserved two exclusive colours – Pink Gold and Silver Shadow – for its own online store.

“We believe AI should be something people can depend on every day, designed to work consistently for everyone and without the need for expertise,” said TM Roh, Chief Executive Officer, President, and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. “With the Galaxy S26 series, we focused on making AI feel effortless, working quietly in the background so people can focus on what matters.”

The Galaxy S26 Ultra shares more DNA with its smaller siblings than ever before.

This flagship phone – a spiritual successor to the standalone Galaxy Note lineup that was discontinued back in 2022 – is still the only model with an S Pen stylus stored (and charged) inside the chassis, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 system-on-a-chip, the largest 6.9" touchscreen, and Super Fast Charging 3.0 to refill the battery to 75% in 30-minutes. Despite this long list of exclusive features, Samsung has managed to keep the case design (almost) indistinguishable from the rest of the lineup.

It's the all-singing, all-dancing Galaxy S26 Ultra that benefits from a one-of-a-kind new display.

Dubbed Privacy Display, this unique feature is built into the AMOLED panel at the pixel level – obscuring elements on-screen for anyone but the owner of the handset. From the outside, it works like those privacy screen protectors that've existed for years. If you're trying to peep at the screen off-axis, everything looks gloomy. But everything remains visible when looking at the screen straight-on.

But this clever feature is much, much smarter than those off-the-shelf screen protectors. For starters, it can be enabled or disabled from the Quick Settings dropdown. Samsung lets you toggle the feature on a per-app basis, so WhatsApp and your banking app can be obscured each time they're on-screen, but everything is visible for everyone.

Samsung even lets you obscure just the incoming notifications from specific apps, while keeping the content on the rest of the screen uninterrupted. Granular settings let you obscure the PIN and password input screen too, so those around you won't be able to tell what you're typing when logging into a secure app.

But it's the software where Samsung has made the biggest changes.

Audio Eraser, a feature introduced with the Galaxy S25 lineup, has been expanded into third-party apps for the first time. When watching on YouTube, Netflix, and Instagram, the AI will boost vocals in real-time to make it easier to hear dialogue. Most soundbars offer similar functionality, but this lets you enjoy the same features with in-ear buds.

Artificial Intelligence will automatically sort your screenshots into several categories in the Gallery app, including Boarding Passes, Barcodes and QR Codes, Coupons, and Social Media, to name just a few. If you have a slew of screenshots to scroll through, this should help you quickly find what you're looking for.

The Document Scanner functionality, which has been baked into One UI – Samsung's twist on the Android operating system – for some time, leverages AI to automatically remove crumples, smudges, and tears from documents, receipts, or other print-outs when you snap a picture for your records.

Samsung is also bringing Now Nudge to the Galaxy S26 lineup. This feature is designed to automatically surface information before you start a search on your smartphone. For example, if you receive a text message that says "Are you free on February 25th for dinner?", Android will pop-up a shortcut at the top of the on-screen keyboard to open your calendar – so you can instantly check availability.

Now Nudge could even suggest a time on the specific date when it knows that you're free based on context gleaned from the conversation taking place in your messages or email. Likewise, a message from a friend or family member asking "Can you share photos of the trip to San Francisco?" will prompt a shortcut to the Gallery app, but also drill down into a specific contact or location based on the context of the conversation.

Google introduced a similar feature with its Pixel 10 smartphone series.

Bixby – the built-in assistant designed by Samsung, which sits alongside Google's Gemini and Perplexity as AI offerings for Galaxy S26 owners — can also make adjustments to settings. You don't need to know what the toggle is called, since it responds to natural language requests.

Bixby will make the necessary tweaks in response to a specific problem that you're having. For example, if you complain to the chatty AI assistant that the text on-screen is too small, Bixby will make adjustments behind-the-scenes, without you having to dive into the Settings app.

In one example, a Galaxy S26 owner types, "My eyes are feeling tired, is there a setting that I can adjust to help?", and Bixby adjusts the colour temperature and the brightness of the AMOLED display.

If you're looking for improvements to the camera, Galaxy S26 Ultra is the obvious choice. With wider camera apertures than its predecessor, Samsung lets more light reach the sensor, offering clearer photos with richer details in low-light conditions, even when zoomed in.

This improved hardware enables Enhanced Nightography Video, which keeps footage clearer and more vibrant even in dim scenes, whether capturing concerts indoors or recording moments around a campfire after sunset. Like a GoPro, Samsung added horizon-lock to its upgraded Super Steady capabilities, which should make consistent framing easier to achieve – even when shooting content on bumpy trails or adrenaline-fuelled activities.

Galaxy S26 Ultra is the first Galaxy device to support APV, a new professional-grade video codec designed to deliver efficient compression for high-quality production workflows. Optimised for advanced creators, it ensures visually lossless video quality that stays true even after repeated editing.

Samsung will guarantee seven generations of Android operating system upgrades with its Galaxy S26 lineup, so you'll benefit from new features and critical security updates until 2033 at the earliest.

Reacting to the announcement, celebrated analyst Paolo Pescatore told GB News: "Samsung is repositioning Galaxy AI as an orchestrator, not a single-assistant bet. Gemini stays core, but Perplexity, plus a refreshed Bixby, signals the best tool for the job — with the upside of fewer app hops and smarter handoffs, and the downside of fragmentation, messy defaults, multiple wake words, and tougher privacy questions. The bigger issue is that AI still isn’t a must-have for many users — a problem given that Samsung is leaning on Galaxy AI as its primary differentiator.

"Privacy Display is the sleeper hit. A standout feature in a sea of AI noise and memory stress — and potentially the real purchase trigger, if Samsung actually markets it loudly enough. Samsung still owns the Android flagship moment, but S26 adoption will be tougher.

"The playbook is clear: focus on the scale models, tighten the portfolio, ensure ship-ready volumes, and keep the message clean — avoiding assistant sprawl and any two phones chipset perception."