Samsung Galaxy S26 / Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Samsung Newsroom release is dated 23 January Korea time; the event was 22 January in US time.

Samsung varies the processor by market: the US, China and Japan versions use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. This entry covers the Exynos 2600 SM-S942B version.

The viewable area is smaller than the rectangular measurement because of the corners and camera hole.

The viewable area is smaller than the diagonal because of rounded corners and the camera hole. Refresh that drops to 1 Hz saves power on static content; Vision Booster adjusts tone mapping in bright light.

The panel lowers its rate to match the content, slowing down on static images to save power and rising to 120 Hz for scrolling and games.

This is Samsung's peak figure, not a brightness held across the full screen.

Samsung quotes 40% NPU, 37% CPU and 30% GPU gains over the previous generation. This version is tuned for Galaxy with higher clocks than the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Samsung says this GPU supports hardware ray tracing and is up to 50% faster at it than its predecessor.

Samsung states up to 29% better heat dissipation for the S26; this is a figure from the maker's own testing.

The vapor chamber spreads heat from the chip into the body, helping clocks hold longer in extended gaming.

Usable space is lower than the total because of preloaded software. Options vary by country and carrier.

The 2x optical-quality zoom uses the centre of the main camera's Adaptive Pixel sensor; it is not a separate lens.

Log records a flat profile for colour grading; results depend on the editing workflow. Audio Eraser can reduce layers such as voices, music, wind and crowd separately in videos.

Samsung quotes up to 30 hours of video playback; the typical figure was measured by a third-party lab to IEC 61960.

The figure was measured from 0% with a 25 W Samsung adapter and 3 A USB-C cable, screen off. The adapter and cable are sold separately.

PowerShare works only with certain Qi-compatible phones and wearables and may not work below 30% battery.

Wi-Fi 7 speeds need a Wi-Fi 7 router; 6 GHz use varies by country.

USB 3.2 Gen 1 carries up to 5 Gbit/s of data, which speeds up wired transfers of large video files to a computer.

Band support varies by market.

Weight may vary by country and configuration.

Water and dust resistance can decline over time with normal wear.

Water resistance is not permanent and may diminish over time.

According to Android Central’s one-year report, the phone received One UI 8 (Android 16) ahead of schedule.

Samsung notes memory options may vary by market and usable storage is lower because of preloaded software. There is no card slot.

Used on the front only. Corning says it survived drops of up to 2.2 m onto a concrete-like surface in internal lab tests; this is not a durability guarantee for any given phone.

Titanium is used only on the frame, excluding the volume and side keys.

Per Samsung, 3× and 5× are optical; 2× and 10× are “optical quality” zoom made by sensor cropping. OIS is optical image stabilisation.

The 45 W adapter is sold separately. Samsung quotes up to 31 hours of video playback. Wireless PowerShare charges earbuds or a watch from the back of the phone.

5G/LTE availability depends on market and carrier.

Colour availability varies by country and carrier.