Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: All the rumors so far

After a busy 2025, Samsung is turning its attention to new devices for 2026. And the Galaxy S26 series led by the Galaxy S26 Ultra figures to be the first products out of the gate — even if that happens a little later than expected.

In recent Januarys, we'd be counting down the days to the next Galaxy Unpacked event and the inevitable Galaxy S flagship reveal. But rumors have that launch getting pushed back a few weeks this year. But regardless of when the Galaxy S26 Ultra arrives, this update to Samsung's premium phone should be a contender for one of the best phones of the year.

And even if the launch date for the next Samsung Ultra model is up in the air, some of the details are not. Here's what we know so far about the Galaxy S26 Ultra based on rumors and leaks. We've also got an early Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Galaxy S25 Ultra comparison that reveals the biggest potential changes.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Rumored specifications

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Expected release date and price

In recent years, Samsung has been pretty consistent with the release date of its ‘S’ series phones. While the phones used to arrive in spring — as late as May 29, in the case of the Galaxy S3 — since 2019, the handsets have shipped no later than March 6 with launch events held in January or February.

The release schedule has been trending earlier, too. The Samsung Galaxy S25 arrived on February 7 last year, while the S24 launched on January 31, 2024. If Samsung were sticking to that strategy, that would mean a launch event this month, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra in our hands by mid-February.

Samsung is not sticking to that strategy, apparently. Amid reports that the company is scrapping the Galaxy S26 Edge and reviving a Galaxy S26 Plus in its place, the Galaxy S26 launch may be pushed back. the thinking now is Samsung will delay the launch event, with specific reports claiming that Galaxy Unpacked will happen on February 25. If that happens, you wouldn't see the new models arrive in stores until March.

An even bigger question is whether Samsung will raise prices this year. The Galaxy S25 Ultra started at $1,299, rising to $1,419 for 512GB storage or $1,659 for 1TB, which is the same set of MSRPs as its predecessor.

However, skyrocketing RAM costs apparently have Samsung unsure as to what it should charge for its Galaxy S26 phones. As the Galaxy S lineup is a prime source of revenue, Samsung really can't afford to sell those phones at a loss. As a result, some rumors point to higher prices for the Galaxy S26 models in some markets, though it's unclear if that includes the U.S. or the U.K.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Design

Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra phones haven’t changed their design too much in recent years, and so far there’s little evidence to suggest the Galaxy S26 Ultra will look dramatically different either. However, there are some changes that could deliver some added style points — and another potential move that would drop a feature from the last two Ultra models.

For starters, it sounds like the phone will be getting thinner. The reliable tipster Ice Universe believes that the phone will be between 7 and 8mm thick with a “slightly increased width and height.” For reference, the S25 Ultra is 0.32-inches (8.1 mm) thick, meaning the change might barely be noticeable or quite a big difference, depending on where exactly it lands.

Recently leaked mockups show off a phone with more iPhone-looking curves highlighted by more rounded corners than we've seen on the past two generations of Galaxy S handsets. There's also an leaked image of the S26 Ultra in an advertisement shared by regular Samsung leaker Tarun Vats, which shows more of the raised camera compartment.

Worryingly, for fans of the S Pen, this new thinness might be achieved by reducing the versatility of the stylus. In June, the leaker PandaFlashPro claimed that Samsung would be removing the S Pen digitizer, which is responsible for features like pressure sensitivity and hovering options, though he later claimed that Samsung were dissatisfied with test results, so hopefully that means it’s safe for now. Indeed, leaked specs about the Galaxy S26 models indicate that S Pen support will remain a part of the Ultra.

For colors, we've seen six total leaked for the S26 Ultra. We'd assume at least two of these will be exclusive to Samsung, while leaving standard black/grey/white options plus one brighter hue available universally.

More recently, Ice Universe claimed that the Ultra would be available in Black Shadow, White Shadow, Galactial Blue and Ultravioiet colors. The lack of "Titanium" in those color names has fueled speculation that Samsung will no longer use a titanium frame for the Ultra — something that's been in place since the Galaxy S24 Ultra. If true, it means Samsung is following the lead of Apple, which did away with titanium on its iPhone 17 Pro models.

IceUniverse then followed this with a new leak showcasing the SIM trays for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which included the Ultraviolet color instead of the Orange. This was then seemingly confirmed by another X user,  Ahmed Qwaider, who reiterated that violet would be the new hero color and that Orange would not be among the S26 Ultra's standard colors.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Display

In terms of the Galaxy S26 Ultra's screen, we’re still expecting a 6.9-inch AMOLED panel, though Ice Universe suggests it’ll feature “CoE depolarizer technology and third-generation anti-reflective glass.” A report from ET News says something similar, claiming that the Ultra will adopt CoE technology alongside M14 screen materials — which should both offer a brighter screen and better color reproduction. That same claim about the M14 display has appeared in other leaked specs, too.

The S25 Ultra has a sharp display that's perfect for watching videos, but the anti-reflective glass for the S26 Ultra could further mitigate reflections while watching content under brighter conditions or outdoors. This would be great, but it'll be interesting to see how Samsung improves its brightness.

That's because in our own testing, the S25 Ultra reached a peak brightness of 1,860 nits — while the Pixel 10 Pro XL managed to reach 2,555 in the same tests. Needless to say Samsung is quite far behind, and upgrading the screen could help it catch up with its biggest Android rival. Sadly, it seems that Samsung won't be upgrading the display's brightness this time around.

On the upside, it's also been rumored on more than one occasion that the Ultra's screen could include a new privacy feature, which uses software to limit visibility from side angles. This "Flex Magic" feature should then make it that much harder for people around you to snoop on your phone and see what you're doing. A more recent leak shows how the Privacy Display feature would work in practice.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Cameras

At one point early last year, Ice Universe suggested that Samsung might resurrect the variable rate aperture for the S26 Ultra. It would be the first time such a feature had appeared in a Samsung phone since the Galaxy S10 in 2018.

However, in August, Ice Universe claimed that the main camera will use an f/1.4 aperture, with the same 200MP main sensor as the previous generation. That would translate to 47% more light entering the camera, which should be a decent boost to picture quality in low-light conditions, with reduced noise.

Elsewhere, FlashPandaPro claims that Samsung is testing a 12MP sensor for the 3x telephoto snapper, upping the megapixel count from the 10MP lens found on the previous model. The leaker also mentions a new laser AF sensor for faster focusing speeds, as well as a next-gen ProVisual Engine to boost image processing.

The 3x telephoto upgrade rumor is also substantiated by another report that indicates Samsung's is upgrading it to a 12MP S5K3LD sensor. According to a leaked firmware, the debugging details show the S26 Ultra using the S5K3LD sensor with the 12MP 3x telephoto camera.

Ice Universe also believes that Samsung will use the 1/2.52" 0.7μm 50MP telephoto sensor for the Galaxy S26. That's the same sensor as the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra. To make matters worse, the leaker also believes that the S27 Ultra may follow that trend as well.

A recent post on X by known leaker Ice Universe has indicated that Samsung could change the base image quality for the Galaxy S26 Ultra's main camera to 24MP, instead of the current 12MP. If accurate, then that would mean a noticeable improvement in image details, even in low-light environments, while keeping to a lower file size compared to images taken at the peak of the 200MP camera.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Performance

In an earnings call last year, Samsung executives mentioned the Galaxy S26 series. noting that performance, cameras and AI will get the most attention in the company's upcoming flagships.

For the past few generations of the Ultra, Samsung has leaned on Qualcomm to power its flagships. However, there could be a change with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Certainly, you'd hope that Samsung would use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset Qualcomm announced last fall, as that new silicon delivers a number of improvements to performance, AI, camera features and more. We had a chance to run some Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 benchmarks, and it's a definite improvement on the Snapdragon 8 Elite found in the Galaxy S25 Ultra — and that older chip is hardly a laggard. You only have to see how another Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered phone, the OnePlus 15, performs to appreciate what that silicon brings to the table.

However, some reports have suggested Samsung would turn to the Exynos 2600 chipset in some markets; a subsequent report out of Korea also claims that the Exynos 2600 is slated for the Ultra. If accurate, this would be a return to a previous norm for Samsung, where it shipped flagship models with the Exynos chip in select countries, and Qualcomm-made Snapdragon silicon in others such as the U.S.

Traditionally, Exynos chips haven't matched the performance of Qualcomm's top silicon, so this is a development we're going to watch closely.

Additionally, the Galaxy S26 Ultra might see a boost from the 12GB RAM of its predecessor to 16GB. A graph from Macquarie Research suggests Samsung may be returning to 16GB RAM for the first time since the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

That would make sense given AI’s growing memory requirements, and Samsung’s pushing of Galaxy AI. And on that note, there’s talk of Samsung integrating Perplexity into the company’s Bing digital assistant. (Incidentally, there are also rumors of Samsung adding S26 Ultra-exclusive Galaxy AI features, though that would be a departure from how Samsung has handled AI the last two years, where the same new features appear on all models.)

While nothing has yet been revealed about storage space, it seems safe to assume there won’t be any advancement on the currently available configurations. That’s either a 256GB, 512GB or 1TB capacity.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Battery life and charging

Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra phones have maintained a 5,000mAh battery capacity since the Galaxy S20 Ultra arrived in 2020. Earlier in the year, it seemed this would finally change with the news that Samsung was looking into adopting silicon-carbon batteries, capable of packing more capacity into the same space.

However, it now seems likely that Samsung will instead be using this as an opportunity to reduce the battery’s footprint without touching the capacity. Both Galaxy Club and Ice Universe claim that 5,000mAh is here to stay for another year. A report from Korean news site Newsis corroborates this rumor as well. However, leaked specs from a Telegram channel indicate that Samsung may use a 5,400 mAh cell for the S26 Ultra.

There is some good battery news for power users. Leaked code from One UI 8.5 suggests that charging speeds will jump to 60W — a 15W improvement on the 45W charging of the S25 Ultra. And to better match the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which features 25W MagSafe wireless charging, there's a report hinting at the S26 Ultra getting faster 25W wireless charging. And if that's not enough, it's tipped to get full Qi2 wireless charging support, which could mean all the proper magnets to allow various accessories to attach to it.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Outlook

It would be hugely surprising if the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn't impress with its improvements over past models. The big question, though, is whether that will be enough to justify the price of an upgrade, particularly if Samsung charges more for the new phone.

While it sounds like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and additional RAM will offer unbeatable performance, other areas sound more incremental — especially on the photography side of things.

With another month until the phone appears — at least if Samsung has pushed back the S26 launch event — we're hoping that more details appear. And given the pace of leaks so far, that seems inevitable.

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