Samsung
officially took the wraps off the Galaxy S26 series yesterday (February 25,
2026) at their first Galaxy Unpacked event of the year. The new
lineup—featuring the Galaxy S26, S26+, and the powerhouse S26 Ultra—brings some
serious hardware innovations and deepens Samsung's push into generative AI.
Here
is a breakdown of the most important announcements and specs:
The Standout Feature: Built-In
Privacy
- World's
First Privacy Display:
The biggest head-turner is exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It
features a built-in Privacy Display that uses a mix of hardware and
software to restrict side-angle screen visibility—acting just like a
physical privacy screen protector, but built directly into the 6.9-inch
QHD+ AMOLED panel.
Performance & Battery Upgrades
- Faster
Charging:
The S26 Ultra finally pushes past the 45W barrier, introducing 60W
Super-Fast Charging 3.0 that can juice up its 5,000mAh battery to 75%
in just 30 minutes.
- Bigger
Base Battery:
The standard S26 gets a welcome battery bump to 4,300mAh (up from
4,000mAh), while the S26+ retains its 4,900mAh capacity.
- The Silicon Split: The S26 Ultra runs globally on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, complete with an upgraded vapor chamber for better thermal management. The S26 and S26+ will likely utilize Samsung's in-house 2nm Exynos 2600 processor for the Indian market.
Display & Camera Refinements
- Screen
Sizes:
The base Galaxy S26 has grown slightly to a 6.3-inch display, the
S26+ stays at 6.7 inches, and the S26 Ultra maximizes real estate
at 6.9 inches with a slimmer 7.9mm titanium profile and more
rounded corners.
- Camera
Tech: While
the megapixel counts remain largely the same (200MP main on the Ultra; 50MP
main on the base/Plus), Samsung has introduced wider apertures for
significantly brighter low-light photography. The Ultra is also the first
Galaxy phone to support the Advanced Professional Video (APV) standard for
high-quality compression.
Next-Gen "Galaxy AI"
- Multi-Agent
Support:
Samsung isn't locking you into one ecosystem. You can now seamlessly
switch between Google Gemini, an upgraded Bixby, and Perplexity AI,
which is now integrated as a standard assistant option.
- Smarter
Context:
A new feature called "Now Nudge" acts as a contextual assistant,
reading what is on your screen to suggest relevant photos, calendar times,
or quick actions without you needing to search for them.
Indian Market Pricing & Launch
Pre-bookings
are already live, and the devices are scheduled to hit retail shelves on March
11, 2026.
- Galaxy
S26: Starts
at ₹87,999
- Galaxy
S26+: Starts
at ₹1,19,999
- Galaxy
S26 Ultra:
Starts at ₹1,39,999
(Note: Samsung also announced the new Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds
4 Pro alongside the phones, featuring redesigned clear cases and larger
woofers).
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