A countdown timer is running on Samsung’s website: It has been there since pre-orders opened and when it expires Wednesday so does the most aggressive trade-in offer Samsung has put on the table in years – up to $900 in credit toward the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a phone that normally sells for $1,299 (256 GB model). Do the math and you land at $399 out of pocket. For context, that is roughly what Apple charges for a refurbished iPhone 13.
Privacy filters have always been an afterthought in the 15 years that smartphones have been competing with each other, and they are just a plastic film that you order online, put on badly, and never replace. The Galaxy S26 Ultra from Samsung is a different kind of answer, not just a different level: The Privacy Display is built into the screen itself at the pixel level and it works without any input from the user. The edges get darker, the angles of view collapse and the person next to you on the plane can’t see anything. Apple hasn’t sent anything like it. Google hasn’t either.
What makes the Galaxy S26’s AI different from other phones is not the features, but the chip that powers it. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy is the brain behind all three S26 models (Galaxy S26/S26+/S26 Ultra). It has a neural processing unit that is 39% faster than last year’s. Here, speed is important because the features are very demanding. Nudge now keeps track of what’s going on in all of your apps and suggests actions before you even think to do them. For example, a flight mentioned in a text will show up as a calendar reminder, and photos talked about in a conversation will be marked for sharing. If you type “book me an Uber to the airport,” the phone will take care of everything until you need to confirm your payment.
For years, the talk about flagship phones has been about megapixel count, which stopped being important a long time ago. Samsung has changed the argument. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s four-camera system now has wider apertures on all of its lenses. You can see the difference: The new 200-megapixel sensor lets in 40% more light than the old one and the telephoto lens with 50 megapixels pulls in 37% more. In practice, this makes it possible to take pictures at night without a tripod or a lot of post-processing.
That counter has three days left, the Galaxy S26 comes out on March 11. If you pre-order now, you’ll get it on release day at a price that won’t be available after Wednesday.
Leave a comment