Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review: There's a Catch

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is reviewed with a focus on its new Privacy Display, trade-offs, and overall value. The reviewer starts by acknowledging that many aspects of the phone feel familiar compared with last year, but highlights a bold new feature: a privacy filter built into the display that can be toggled on to limit viewing angles. The trade-off is immediately apparent: enabling Privacy Display halves the pixel visibility from the user’s perspective, reducing resolution and slightly lowering peak brightness, though Samsung’s software attempts to compensate so the perceived brightness stays reasonable in everyday use. The review then discusses practical implications, such as the need to choose how and when to apply this privacy mode, which apps to protect, and the potential impact on text clarity and UI sharpness when the feature is on. The speaker emphasizes that while this is a genuinely useful hardware feature, it comes with compromises, and it may appeal most to users who prioritize privacy over absolute display fidelity. The design changes are also covered, noting a thinner, lighter body with a rounded aluminum frame, a larger camera bump, and the S Pen insertion not being as seamless as before, which can affect everyday usability. Performance is described as excellent, driven by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, with strong multitasking, gaming, and improved battery life thanks to better efficiency, even at a 5000 mAh capacity. Battery charging has improved to 60W, though practical concerns like the lack of Qi2 magnets and the absence of a silicon-carbon battery are mentioned as missed opportunities. The camera system is largely familiar but gains a brighter main sensor aperture and improved stabilization with Horizon Lock, enabling stable 4K/60 video and compelling still photography under various conditions. Finally, the reviewer surveys the software layer of Galaxy AI, noting a broad suite of AI features from call screening to background noise suppression, photo editing, and scene creation. The overall verdict is nuanced: the S26 Ultra is still an excellent device with clever features, but price remains a barrier, and some design and software choices feel more like incremental updates than a radical leap, leaving the door open for a truly Ultra flagship in future iterations.

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