Samsung S26 Ultra: Disappointing Privacy, Surprising Wins

Summary

Samsung's new Galaxy S26 Ultra offers a mixed bag of innovations, with some much-hyped features falling short while others impress. The standout feature, a privacy display designed to limit viewing angles, works by using narrow pixels to focus light directly forward. While effective at making the screen unreadable from the sides, it significantly reduces resolution and brightness for the user. Furthermore, the underlying technology appears to have negatively impacted the phone's general viewing angles even when privacy mode is off, causing a noticeable blue tint and faster brightness falloff compared to its predecessor. However, the display itself is an upgrade with a 10-bit panel for better color range and improved image processing. The phone's design also sees subtle but welcome refinements, including softer corners and a gentler screen curve, making it lighter and thinner than before, though Samsung has controversially returned to aluminum from titanium. Camera improvements are more understated but include wider apertures for better low-light shots, a new 'horizontal lock' for super steady video, and enhanced portrait processing that subtly improves detail and skin texture. Performance is boosted by the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, but the battery remains a 5,000 mAh unit, a point of concern given competitors' larger batteries. Charging is faster at 60W wired and 25W wireless, but magnetic wireless charging is still absent. Software introduces AI-driven screenshot organization, a quick-access search 'Finder', and an enhanced Bixby integrated with Perplexity AI for smarter actions and internet searches. AI photo editing allows for text-based image manipulation and blending, aiming for more natural results. However, new features like 'Nudge', designed to surface contextual information, proved inconsistent during testing, and the notification summarization feature is not yet available. Overall, the S26 Ultra is a solid device with appreciated refinements, but not a revolutionary leap forward.