Mulling over a Galaxy S26? There’s only one option

Thinking of buying a Samsung Galaxy S26 over the coming weeks? There’s really only one model worth getting excited about.

Even before Samsung had sent out invites to its Unpacked event, taking place today, there was very little left to unpack.

We knew pretty much exactly what was going to be unveiled at the company’s big San Francisco shindig, thanks to the endless stream of leaks and rumours emanating from well-sourced tipsters and Samsung itself.

You can find out the specifications, features and where to buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 series in our dedicated article. I’m not going to get into too much detail here.

What I am going to do is supply is a handy TL;DR for you all. Here it is: only the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is of any real interest.

Same old, same old

Don’t get me wrong: the Samsung Galaxy S26 and Samsung Galaxy S26+ are very good phones.

If you’re upgrading from a phone that’s two years old or more, you’re likely to be very happy with a purchase of either. But in terms of year-on-year improvements over their Samsung Galaxy S25 predecessors, there’s precious little to get excited about.

In the UK, there’ll be a new Exynos 2600 processor in both models, and the standard Galaxy S26 will have a fractionally larger screen (6.3-inch, up from 6.2-inch) and battery (4300mAh, up from 4000mAh). That’s about it.

We won’t be seeing the Qi2 magnetic wireless charging upgrade that had been widely predicted. Even the Google Pixel 10 series – hardly a paragon of smartphone novelty – added that particular feature.

It’s all about the Ultra

If you’re looking for genuine progress in this year’s Galaxy S26 family, you’ll probably need to turn to the Ultra model.

I’m genuinely intrigued by the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy Screen, which can blank out specific sensitive content unless you’re looking at it straight-on.

It’s anti-peeking-over-shoulder technology that could have genuine security benefits and it’s set to work in a controlled way, making notifications private, for example, rather than an all-or-nothing block.

The design has also been revamped, with a slimmer (7.9mm), lighter (214g) body. As someone who’s always sworn off even entertaining a Galaxy Ultra purchase owing to the model’s bulk, this is very interesting news indeed.

The premium model also has faster wired charging and wireless charging.

Topping it all off, the baseline Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has the smallest price bump of all models, up only £30 in the UK. Given price rises of £80 to £100 elsewhere, plus the lack of upgrades in the wider S26 family, that’s a huge incentive to focus on the Ultra model.

Samsung seems to want this to be the narrative, too, and has reportedly manufactured only 700K S26 units and 600K of the S26+, compared to 3.6 million Ultras.