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We’ve all had the issue of someone sitting so close that they can see your phone screen when you don’t want them to. It’s particularly a problem if you’re dealing with sensitive work information. So I’m happy to see Samsung offering a solution: the new Privacy Screen feature on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a phone I’ve been traveling with lately.
When enabled, Privacy Screen lets you read the phone’s display clearly from straight on, while making the screen appear dark when viewed at an angle. You can choose between regular and "maximum" protection, which makes the screen even darker.
When that function is off, the screen pretty much looks like any other high-end display—a very nice 6.9-inch Samsung AMOLED panel at a maximum resolution of 3,120 by 1,440 with up to 2,600 nits. It’s a tad less bright than the screen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra I tested last year, but unless you put the phones side by side, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The Galaxy S26’s display still looks great, even in bright light.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Perhaps most usefully, you can set Privacy Screen to turn on only when you're running specific applications. In my case, I used it when I was running my mail programs (Outlook and Gmail), and I have to say, I felt more comfortable sending and receiving mail on a train with it on. I can imagine a number of corporate IT managers who will see the utility, even if it's not a perfect solution. (Ideally, of course, you would refrain from looking at any corporate information in a public place, but let’s face it, that's unlikely.)
The privacy feature the standout advantage of the S26 Ultra, but in other ways, it's a very worthy flagship phone. It’s a nice upgrade from last year's Galaxy S25 Ultra, with interesting improvements to the camera and AI features that I suspect most people will appreciate but won't, by themselves, spur upgrades.
Sharper Photos and More AI Functionality
Compared with the S25 Ultra, the S26 Ultra’s corners are slightly more rounded, making it easier to get in and out of a pocket. It now has an aluminum frame instead of a titanium one, which makes it a bit heavier, though you probably won't notice.
The camera bump remains pretty large, with three big lenses in a vertical strip on the back, next to another row housing an IR lens, a flash, and a smaller telephoto lens. It has a 12MP f/2.2 front camera for selfies.
The S26 Ultra has a 200MP f/1.4 main camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultrawide camera, a 50MP f/2.9 telephoto (5X optical), and a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto (10X optical), which are the same specs as the S25 Ultra. But Samsung says the newer versions of the sensors let in more light. I thought photos looked sharper than ever. As before, this model goes up to 100X "Space Zoom," a combination of optical and digital zoom, and while it's still nowhere near as good as a bigger zoom lens, I have found it useful.
The S26 Ultra, like its predecessor, lets you record video at up to 8K at 30fps. But it has improved video stabilization and does a much better job removing noise. And as before, audio quality was quite good in both playback and capture, though I still think you'll want an external microphone to get the best sound.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s AI features continue to evolve. You'll do most of your editing in the Photos app; you can now ask to make changes either by typing requests or by pressing the microphone button and speaking what you want. This worked well in some cases, not so great in others. For instance, it did a fine job removing extraneous people from photo backgrounds, but when it came to choosing the appropriate background, it didn’t always hit the mark. But in general, it's useful, and I'm glad to see that the phone watermarks AI-altered photos as such.
Other AI changes include improvements to the document-scanning features and the Now Brief that shows up on the home screen, which provides a more personalized feed if you opt in to share data with Gemini. There's also “Now nudge,” which looks at what's on your screen and suggests other things that might be of interest. These were interesting developments, if not game changers.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)This year's model is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor, which does improve performance somewhat—it handled everything I tried very easily, and I was happy that it stayed relatively cool even when running complex applications such as navigation. It now supports up to 60W wired charging and 25W Qi2 charging. Battery life seems good enough to me—it easily made it through a full day.
The phone still has the standard control buttons and an included S-Pen stylus, which fits in the bottom of the device and can be used for simple drawings or note-taking. The S-Pen doesn't seem to have changed much from last year's version, but it remains something that sets the S26 Ultra apart from the other phones in Samsung's lineup and, indeed, from all the other major flagship phones.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a nice upgrade from last year's model, though the most significant change—the Privacy Screen—likely will appeal only to some business users. Still, for them, that may be reason enough to upgrade. For the rest of us, the new AI features and camera improvements are very nice to have, but not essential. I do hope that future Samsung models offer the Privacy Screen option, and that similar functionality catches on industry-wide.
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We’ve all had the issue of someone sitting so close that they can see your phone screen when you don’t want them to. It’s particularly a problem if you’re dealing with sensitive work information. So I’m happy to see Samsung offering a solution: the new Privacy Screen feature on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a phone I’ve been traveling with lately.
When enabled, Privacy Screen lets you read the phone’s display clearly from straight on, while making the screen appear dark when viewed at an angle. You can choose between regular and "maximum" protection, which makes the screen even darker.
When that function is off, the screen pretty much looks like any other high-end display—a very nice 6.9-inch Samsung AMOLED panel at a maximum resolution of 3,120 by 1,440 with up to 2,600 nits. It’s a tad less bright than the screen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra I tested last year, but unless you put the phones side by side, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The Galaxy S26’s display still looks great, even in bright light.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Perhaps most usefully, you can set Privacy Screen to turn on only when you're running specific applications. In my case, I used it when I was running my mail programs (Outlook and Gmail), and I have to say, I felt more comfortable sending and receiving mail on a train with it on. I can imagine a number of corporate IT managers who will see the utility, even if it's not a perfect solution. (Ideally, of course, you would refrain from looking at any corporate information in a public place, but let’s face it, that's unlikely.)
The privacy feature the standout advantage of the S26 Ultra, but in other ways, it's a very worthy flagship phone. It’s a nice upgrade from last year's Galaxy S25 Ultra, with interesting improvements to the camera and AI features that I suspect most people will appreciate but won't, by themselves, spur upgrades.
Sharper Photos and More AI Functionality
Compared with the S25 Ultra, the S26 Ultra’s corners are slightly more rounded, making it easier to get in and out of a pocket. It now has an aluminum frame instead of a titanium one, which makes it a bit heavier, though you probably won't notice.
The camera bump remains pretty large, with three big lenses in a vertical strip on the back, next to another row housing an IR lens, a flash, and a smaller telephoto lens. It has a 12MP f/2.2 front camera for selfies.
The S26 Ultra has a 200MP f/1.4 main camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultrawide camera, a 50MP f/2.9 telephoto (5X optical), and a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto (10X optical), which are the same specs as the S25 Ultra. But Samsung says the newer versions of the sensors let in more light. I thought photos looked sharper than ever. As before, this model goes up to 100X "Space Zoom," a combination of optical and digital zoom, and while it's still nowhere near as good as a bigger zoom lens, I have found it useful.
The S26 Ultra, like its predecessor, lets you record video at up to 8K at 30fps. But it has improved video stabilization and does a much better job removing noise. And as before, audio quality was quite good in both playback and capture, though I still think you'll want an external microphone to get the best sound.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s AI features continue to evolve. You'll do most of your editing in the Photos app; you can now ask to make changes either by typing requests or by pressing the microphone button and speaking what you want. This worked well in some cases, not so great in others. For instance, it did a fine job removing extraneous people from photo backgrounds, but when it came to choosing the appropriate background, it didn’t always hit the mark. But in general, it's useful, and I'm glad to see that the phone watermarks AI-altered photos as such.
Other AI changes include improvements to the document-scanning features and the Now Brief that shows up on the home screen, which provides a more personalized feed if you opt in to share data with Gemini. There's also “Now nudge,” which looks at what's on your screen and suggests other things that might be of interest. These were interesting developments, if not game changers.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)This year's model is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor, which does improve performance somewhat—it handled everything I tried very easily, and I was happy that it stayed relatively cool even when running complex applications such as navigation. It now supports up to 60W wired charging and 25W Qi2 charging. Battery life seems good enough to me—it easily made it through a full day.
The phone still has the standard control buttons and an included S-Pen stylus, which fits in the bottom of the device and can be used for simple drawings or note-taking. The S-Pen doesn't seem to have changed much from last year's version, but it remains something that sets the S26 Ultra apart from the other phones in Samsung's lineup and, indeed, from all the other major flagship phones.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a nice upgrade from last year's model, though the most significant change—the Privacy Screen—likely will appeal only to some business users. Still, for them, that may be reason enough to upgrade. For the rest of us, the new AI features and camera improvements are very nice to have, but not essential. I do hope that future Samsung models offer the Privacy Screen option, and that similar functionality catches on industry-wide. Users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia may also be interested in Samsung's local pricing and availability for the Galaxy S26 Ultra.