Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
From € 1,499
AI is supposed to be the game-changing technology that makes all of our lives easier. But what if it was something even simpler and more useful? Samsung has declared time on shoulder-surfing with its new Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it uses one feature to do it.
The Ultra has always been the premium end of the Galaxy series. It gets the biggest screen, the best camera and the extras such as the integrated S Pen.
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While the S26 series as a whole has focused on AI, the S26 Ultra has an additional feature – a built-in privacy screen, which is integrated into the 6.9-inch display and can be turned on and off as needed.
Why should you opt for this phone instead of, say, slapping a third-party privacy filter on the display of your phone? A few reasons. The first is that the filters are an extra expense, and need replacing over time if you are particularly hard on phones. That can add up over the lifetime of the phone. The second is the impact on visual quality – the add-on filter needs to be applied precisely (in my experience), preferably in a dust-proof vacuum, and there is always a teeny tiny bubble somewhere on the screen that will annoy you for the next few months. A third reason is the angles they work at.
Privacy filters you add to the phone are usually polarising filters. That means they will work well in portrait mode, but not when the phone is in landscape mode. While that isn’t a big deal for most people, who more often than not are putting in passwords for banking apps or accounts in portrait mode anyway, if you work on your phone, then the flaws become apparent.
The Samsung filter works differently. It uses a mix of wide pixels and narrow pixels in the display; when the filter is turned on, the display relies on the narrow pixels, which reduces the viewing angle from all sides. Looking straight at the screen, you can see it perfectly, but move off centre and the difference becomes apparent very quickly. That effect will also prevent people from peering at your device from above, so you can check your email in public and stay reasonably confident that your phone’s display is not visible to onlookers.
Samsung’s option is also more flexible. You can opt for full privacy protection, which will blanket the entire screen all the time, or have it automatically turn on when you are using certain apps. There is also the option just to use it on notifications, which will block out the notification bar while leaving the rest of the screen visible.
It is surprisingly useful. You can still put a tempered glass screen protector over the top if you want – usually a cheaper option than privacy screens – and you decide when the privacy filter is active. On full privacy mode, the display does dim a touch, but not enough to affect viewing. On the whole, it’s a decent trade-off for the benefit.
A fancy screen is not all the Ultra has to offer. The second most used feature during the course of this review was the camera’s horizon lock in the video camera. Enable the super-steady camera and it will lock the camera in place. It is ideal for videoing sports events or your children’s school shows; even if your attention wanders and the camera drops off centre, the horizon lock will hold the video in place. It is almost impossible to tell the point in the footage where it kicks in.
As is usual with Samsung flagship phones, the camera is impressively detailed if a little oversaturated at times, and has pro-quality camera options that allow you to shoot in RAW image formats.
There are AI features throughout the entire Galaxy S26 lineup. Aside from the standard help with rewriting text or composing emails, you can use Galaxy AI to edit photographs, removing unwanted distractions, adding people in, or creating a whole new background for it. You can pretend that you are a fantastically talented artist by transforming your run-of-the-mill shot into an artistic portrait with an oil painting filter or an illustration effect.
Samsung is also offering more AI options out of the box, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity built into the operating system. The latter is integrated with Samsung’s Bixby assistant and the manufacturer’s apps, so you can squeeze just a little more AI into your everyday life. Samsung was also talking up agentic AI for its phones – AI that will do things on your behalf, without explicit supervision, and in theory make your life easier – but the EU’s stricter guidelines for big tech companies and AI in general could mean that this agentic AI future could look different for Irish users.
Good
The privacy display beats struggling with an add-on, all-or-nothing filter that can’t be customised or switched off.
Some of the AI features are useful – AI document scanning for example, especially if you are filing receipts digitally, as it smooths out the creases and even removes fingers from the finished image.
Samsung has kept to a similar design but rounded out the edges and slimmed it every so slightly. It’s still a big phone, but for most people it won’t be unmanageable.
Battery life is also good, and the super-fast charging means even if it falters, you can get back up and running in less than half an hour.
Bad
Some of the agentic AI features will not be available in the EU for a while. And the ones that are are all opt-in so you need to spend time enabling everything you want to use.
The phone itself is on the larger side, so those with smaller hands may find it more unwieldy.
Everything else
The S Pen is tucked away at the bottom of the phone, ready to take notes when needed.
The Ultra model also has the advantage of even faster charging (depending on the cable and charger), going from 0 to 75 per cent in half an hour. That is handy for those of us who prefer not to charge overnight, or forget to top up the power on the phone until the last minute. By the time you’ve finished getting ready to leave the house, you have enough battery power to get you through the day.
Verdict
Samsung has a winning feature on its hands - and it isn’t AI.
4 stars
samsung.com
