Samsung’s first Galaxy Unpacked of 2026 just wrapped up in San Francisco, and honestly, it gave us a lot more to talk about than the usual spec bumps. While the standard Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus got some solid updates (yes, the Exynos 2600 is back in some regions), the real star of the show was exactly who we expected: the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Usually, the “Ultra” moniker just means a bigger screen and a slightly better camera. But this year, Samsung actually threw a few curveballs that caught even the most seasoned tech leakers off guard.
If you’re eyeing this as your next upgrade or just want to see how it stacks up against the iPhone 17 Pro Max, here’s a breakdown of the five biggest surprises from the S26 Ultra reveal.
1. A Built-in "Privacy Display" (No Screen Protector Needed)
Let’s be real: those third-party privacy screen protectors that block wandering eyes are usually dim, thick, and annoying to install. Well, Samsung just made them obsolete.
In a massive win for anyone who commutes or works in coffee shops, the S26 Ultra features a hardware-based Privacy Display baked right into the 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel. By using directional OLED pixels, you can toggle a mode that makes the screen look completely pitch-black to anyone glancing from the side.
But when you’re looking straight at it? You still get that vibrant, peak-brightness Samsung display. It’s easily one of the coolest hardware tricks we’ve seen in years.
2. The Jump to 16GB of RAM
We’ve been stuck at 12GB of RAM on the Ultra models for what feels like forever. Samsung finally broke the ceiling, making 16GB of RAM the new baseline for the S26 Ultra.
Why the sudden jump? Two letters: A-I. Running complex generative AI tasks directly on your phone takes a massive toll on memory.
With One UI 8.5 and Android 16, Samsung wants features like live translation, heavy photo generation, and large language models to process locally rather than relying on an internet connection. This extra RAM ensures the phone won’t break a sweat when you’re multitasking heavy workloads.
3. "Hey Plex": Deep Perplexity AI Integration
Samsung has pushed its own Bixby assistant for years, usually right alongside Google Assistant. So, it was genuinely surprising to see them announce a deep, system-level partnership with Perplexity AI.
The S26 Ultra comes with a dedicated “Hey Plex” wake word. Instead of just giving you a list of blue links like a traditional search engine, Perplexity acts as a heavy-duty research assistant.
You can ask it to summarize a massive PDF, pull cited research for a project, or execute complex web searches entirely hands-free. It’s a huge step toward making the Ultra a true productivity powerhouse.
4. The Cameras Actually Look Different Now
If you’ve looked at a Samsung Ultra phone over the last few years, you’re familiar with the floating, individual camera rings. It was a clean look, but it was starting to feel a bit stale.
Samsung has finally shaken things up. The S26 Ultra features a completely redesigned, smooth, pill-shaped module that houses the quad-camera system.
It looks incredibly sleek and gives the phone a fresh visual identity. Under the hood, it’s still an absolute monster: a 200MP main sensor with upgraded OIS, a 50MP periscope lens with 5x optical zoom, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 10MP 3x telephoto lens.
5. Stacked Batteries and Faster Charging
Smartphone batteries have been stuck at the 5,000mAh mark for a while simply because you can only fit so much lithium-ion inside a glass sandwich. Samsung tackled this by borrowing “stacked battery” tech from the electric vehicle industry.
While the capacity remains at 5,000mAh, the stacked design vastly improves thermal management—meaning the phone stays cooler under pressure. But the real surprise here is the charging speeds.
Samsung finally bumped the wired charging up from 45W to 60W, which is going to be a lifesaver when you need a quick top-up before a flight. They also added support for 25W Qi2 wireless charging, bringing that snappy magnetic alignment Android users have been begging for.
The Bottom Line
Powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor across all regions, the Galaxy S26 Ultra feels less like a routine update and more like a deliberate flex.
Samsung didn’t just chase benchmark scores this year; they focused heavily on how people actually use their phones—giving us better privacy, actual useful AI, and a fresh design. As we head deeper into 2026, the S26 Ultra is clearly the phone to beat.
