Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Everything to Know Before Wednesday's Galaxy Unpacked 2026

Samsung is two days away from pulling back the curtain on its most anticipated flagship of the year. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will be officially unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 on Wednesday, February 25, in San Francisco — with the livestream beginning at 1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT. Retail sales are expected to kick off on March 11, with preorders opening the day after the keynote event.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Key Specs at a Glance

The Headline Feature: Privacy Display

The single most talked-about innovation coming to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is the Privacy Display — a first-of-its-kind feature for the Galaxy line built on what Samsung is calling Flex Magic Pixel technology. The display can reportedly make screen content visible only to the person directly facing it, blocking anyone viewing from an angle. Samsung's own teasers have briefly confirmed the feature's existence, and code strings for a "Privacy Display" toggle were discovered in early One UI 8.5 test builds. It is widely expected to be the centerpiece of Samsung's Unpacked 2026 marketing push.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Powers the Galaxy S26 Ultra Globally

Unlike some prior years where Samsung split chipsets by region, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy worldwide — with a slightly overclocked primary core potentially reaching 4.74 GHz. Early Geekbench 6 benchmark results that leaked ahead of Unpacked showed the S26 Ultra outpacing the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max in performance scores. The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus, by contrast, are expected to use the Exynos 2600 in European markets.

Camera: Refinements Over Revolution

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra camera system carries over familiar hardware — a 200MP main shooter, 50MP ultrawide, 50MP 5x periscope, and 12MP 3x telephoto — but leaks point to meaningful software-side upgrades. One UI 8.5 reportedly introduces a new Camera Assistant with dedicated video controls for sharpness and autofocus speed, designed to unlock more cinematic-quality footage. The ultrawide field of view reportedly expands slightly from 80 to 85 degrees. Samsung may also bump the default photo capture resolution from 12MP to 24MP to reduce compression.

What's Delayed — and What's Not Changing

Samsung pushed its Galaxy Unpacked 2026 back from its traditional January window — speculation points to AI data center supply chain strain, the new Privacy Display needing additional development time, or a deliberate competitive repositioning ahead of MWC 2026, which kicks off later this week. The S Pen is staying. The 5,000 mAh battery capacity is unchanged, though charging speeds do improve. Samsung has eliminated the 128GB base model entirely across the S26 lineup, making 256GB the new floor.

Should You Buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra?

• S24 Ultra / S23 Ultra owners: Strong candidate for an upgrade — the chip leap and Privacy Display are meaningful generational gains.
• S25 Ultra owners: Incremental enough that waiting for S27 may make more sense unless the Privacy Display is a must-have.
• Best time to buy: Preorder day — February 25 — locks in the strongest trade-in values and launch-day promotions, with double storage deals expected. Cash discount buyers can expect up to $300 off in the months post-launch.

Galaxy Unpacked 2026 streams live on Wednesday, February 25 at 1:00 PM ET on Samsung's official YouTube channel and Samsung.com.