Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones—the Galaxy S26 series—are all about optimization and AI. Announced at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco, the phones are not hugely different from last year’s Galaxy S25 models, but the company is hyping up performance optimizations that purportedly boost AI processing. Naturally, there are a bunch of new AI features baked into the phones too.
The headline hardware change is reserved for the top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra: the Privacy Display. It prevents stray eyes from peeping over your shoulder at sensitive information on your screen—no need to apply a third-party privacy screen protector. The Ultra otherwise doesn’t look as visually distinct next to the Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26; unlike the previous flagships, they now all share the same look.
The Galaxy S26 series is available for preorder now, with official sales kicking off on March 11. The Galaxy S26 and S26+ are getting a $100 price increase—likely due to a RAM bump, as RAM is expensive these days. They start at $900 and $1,100, respectively. The Galaxy S26 Ultra remains at the same price as its predecessor: $1,300. Samsung also unveiled a new pair of wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds4 ($179) and Buds4 Pro ($249), also arriving March 11. Here’s everything you need to know.
The Privacy Display
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has something you’ve never seen on a smartphone: a built-in privacy screen. This is a hardware-driven feature; there are two types of pixels on the OLED panel, one that shoots light directly to your eyes, and another next to it that is wider, allowing the light to reach the sides. That allows you to view the screen from all angles. When the Privacy Display is enabled, the latter pixels are turned off, severely limiting what people around you can see. It’s not just blocking the left and right sides of the smartphone like most two-way privacy screen protectors, but also the top and bottom.
What makes it more powerful than your usual privacy screen protector is that the Privacy Display can be customized via the software. You can toggle it on for the entire screen with a simple tap on the Quick Settings tile, or you can enable it for all incoming notifications, on a per-app basis, or for any app that requires a pin or passcode, like banking apps. Samsung says it’ll even work with its Routines, so you can automatically turn it on via geolocation, like when you leave the office.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
