Kerry Wan and Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
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It's officially Unpacked week, which means antsy phone buyers are getting several new models to seriously consider. If you're a power user in particular, you may be weighing the new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra against the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, both of which can be argued to offer the best of Android phones in the first half of 2026.
Also: Samsung Unpacked 2026 live blog: Galaxy S26 Ultra specs, Buds 4 Pro, preorder deals, more
Ahead of Unpacked, the ZDNET team spent time with both phones to get a sense of their unique strengths and weaknesses. If you're split between the two, here are the key buying reasons for each and our choice if we have to pick one.
You should buy the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra if...
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
1. You prefer Samsung's kitchen sink approach to software
While Samsung's software experience has become less buggy and chaotic since the old TouchWiz days, OneUI, now on version 8.5, remains one of the most feature-rich versions of Android on the market. The native launcher lets you customize elements such as wallpaper shade, widget styles, swipe animations, and more.
On a device like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, you'll get additional note-taking features to make the most of the built-in S Pen stylus -- though you can no longer use Bluetooth gestures like you could with older models. There are several new Galaxy AI features as well, including context-based Now Nudge, similar to Google's Magic Cue, and an upgraded scam detection tool.
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