Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S26 series of phones at the company's Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday. As suspected, the Galaxy S26 is the base model, the S26 Plus is the larger version of the S26 with more storage and battery, and the S26 Ultra is the most premium of the lot, offering higher-end specs than the rest.
Not only is the Galaxy S26 Ultra a bigger phone with a larger display, but it also has top-notch camera specs that include a 200-megapixel wide and an additional 5x telephoto camera lens. It's also available with more RAM and up to 1TB of storage. But while the other two models had a price increase compared with their predecessors (the S26 starts at $900 while the S26 Plus starts at $1,100), the S26 Ultra is the only one where its starting $1,300 price remains unchanged from last year's S25 Ultra.
Here's how the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra compares with the S26 and S26 Plus.
Watch this: First Look at the Galaxy S26 Ultra: Camera, Battery and AI Updates 02:56
Design and display
The S26 Ultra is the largest phone of the trio, measuring 6.44 by 3.07 by 0.31 inches. The S26 Plus is in the middle at 6.24 by 2.98 by 0.29 inches, while the S26 is the smallest at 5.89 by 2.82 by 0.28 inches. The S26 Ultra has an aluminum frame instead of the titanium frame of the S25 Ultra. It's also the only one with an integrated S Pen.
The S26 Ultra is the largest phone. Celso Bulgatti/CNET
Since the S26 Ultra is the largest phone of the lot, it makes sense that it also has the largest display. It has a 6.9-inch AMOLED with a 3,120x1,440-pixel resolution, while the S26 Plus has a 6.7-inch AMOLED with a 3,120x1,440-pixel resolution, and the S26 has a 6.3-inch AMOLED with a 2,340 by 1,080 pixel resolution. All three displays have a 1 to 120Hz variable refresh rate. The S26 Ultra's Privacy Display feature is quite notable, allowing for a built-in way to control how visible your phone's screen is to other people around you.
While the S26 and the S26 Plus have a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 cover screen, the S26 Plus has Gorilla Glass Armor 2 cover glass, which promises increased durability and scratch protection.
The Galaxy S26 and S26 have similar camera hardware to last year's S25. Both phones have a 50-megapixel wide camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide and a 10-megapixel telephoto. Vanessa Hand Orellana/CNET
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