Samsung Unveiled Galaxy S26 Smartphone Series

Samsung unveiled its flagship Galaxy S26 lineup of smartphones. The company put an emphasis on more AI features and what it claimed was the industry’s first built-in privacy display.

Positioned as Samsung’s most intuitive Galaxy devices to date, the S26 series marks the company’s third generation of AI‑native smartphones. The new models aim to streamline everyday tasks by handling more processes automatically in the background, from managing schedules to surfacing information at the right time.

The new devices announced include the large Galaxy S26 Ultra priced at $1,300, the Galaxy S26 Plus ($1,100), and the more standard-sized Galaxy S26 ($900). Those price tags put Samsung’s flagship devices in line with Apple’s iPhone 17 series. While the Ultra costs the same as its predecessor, the Plus and standard S26 are $100 more expensive than last year’s models, an increase that could partially be explained by the ongoing memory chip shortage.

Upgraded Galaxy AI now plays a larger role throughout the series, designed to anticipate user needs rather than wait for explicit commands. Features such as Now Nudge and Now Brief offer contextual suggestions and reminder prompts, while improvements to Circle to Search allow users to identify multiple objects within an image simultaneously. The S26 lineup also deepens integration with AI agents, including a more conversational Bixby assistant alongside Gemini and Perplexity agents, enabling multi-step tasks to be triggered by a single voice prompt or button press.

Samsung is using two different chipsets across the 6.9-inch S26 Ultra, 6.7-inch Galaxy S26 Plus, and 6.2-inch S26 models. The Galaxy Ultra is getting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip across all global regions. Customers in North America, Japan, and China will also have the Qualcomm processors across all three devices. In Europe and the rest of the world, the Galaxy S26 and the Galaxy S26 Plus will feature the in-house developed Exynos 2600 chipset. The S26 series will start shipping on 11 March.