The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could be one of the best phones of 2026, if rumours are anything to go by.
Samsung is rumoured to be hard at work on the 2026 flagship behind closed doors, with rumours suggesting key upgrades in design, camera tech, performance, and even battery life that, combined, could maintain Samsung’s dominance at the top end of the Android smartphone market.
Here’s everything there is to know about the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra right now, including both rumours and leaks.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra rumours at a glance:
- Similar design to S25 Ultra, but thinner
- 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED panel with better anti-reflective tech
- Upgraded main and 3x telephoto cameras
- Possibility of an under-display selfie camera
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5/Exynos 2600 chipset split
- 5000mAh battery and faster 60W charging
Design
Don’t expect a massive redesign of the Galaxy S26 Ultra if current rumours are to be believed.
There are claims that it’ll resemble the flat-edged, angled corner design of the Galaxy S25 Ultraalbeit in a thinner chassis – and possibly without those divisive protruding camera rings.
Leaker Ice Universe believes that the phone will measure somewhere between 7 and 8mm thick with a “slightly increased width and height”, a reduction from the current 8.1mm-thick chassis.
That reduction in thickness could come at the cost of S Pen functionality, however, with leaker PandaFlashPro claiming that the S Pen would no longer feature a digitiser, which is responsible for pressure sensitivity and hovering options.
Finally, since the reveal of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max’s eye-catching orange colour, rumours have suggested that the S26 Ultra will see its own bright orange iteration.
Screen
Rumours suggest a very similar screen to that of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but given that it’s one of the best on any smartphone right now, that shouldn’t really be a problem for most.
That means we should expect a 6.9-inch AMOLED screen with an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate, a pixel-packed QHD+ resolution and a maximum brightness of 2600nits.
That said, Ice Universe claims the upcoming 6.9-inch panel will feature “CoE depolarizer technology and third-generation ant-reflective glass” that should make it even easier to use in bright environments.
Cameras
There were rumblings earlier this year that Samsung could bring back the variable aperture for the Galaxy S26 Ultra – a feature last seen on the Galaxy S10 back in 2018.
However, more recent rumours suggest that the S26 Ultra will instead sport a fixed f/1.4 200MP main lens. It’s said that the wider aperture should boost light intake by a decent 47%, which should have a knock-on effect on low-light photos and videos.
Elsewhere, there are claims that Samsung is working on an upgraded 12MP 3x telephoto sensor, up from the current 10MP zoom lens. It could even feature a new AF sensor for faster focusing speeds, along with the next iteration of Samsung’s proprietary ProVisual Engine to boost image processing.
It looks like the 50MP ultrawide and 5x periscope lenses will remain unchanged, however.
Interestingly, it’s not just the main lenses due for an upgrade this year; Samsung is also rumoured to use an under-display selfie camera on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It’s usually a staple of Samsung’s big-screen foldables, but it was ditched from this year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, so take that rumour with a pinch of salt.
Performance
Although Samsung is yet to confirm any details on the processor expected to run the S26 Ultra, nor any of the S26 series for that matter, we can make a guess based on its predecessors.
Recent years have seen the premium Ultra edition of the Galaxy S-series to sport a custom version of Qualcomm’s flagship mobile chipset. For example, back in 2024 saw the S24 Ultra run on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, while the S25 Ultra runs on Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy.
With this in mind, we can reasonably expect the S26 Ultra to run on Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. However, what remains to be seen is whether all regions will benefit from Qualcomm’s top-end chipset.
You might remember that last year’s Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus saw a regional split with processors. While US customers benefited from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy across the entire series, the rest of the world had to make do with Samsung’s own Exynos 2400 processor instead.
While in everyday use we found the difference between Exynos 2400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy to be minimal, the benchmarking scores confirmed the latter was much more powerful.
Unfortunately, although yet to be confirmed by Samsung, rumours suggest we might see a similar dreaded regional split again with the S26 series. Leaker and analyst JunkanIosreve claims that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will run on Samsung’s Exynos 2600 chipset in Europe, with those in the US and other countries will get Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 instead. Leaked firmware backs up the latter.
This, however, might not be a huge issue. In fact, according to a recent X post, Junkanlosreve claims that when compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, “Exynos 2600 shows about 30% higher NPU performance and up to 29% higher GPU performance”. Of course, this is all speculation at the moment, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Battery
Battery and charging are two areas where the top-end Galaxy has stagnated over the past few years, with all models sporting the same 5000mAh battery and 45W charging. In a world where rivals sport 6000mAh+ cells, it’s looking slightly dated.
There were hopes earlier this year that, with Samsung rumoured to finally implement high-capacity silicon-carbon battery tech, the capacity could finally increase.
However, it seems instead that Samsung wants to slim the battery down while matching the current 5000mAh capacity. There is some good news though; leaked code from One UI 8.5 suggests that charging speeds will jump from 45W to 60W with the upcoming flagship.
