- 3 days ago
My hands on with Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra!
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For Torras:
Use code BOSS10 for 20% off sitewide (first 50 only): https://bit.ly/3MwAMuu
Shop on Amazon for Polar Circle (25W Charger): 🇺🇸 https://amzn.to/46DhGcT
Shop on Amazon for Q3 AIR (S26 Series) | Code: BOSS1111 (10% OFF): 🇺🇸https://amzn.to/4qBof6Q 🇬🇧 https://bit.ly/4kPWN4h
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TechTranscript
00:00I've just spent a day with Samsung's next-gen Galaxy S26 Ultra, their flagship phone for this
00:04year, and honestly, it feels like a very mixed bag. There's a few things that I was really
00:09excited for that are actually quite underwhelming in person, but then also some things that I did
00:14not see coming that have ended up as the real highlights. Like one thing that I could not wait
00:18to get my mitts on is this new privacy display that stops people snooping on you, but actually
00:22using it, I've got concerns. So there are two types of pixels on this S26 Ultra's display,
00:28normal pixels that shine widely. This is why you can still read the screen from almost
00:32any angle. But then, mixed into that are new narrow pixels, which basically focus their
00:38light directly outwards in a straight line instead of shining in a wide cone. Which means if we pull
00:44down quick settings and tap privacy display, this lets us turn off our normal wide-firing pixels,
00:49leaving only the narrow ones on, turning this into a display that's only readable when you're
00:54looking at it head-on. And what makes this different from just sticking on one of those
00:57privacy glass screen protectors is you can then select exactly what this privacy effect
01:02is applied to. You can decide, for example, that you only want to turn it on when you
01:05enter your messaging apps, like WhatsApp. And it does work. Privacy mode kicks in fast. You
01:10can make it activate just when you're entering passwords or pins. And because it's being
01:14controlled on an individual pixel level, you can even have this privacy only apply to sections
01:19of the screen. Like if you just wanted to hide the notifications that pop up when people
01:23message you. So this is useful, right? This almost feels a little bit like magic when you're
01:28seeing it for the first time. And really, it's one of the first truly innovative phone features
01:33that I've seen in a long time. But you might be wondering, because this is what I was wondering
01:38when it was being first explained to me, why bother then just blacking out that little notification
01:43pop up? Why not just do the whole screen? In fact, why not just keep privacy mode on as your
01:47new default and then just turn it off on the odd occasion that you want to show someone something?
01:52Well, the issue is, because this works by effectively turning off half the pixels in your
01:57phone, the moment you activate privacy display, you can see your screen's resolution taking a
02:03nosedive. While your screen does pretty effectively look almost unreadable to others, it also loses some
02:09readability and brightness because there's fewer pixels shining for you too. But if that was where it
02:15ended, I'd still say, okay, it's a little situational, but what an awesome feature that I will almost
02:20definitely use sometimes. There's an extra wrinkle that I noticed though, and I'd be curious if other
02:25reviewers noticed the same thing. It's that even with the privacy mode turned off, the S26 Ultras
02:31viewing angles look quite a bit worse than the S25 Ultras. Can you see how, as we rotate these phones
02:36around, you get this pretty nasty blue tint on the new device and the brightness falls off a lot faster?
02:41It's a little early to say for sure, but it makes sense that the phone would be like this. Because
02:46if half the pixels are now designed mostly just to fire light directly forward, then you're not
02:51really seeing those pixels anymore. As you start to rotate the phone, you're only seeing the remaining
02:56wide pixels. So I need more time to test this before concluding, but I'm just not convinced that
03:01privacy display is a net positive for everyone in its current state. Thankfully, when you are looking
03:07straight on, the viewing experience is a step up. This is the first time on a Samsung phone
03:12that we're getting a proper 10 bit panel, which means the S26 Ultra can display a wider
03:16range of color. And you can also surprisingly notice the work that Samsung's put into their
03:21Pro Scaler, which is the image enhancement software that they have running in the background to smartly
03:25sharpen everything up. Like if we look at the same video playing on both the S26 Ultra versus
03:30S25 Ultra, the difference isn't even that subtle. You can see, especially in the waves here, the
03:35clever sharpening really brings out the detail. So while privacy display kind of looked like it was
03:40going to steal the show, but hasn't, the design feels like a whole load of nothing that together has
03:46actually amounted to a large improvement to the way the phone feels. If you look at the corners,
03:50they're softer, more rounded. When you're holding the phone, you notice the sides curve a little
03:54more gently into the screen. The new phone's a touch lighter and thickness wise, we've gone from 8.2
03:59millimeters to 7.9, making this S26 Samsung's thinnest Ultra ever. They've even shaved down the
04:05S Pen to accommodate. None of this is revolutionary, but a handful of refinements that all feel like
04:10they're heading in the right direction. We take those. I also quite like how now finally the design
04:15of the Ultra matches the design of the S26 and S26 Plus. For the first time since the Ultra started,
04:22each phone in Samsung's lineup now has the same curvature, the same style of camera design,
04:27and exactly the same colors. Although it needs to be said, the reason that the new phone is lighter
04:32than the old one is because Samsung has just done exactly what the last iPhone did. They've ditched
04:37titanium and gone right back to the aluminum that their phones were always made of, which is a little
04:42awkward considering how hard they sold us on titanium, as if the material was God's gift to
04:47humanity. But ultimately, having used titanium phones, I don't actually care about the outcome.
04:53If anything, aluminum is more heat conductive, so will probably help the thermal performance.
04:58My only actual design complaint is these colors. Samsung, you have such a history of iconic,
05:04vibrant color options in the past. The aluminum you're now using is extremely easy to anodize
05:09and apply color to. Who hurt you? I don't understand why now you can't just have one interesting color
05:16that doesn't make me look like I'm living inside of a grayscale movie. Overall though, the design is a
05:21little bit quiet, a little too quiet, but appreciated improvement. And cameras are the same story.
05:28On first glance, they're the same picture. The resolutions are all the same, the sensors are
05:32seemingly identical to the last phone. But then you look closer, and there's actually three important,
05:37somewhat hidden improvements. One is shooting at night, because while the sensors are the same,
05:43Samsung's widened the aperture of both the 200 megapixel main camera and the telephoto camera to let more
05:48light into those sensors. Plus the software now can apparently anticipate the types of noise
05:53patterns that usually occur in low light and preemptively eliminate them, which I was not
05:58expecting to amount to much. But if you keep an eye on my face during this video, you can absolutely
06:03tell the difference. The new phone shoots brighter and with less noise. Second thing is a new addition
06:08to super steady mode called horizontal lock, which constantly calculates in real time how you're
06:13rotating your phone so that it can eliminate all that rotation from the actual video. Combine that
06:19with the very high levels of stabilization that you already get in this mode, that's pretty phenomenal
06:23seeing how much this fixes your footage. And finally, the S26 cameras double down on what Samsung was
06:30already pretty good at, making you look pretty. Compared to the S25 Ultra, it makes you brighter,
06:35your face pops more, your eyes even have a little glint to them, and you're quite noticeably more
06:39detailed too, without actually needing to shoot in a higher resolution. It's better at controlling
06:44the really bright spots, like my forehead here. They don't look blown out anymore. And it's so good
06:49to see that this improved processing is also active on the selfie camera too. And while it's at it, it
06:54improves the texture of your skin, but in a really clever, subtle way that doesn't look like one of
06:59those obtuse makeup filters. There are a few other minor camera changes, like how the auto framing mode
07:04now captures in 4K instead of 1080p, how they've swapped the lenses to reduce lens flares from
07:09bright sources, and how this is the first Samsung phone to support APV, which is a new type of very
07:15high quality video format, whose unique perk is that it can be edited many times with minimal loss in
07:21quality. But then again, if you're pro enough to actually need to use that, then are you not also pro
07:27enough to not keep trying to re-edit your exported file? You just go back to your original project to
07:33make
07:33changes and then keep 100% of the quality. Anyway, are these a respectable set of camera improvements?
07:39Yes. Do I think they're enough to suddenly catapult Samsung to the top of the smartphone
07:44camera ladder? No. Not even close. The general specs of the phone too. They're good. They're not
07:51exactly gonna rock your world either. All Galaxy S26 Ultras will have 12 to 16 gigs of RAM and the
07:57latest
07:57Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 4 Galaxy chip. Great chip. About 20% more powerful than last year.
08:04Terrible name. Like, 8 Elite Gen 5. There's 9 Elite Taken. The battery though. I thought this year,
08:12for sure, we had to get a bigger one. I was wrong. The S26 Ultra has a 5000 mAh battery,
08:18just like the S25 Ultra, and just like the five other ultras before it. It's like a family heirloom at
08:25this
08:26point. And it's just surprising. Especially now, given that every Chinese-made flagship now has
08:317000 mAh plus. And Samsung clearly looked at that and decided, you know what? No. We're gonna make our
08:38phone thinner this year instead. At least it does now support 60 watt charging, up from 45. So in 30
08:44minutes of charging, you can get this phone from 0 to 75%. And the phone does also now support 25
08:50watt
08:50wireless charging, which is great, but it's pretty upsetting that even now, in 2026, the thing still
08:56doesn't have any magnets baked in like the iPhone and Google Pixels do. Which means that if you want
09:01to wireless charge without playing Find the Sweet Spot for five minutes each time, you need to use
09:06something like the Taurus Q3 VegSkin, our sponsor. Thankfully, this is literally my favourite case in
09:11the world, because it feels so fancy. It gives you very strong magnets, and those magnets happen to also
09:17be part of a 360 rotating ring that allows you to prop the phone up basically anywhere. Or there's
09:22the Q3 Air, which has real airbags inside of it for protection from the more butterfingered among us.
09:28You know who you are. And then to actually do the charging, their Polar Circle charger will give
09:32you the full 25 watts, but with this new tech cooling system that doesn't just keep the phone cool,
09:37but literally ice cold, it will actually increase your performance instead of it usually going down
09:42when you charge. So link below for all the Taurus stuff. So, so far, we've talked a lot about
09:46what the S26 Ultra has. Not a whole lot new, but what does the S26 Ultra do? The software?
09:52Because Samsung's making a decently sized hoo-ha about how this is the next era of phones that do
09:58things for you. There's some good, there's some not good, so let's make it a lightning round.
10:03Screenshots are now automatically organised. Each time you take one, this phone will scan the content
10:07and sort it pretty well, I might add, into one of eight categories, so that when you remember you need
10:12it again, it's easier to find. What a no-brainer life upgrade. I love the new Finder. This
10:16tiny, very reachable button that sits on your home screen that takes you immediately to a search
10:21bar that you can use to find anything. And the very cool thing is I'm told this will also be
10:25able
10:25to, at launch, search through past notifications. So this could be the end of frantically searching
10:30through the 400 GIFs and three separate arguments in your group chat just to find out where we're
10:35meeting for lunch again. Now, don't get too excited, but there's a new Bixby. You might remember
10:39last year, Bixby got better at being able to understand what you were trying to change and take you
10:43to just the right place in your settings to be able to do that. This time, it can generate those
10:47settings right in front of you, including all the toggles that you might need to fiddle with to fix
10:51your issue without even needing to leave the app that you're in. And then, if you still don't get
10:55what you're looking for, you can now string those requests together with internet searches seamlessly,
11:00as if it's part of one continuous conversation. Because Bixby is now integrated with Perplexity AI.
11:06Gotta say, the handoff between the two feels very seamless, but just not sure yet if using these two
11:11are actually better than just leaving the one default Google Gemini on as your assistant.
11:16Do you remember Audio Eraser? Samsung introduced it a couple of years ago as a way for you to reduce
11:20background noise in the videos you took. Well, now you can use that on any video you watch too.
11:25So if you're on YouTube and you're trying to focus on the person talking or singing,
11:29this button effectively shushes all the noise around them and it's quite effective.
11:38There's improvements to AI photo editing. Now you can take a photo of something,
11:42but then use text to tweak it, like changing your plate of brownies to fruit to send to your trainer.
11:47Google also has a similar feature, but it's so good here. It makes a change,
11:50but without adding any weird AI artifacts to your image. You can blend two photos together.
11:55So if I bring in a shot I took of my mug to this image, life has been exciting recently.
12:02Look at that. The plate disappears, the mug comes in, it changes my hand position,
12:06even my head position to make that new image make sense. And you've got a big selection of photo
12:10styles now, which again, just work. So many companies have AI image editing that basically
12:15feels like it just draws a new image instead of yours. This feels like it properly studies the
12:19source you're feeding it to keep the result as true to it as possible. And you can now do a
12:23little
12:24bit more with this generative power, thanks to a new app, Creative Studio. I guess the idea is that so
12:29far AI image editing has just been, well, hey, look, you can make an AI image because, because
12:36social media. So this directs the AI towards creating you something that you might actually use,
12:41like stickers or invitations or your next phone wallpaper, but still using basic prompts.
12:46Great concept, but am I the only one slightly creeped out by this childhood sketchbook mode?
12:51It's weirdly convincing. But who's the demographic here? The only thing I can think is people trying to
12:56convince their hinge dates that they are, in fact, good with kids. Now Nudge is a new feature that
13:01surfaces relevant information when your phone thinks you need it. So let's say someone texts,
13:05where are you? It can pull up where you are and one tap will paste that in, or at least
13:09that's what
13:10it should do. I tried to get this to work for like 30 minutes, but it was so inconsistent. Half
13:15the time
13:15it would suggest an answer that made no sense. And then half the time it would suggest no answer,
13:20when it was definitely meant to. So this might get better with updates. It will probably get better
13:24as the phone starts to learn about you. All I'll say is, let's hope so. The S26 Ultra will also
13:29be
13:29able to organize your notifications based on priority and summarize them. Not available during my testing,
13:35but me personally, I don't want my notifications in any order, but chronological. And we've already
13:39seen with Apple how trying to summarize notifications can create a lot more problems than it solves.
13:44And finally, the S26s can also, in some contexts, take action for you. So for example,
13:49this can realize you're about to be late to a meeting and it will ask you if you want to
13:53have
13:53an Uber booked. All you need to do is say yes, which may sound very science fiction.
13:58And it kind of is in the UK because we don't actually get to the future yet. But seeing the
14:03state of now nudge, I don't feel like I'm missing out on too much. So that's the S26 Ultra. I
14:08am
14:08starting my thorough testing as we speak, but first impressions? Satisfied, but not exactly excited.
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