I've written several smartphone hands-on and review stories over the years that share a common theme — the phone in question is great, but at the same time, it's a clear incremental upgrade over its predecessor. This doesn't necessarily make it a bad device, but it leaves little reason to buy it if you're just one generation behind, or in most cases, even using a slightly older version of that particular smartphone line.

This defines Samsung's Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra more than any smartphone I've used before. There are new features, like an upgraded Qualcomm chip across the series, and improved low-light performance and impressive privacy display functionality with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but if you've used a Galaxy S25 or even a Galaxy S24 device, you'll find the Galaxy S26 series strikingly familiar.

This year's notable new feature is a built-in privacy display

The new privacy features work really well

The fact that the big new Galaxy S26 Ultra feature is a built-in privacy display is the clearest example of the Galaxy S26 series plateauing on both a hardware and software front. On the plus side, the privacy display works really well and is the type of feature I'm surprised other smartphone manufacturers haven't already introduced. When the privacy display is on, you'll see your screen like normal, but at an angle, the display is notably dimmer because its angled pixels are turned off. It's a really clever and simple way to use hardware to create a privacy screen.

This is the type of feature I can see coming to pretty much every Android device next year, alongside probably the iPhone.

The new built-in privacy display doesn't look quite as good as a physical privacy screen protector, but it's pretty close, especially when you turn it up to its high settings. You can also set the feature to only flip on under specific conditions, including when notifications appear, if you're entering your pin, or when specific apps are launched.

This is the type of feature I can see coming to pretty much every Android device next year, alongside probably the iPhone, where Apple will present it like it invented the concept of a built-in privacy screen.

Calling this year's design changes subtle is being generous

The Galaxy S26 series looks almost exactly like the Galaxy S25 line

From a design perspective, every Galaxy S26 device looks nearly identical to the Galaxy S25 line, except for a few key differences. In fact, I brought the Galaxy S25 Ultra to Samsung's event to compare the look of both phones, and at one point, confused it with the Galaxy S26 Ultra. There are a few minor design changes worth pointing out, though.

First, the corners of each phone are slightly more curved, and the familiar pill-shaped camera bump under the lenses, which Samsung ditched last year with the Galaxy S25, is back. It's a shift that really doesn't matter, but I prefer the cleaner look of the Galaxy S25's rear shooter.

Other design changes include that the Galaxy S26 Ultra is 8% lighter at 7.5oz (214g) and slightly thinner at 0.31-inches (7.9mm), compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. This is really only the sort of change you'll notice if you're holding the Galaxy S25 Ultra to the S26 Ultra beside each other. On the base-level side, the Galaxy S26's display is 6.3-inches compared to the Galaxy S25's 6.2-inches. Other than the above changes, the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra look identical to their predecessors.

All three devices now feature aluminum across the lineup, with the ultra dropping its titanium frame, a feature Samsung heavily touted with the Galaxy S24. Apple made a similar move with the iPhone 17 Pro for better heat dissipation, and I imagine Samsung decided to make the same trade-off.

Better low-light performance across the Galaxy S26 Ultra's wide and telephoto lenses

The minor camera upgrades are mostly only coming to the high-end phone

On the Galaxy S26 Ultra side, the 200-megapixel wide camera now features an f/1.4 aperture compared to f/1.7, and the 50-megapixel telephoto features f/2.9 compared to f/3.4. Alongside better AI noise reduction, this improves low-light performance considerably, resulting in less noise when shooting images in a dimly lit areas. I tried this out briefly at Samsung's hands-on event in a controlled "nightography" demo area,' and while I need to spend more time testing, low-light images do seem to be noticeably cleaner.

While the Galaxy S26 and S26+ feature the same camera specs as last year, including a triple-rear camera system with a 50-megapixel main, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lens, alongside a 12-selfie front camera, there are upgrades on the software side.

Samsung says that the front camera features an enhanced AI ISP that works with its object aware engine to offer more accurate skin tone capture. The phones also feature the same low-light noise reduction improvements as the S26 Ultra.

This year's other notable new camera feature is horizontal lock, a new feature that reduces shake when filming video and that locks capture to landscape, even when shooting in portrait. I briefly tested this out, and it seems to work really well.

I can see this being particularly useful if, like me, you're prone to haphazardly holding your phone in different ways when shooting video. Lastly, the Galaxy S26 Ultra now includes APV codec support when shooting in 8K.

Other spec improvements across the lineup

Most of this is pretty minor

On the specs side, the biggest change is the addition of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite gen-5 chip across every device in the Galaxy S26 lineup.

Other changes include up to 21 percent better heat dissipation thanks to a revamped vapor chamber. With Super Fast 60W charging 3.0, the Galaxy S25 Ultra can now hit 75% battery life in 30 minutes, while the rest of the lineup lands at 48% in 30 minutes with 25W. There's still no built-in, Pixelsnap-like magnets for some reason, with Samsung once again relying on an array of magnetic cases and accessories, which continues to not make sense to me. The Galaxy S25 also features a slightly bigger battery this year, with 4,300mAh, compared to last year's 4,000mAh, which should improve battery life.

Additionally, the Galaxy S26 Ultra now features 16GB in the US for the first time, but only with the 1TB model. In the past, this particular configuration wasn't released in the US. The S Pen is back with the Galaxy S26 Ultra again this year, but there don't seem to be any notable upgrades or new features, including the fact that there's still no Bluetooth support, which was stripped from the S Pen with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. In fact, during my various briefings about the phone, the S Pen wasn't even mentioned.

Samsung is pushing AI even harder this year

The company is still throwing everything at the wall when it comes to AI

If you were hoping Samsung would pull back on AI features this year, that's not the case with the Galaxy S26 line. Instead, the company is diving in even further, going so far as to describe the Galaxy S26 series as "AI phones."

First off, there's Now Nudge, a contextual AI suggestion feature that aims to give you access to information you need before you even know you need it, like sending an image you just shot to a friend, or setting up your morning commute at the same time every day. Like the Now Bar, which delivers information to your lockscreen, or the Now Brief, a summary of your day, Now Nudge being useful hinges on using the phone for a lengthy period so it can learn how you use your device. As far as I can tell, it only works with Samsung's own apps (third-party app compatibility is still unclear). It sounds like a good idea, but this is the type of feature that requires extensive testing to know if it's useful.

Other new AI features include Circle to Search 3.0, which is now capable of analyzing every item on screen and delivering targeted stores where you can buy any products, and a Pixel-like AI call screening feature. Perplexity is also coming to the Galaxy S26 series, alongside Gemini, and of course, Samsung's Bixby isn't going anywhere. The company continues to transform Bixby into an on-device AI. Are three different AI models a bit much for one smartphone? Probably, but Samsung doesn't seem to care.

There are several new AI photo features this year, too, like instant sticker creation photos, more advanced object removal, and more.

• Samsung Galaxy S26

  SoC

  Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

  Display

  6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x

  RAM

  12 GB

  Storage

  256 or 512 GB

  Battery

  4,300 mAh

  Operating System

  Android

  The latest standard flagship model of the long-running S series balances features and price, and comes in unique violet and pink colors.

  $900 at Samsung

• Samsung Galaxy S26+

  SoC

  Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

  Display

  6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X

  RAM

  12 GB

  Storage

  256 or 512 GB

  Battery

  4,900 mAh

  Operating System

  Android

  The latest model of Samsung's Plus line comes with a bigger screen and battery than the standard model.

  $1100 at Samsung

It's an iterative year for Samsung

If you have a Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S25, there isn't much here for you

There's just not enough new here to justify upgrading from the Galaxy S25 or even the Galaxy S24, but if you're using an earlier S series device like the Galaxy S22 or the Galaxy S23, this is a great year to pull the trigger. Also, no one should be buying a new high-end smartphone every year anyway. Everyone else can just hang onto their S series device for next year, which should be a more substantial update given Samsung's release history.

Pre-orders for the Galaxy S26 series are available now and the phone releases on March 11th. This year's colors include Sky Blue, Cobalt Violet, White, and Black, with Silver Shadow and Pink Gold being Samsung Store exclusives. In terms of pricing, each device has been hit with a $100 price increase, likely due to the ongoing memory crisis and tariffs. On the plus side, base storage has been kicked up to 256GB on both the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+. The Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 start at $1,300, $1,100, and $900, respectively.