Samsung Electronics unveiled its next-generation flagship smartphone series, the Galaxy S26, which had been shrouded in secrecy. It put front and center new features that let artificial intelligence (AI) edit photos and run external app services with voice commands alone, along with an "agentic AI" experience that reads context and offers suggestions even if the user doesn't speak first. The top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra also adds a "privacy display" that blocks side viewing to strengthen privacy protection. However, citing factors such as a sharp rise in memory prices, it raised prices across all models, breaking the price freeze it had maintained for the past three years.
Samsung Electronics held Galaxy Unpacked 2026 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on the 25th (local time) and unveiled three models: Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus and Galaxy S26 Ultra. Roh Tae-Moon, head of the DX Division (president) and head of the MX Business at Samsung Electronics, said, "The Galaxy S26 series is a product that allows anyone to use AI easily and intuitively, based on powerful hardware."
◇ Evolving into agentic AI that grasps intent and context… even "handles" taxi calls
The core of the Galaxy S26 series is a shift from "AI that responds to requests" to "AI that understands intent and context and helps first." The new Now Nudge feature recognizes conversations and situations and suggests related tasks in pop-up form. For example, if a message comes in saying, "Send me the travel photos," Galaxy AI will find the relevant photos and display a prompt that leads to sharing. If you receive a message like "Is 9 a.m. on Feb. 26 okay for the meeting?" it will first show whether the time overlaps with your calendar.
Existing features were also upgraded. Now Brief, which analyzes user preferences and context to propose briefings, evolved to strengthen personalized prompts such as schedule-based reminders. Circle to Search advanced to recognize multiple elements within a circle at once and deliver results. Samsung said that if you broadly specify a style in a photo, it has been improved to find both top and bottom information at the same time.
Samsung loaded various agents such as Gemini, Bixby and Perplexity, and let users choose the desired agent in the settings menu to summon it via the side button or voice. It emphasized that when you ask Gemini by voice to book a taxi, the AI handles the calling process so the user only needs to tap confirm, boosting its ability to "handle" multi-step tasks.
◇ Strengthened "Nightography" with a wider aperture… APV codec and AI editing expand
Samsung said it strengthened its Nightography feature by applying a wider aperture than the previous model to the camera. Nightography is low-light shooting performance that helps capture brighter, clearer photos and videos in dark environments such as at night or indoors. Super Steady, the video stabilization feature, adds a new horizon lock option so you can shoot with a stable composition even on the move or in heavy-shake situations. For the first time on a Galaxy device, it also supports the APV (Advanced Professional Video) codec for professional video production. It enables high-quality video recording and, even if you edit the footage multiple times, reduces image quality degradation, Samsung said.
AI-based editing features were also expanded. Photo Assist executes edits when you request them by voice or text. For example, after adding clothing images to a full-body photo, if you say or type "Put these clothes on," it produces a composite try-on result. Creative Studio, which creates works with sketches, images and text, and Document Scanner, which removes creases and fingers when shooting receipts and documents and bundles multiple shots into a PDF, are also included. The mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) image-enhancement solution is onboard. Samsung said it applied ProScaler, an AI-based image processing feature, to the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S26 Plus to boost content sharpness.
◇ Ultra strengthens privacy with a "privacy display"… call screening and a private album added
Along with stronger AI features, Samsung put security and privacy front and center. The Galaxy S26 Ultra comes with a Privacy Display that limits the screen from side angles. By controlling how display pixels diffuse light, it reduces what's visible from the side; users can set when and where it activates in sensitive situations such as entering a PIN, password or pattern, or launching certain apps. There is also an option to hide only notification pop-ups.
Call Screening answers unknown numbers with AI and provides a summary of the caller information and call content the other party said, targeting spam and voice phishing. The Gallery adds a Private Album that lets you hide photos and videos even without signing in to a Samsung account. Machine Learning-based Privacy Alerts detect in real time and notify you when apps with admin privileges attempt unnecessary access to sensitive data such as location information, call logs and contacts.
The security framework emphasized multi-layer protection based on Samsung Knox, including Knox Vault and Knox Matrix. The updated Knox Matrix expands support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) based on Quantum-resistant Encryption to services such as eSIM transfer, and lets you check the firmware update status of consolidated devices under My device security status. KEEP (Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection) for personalized AI creates app-specific, separately encrypted storage to protect sensitive information learned by the Personal Data Engine (PDE). Samsung said it will provide seven years of security updates for the Galaxy S26 series.
◇ Only the Ultra gets the 5th-generation Qualcomm AP… first adoption of "Super Fast Charging 3.0"
Samsung said that, for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Neural Processing Unit (NPU) performance improved 39% over the previous generation, while central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) performance rose up to 19% and 24%, respectively, enabling faster, more stable AI tasks and gaming. The Galaxy S26 Plus and standard model are equipped with Samsung's in-house Exynos 2600 chip, but it did not provide separate performance comparison figures versus the previous generation.
Thermal management was also improved. The Galaxy S26 Ultra applies a Vapor Chamber designed with a new structure to maintain performance during multitasking or high-resolution video recording. Charging is Super Fast Charging 3.0, which can fill up to 75% in 30 minutes, applied to the Ultra only for the first time in the Galaxy S series.
◇ All 256GB models up 99,000 won… 512GB up 209,000 won
Prices are 1,797,400 won (256GB), 2,005,400 won (512GB), and 2,545,400 won (1TB) for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The Galaxy S26 Plus is 1,452,000 won (256GB) and 1,705,000 won (512GB), and the Galaxy S26 is set at 1,254,000 won (256GB) and 1,507,000 won (512GB).
All 256GB models rose uniformly by 99,000 won. The 512GB models are up 209,000 won from the previous generation. Contrary to expectations that the Ultra model, with a Qualcomm mobile application processor (AP) and a privacy display, would see a bigger hike, the Ultra 256GB increased by only 99,000 won. An electronics industry official said, "Considering that among last year's Galaxy S25 series, the Ultra 256GB model accounted for the largest share of sales, Samsung's pricing decision makes sense."
The Galaxy S26 series will roll out sequentially to more than 120 countries, including Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Vietnam, starting Mar. 11. Domestic preorders run from the 27th to Mar. 5. The colors are cobalt violet, white, black and sky blue.