Samsung Electronics unveiled its next-generation flagship smartphone series, the "Galaxy S26," long shrouded in secrecy. It put front and center new features that let artificial intelligence (AI) edit photos and run external app services with voice-only prompts, as well as an "agentic AI" experience that reads context and offers suggestions even if the user doesn't speak first. The top-tier "Galaxy S26 Ultra" adds a "privacy display" that blocks side viewing to bolster privacy. However, citing surging memory prices, it raised prices across all models, breaking the price freeze it maintained over the past three years.
Samsung Electronics on the 25th (local time) held "Galaxy Unpacked 2026" at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and unveiled three models: "Galaxy S26," "Galaxy S26 Plus," and "Galaxy S26 Ultra." Roh Tae-Moon, head of Samsung Electronics' DX Division (president) and head of the MX Business, said, "The Galaxy S26 series is built on powerful hardware and lets anyone use AI easily and intuitively."
◇ Evolving to agentic AI that grasps intent and context… even "handles" taxi hailing
The core of the Galaxy S26 series is a shift from "AI that responds to requests" to "AI that understands intent and context to help first." The new "Now Nudge" recognizes conversation content and situations and suggests related tasks in pop-up form. For example, if a message arrives saying, "Send me the travel photos," Galaxy AI surfaces relevant photos and prompts you through sharing. If you receive a message such as "Is 9 a.m. on Feb. 26 okay for a meeting?" it first shows whether there is a scheduling conflict in your calendar.
Existing features were also advanced. "Now Brief," which analyzes user preferences and context to propose briefings, has evolved to strengthen personalized guidance such as schedule-based reminders. "Circle to Search" now recognizes multiple elements within a circle at once to deliver results. Samsung said it improved it so that if you broadly designate a style in a photo, it finds both top and bottom information at once.
Samsung loaded various agents such as Gemini, Bixby, and Perplexity, and allowed users to choose their preferred agent in settings and summon it via the side button or by voice. It emphasized that when you request a taxi booking by voice through Gemini, the AI handles the hailing process and the user only needs to tap confirm to finish, boosting its ability to "handle" multi-step tasks.
◇ Wider aperture strengthens "Nightography"… APV codec and AI editing expanded
Samsung said it strengthened "Nightography" 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. A new horizon lock option was added to "Super Steady," the video stabilization feature, letting users shoot with a stable composition even while moving or in high-shake situations. For the first time on a Galaxy device, it supports the "APV (Advanced Professional Video)" codec for professional video production. Samsung said it enables high-quality video capture and reduces quality degradation even after multiple rounds of editing.
AI-based editing features also expanded. "Photo Assist" executes edits requested by voice or text through AI. For example, after adding clothing images to a full-body photo, if you say or type "Put these clothes on," it generates a dressed composite result. It also includes "Creative Studio," which creates works from sketches, images, and text, and "Document Scanner," which removes wrinkles and fingers when shooting receipts or documents and bundles multiple pages into a PDF. The image quality enhancement solution mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) is also built in. Samsung said it applied the AI-based image processing "ProScaler" to the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S26 Plus to boost content clarity.
◇ Ultra adds a "privacy display" for personal protection… call screening and private album also added
Alongside stronger AI features, Samsung put security and privacy at the forefront. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is equipped with a "Privacy Display" that limits screen visibility from side angles. By controlling the light diffusion of display pixels to reduce what's visible from the side, users can set when and how it activates in sensitive situations such as entering a PIN, password, or pattern, or launching certain apps. There's also an option to mask only notification pop-ups.
"Call Screening" has AI answer calls from unknown numbers and provide a summary of the caller information and conversation, targeting spam and voice phishing. The Gallery adds a "Private Album" that can hide photos and videos without signing in to a Samsung account. The Machine Learning-based "Privacy Alerts" detects and alerts in real time when apps with administrator privileges attempt unnecessary access to sensitive information such as location data, call history, or contacts.
The security architecture emphasizes multi-layer protection based on Samsung Knox, including Knox Vault and Knox Matrix. The updated Knox Matrix expands end-to-end encryption (E2EE) based on Quantum-resistant Encryption to services such as eSIM transfer, and lets users check the firmware update status of consolidated devices in "My device security status." For personalized AI, "KEEP (Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection)" creates per-app segregated 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 Ultra gets 5th-gen Qualcomm AP… first adoption of "Super-fast Charging 3.0"
Samsung said that on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Neural Processing Unit (NPU) performance improved 39% over the previous model, and 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 the standard model are powered by Samsung's in-house chip, "Exynos 2600," but it did not provide separate comparative performance figures versus the previous model.
Thermal management also improved. The Galaxy S26 Ultra uses a newly structured Vapor Chamber to maintain performance during multitasking or high-resolution video recording. For charging, it is the first in the Galaxy S series to adopt "Super-fast Charging 3.0" on the Ultra only, filling up to 75% in 30 minutes.
◇ All 256GB models up 99,000 won… 512GB up 209,000 won
Prices are 1,797,400 won (256GB), 2,050,400 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), while the Galaxy S26 is set at 1,254,000 won (256GB) and 1,507,000 won (512GB).
All 256GB models rose by 99,000 won. The 512GB models are up 209,000 won from the previous generation. Contrary to expectations that the Ultra, equipped with a Qualcomm mobile application processor (AP) and a privacy display, would see a bigger hike, the Ultra 256GB was limited to a 99,000 won increase. An electronics industry official said, "Given that the Ultra 256GB accounted for the largest share of sales within last year's Galaxy S25 series, 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.