The Galaxy S26 Ultra: Magic Screens, Agentic AI, and Finally... 60W Charging

The Entry Point

Every year, without fail, the tech community complains that the new Samsung Galaxy is "just a minor spec bump." And honestly, looking at the Galaxy S26 Ultra from a distance, you’d be forgiven for thinking exactly that. It still has the same flat-screen aesthetic, the floating camera lenses, and yes, an S-Pen is still tucked away at the bottom.

But after watching the Unpacked 2026 event, I can confidently say Samsung has actually pivoted this year. They stopped bragging solely about hardware benchmarks and instead introduced some genuinely amazing display tech and what they are calling the "Agentic AI" era. Plus, they finally fixed my biggest pet peeve regarding their battery specs.

So if you're wondering what everyone is actually searching for regarding the new S26 Ultra, here is the breakdown of the most interesting features from the launch.

The Built-In Privacy Display

This is easily the most searched and most talked-about feature from the event and for good reasons cause this type of technology at a hardware level feels like absolute magic.

Instead of forcing you to buy one of those thick, brightness-ruining matte privacy screen protectors, Samsung built the privacy directly into the 6.9-inch QHD+ display. Using new panel technology, you can toggle a mode where the screen looks incredibly bright and sharp when you look at it head-on, but goes completely dark for anyone trying to shoulder surf from an angle.

It does this by using a hardware upgrade Samsung calls "Flex Magic Pixel" technology built directly into the OLED panel. When activated, the display physically shifts to using specialized narrow pixels that channel light straight forward into your eyes while cutting off dispersion to the sides. This means the person sitting next to you on the train just sees a completely blank screen, while you get full, uncompromised clarity.

Agentic AI

This year, Samsung isn't just giving us AI to edit photos, they are giving us AI to handle our workflows. Powered by the incredibly Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, the S26 Ultra integrates deeply with Perplexity AI at the system level.

They are calling it "Agentic AI" because it acts as a background agent on your behalf and with the new "Hey Plex" wake word, you can have the AI navigate your apps, pull data from multiple on-screen sources, and handle multi-step tasks without you having to jump between different screens.

The Cameras and The Charging We Begged For

The 60W Milestone

For years, Samsung has been stubbornly stuck at 45W charging while the rest of the industry moved on. The S26 Ultra finally breaks that barrier, bumping up to 60W wired charging.

With the 5,000 mAh battery, you can now hit 75% in just 30 minutes. They sure too their time with this one. They also bumped wireless charging up to 25W.

The Upgraded Ultrawide

While the massive 200MP main sensor remains the star of the show, the big hardware jump is in the ultrawide lens, which has been upgraded to a 50MP sensor (matching the 50MP 5x periscope telephoto). If you shoot a lot of video, the upgraded Super Steady mode with "Horizontal Lock" is going to make your handheld footage look incredibly smooth.

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Summary Table: Specs & Pricing

Prices went up slightly this year (roughly a $100 bump depending on your region), but you are getting a significantly smarter device that is thinner (7.9mm) than last year's model.

Feature	S26 Ultra Specs
Display	6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X (1-120Hz)
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Cameras	200MP Main / 50MP Ultrawide / 50MP 5x / 10MP 3x
Battery / Charging	5,000 mAh / 60W Wired, 25W Wireless
Killer Feature	Built-in Toggleable Privacy Display

I'll be doing a deeper dive if i'm actually able to get my hands on a unit to see how it actually holds up.

Good luck, and I'll see you in the next one.