Samsung stuck to its playbook this year, dropping its newest flagship lineup right on cue. At the first Galaxy Unpacked of 2026 held in San Francisco, the Galaxy S26 Series was inttroduced, built with its most advanced and adaptive Galaxy AI yet. The phones are designed to make everyday tasks feel easier than ever, whether you’re organising your day, searching for information, or capturing and polishing photos and videos. By handling complex steps in the background, the S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra let you focus on what you want to do, not how to do it.
The series brings together fast performance, a smarter camera system, and Galaxy AI to create a smooth, dependable experience. It’s built to support you all day while keeping your security and privacy front and center. The Galaxy S26 Ultra adds even more standout features such as its new Privacy Display helps protect your on‑screen content at the pixel level, giving you more peace of mind in public spaces. It also includes a custom chipset and improved cooling for faster, more powerful AI performance, all in the slimmest Ultra design Samsung has made.
“We believe AI should be something people can depend on every day, designed to work consistently for everyone and without the need for expertise. With the Galaxy S26 Series, we focused on making AI feel effortless by designing it to complete tasks naturally, working quietly in the background so people can focus on what matters.” said TM Roh, Chief Executive Officer, President, and Head of Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics.
During a panel session during the Unpacked event, TM Roh also highlighted the region’s rapid embrace of mobile AI, noting that nine out of ten young people in Southeast Asia now use AI on their phones every day and seven out of ten believe it will enhance their quality of life. He added that this enthusiasm is reflected in Samsung’s own momentum, with the Galaxy S25 Ultra accounting for 67 percent of all S25 Series sales in Southeast Asia and Oceania, underscoring the strong demand for premium mobile experiences.
“Across the region, we’ve seen widespread adoption of AI features, with 77 percent of all Galaxy users utilising Galaxy AI. This is extremely heartening to hear – a clear sign we are on the right track with our AI strategy and thus maintaining our leadership in the mobile AI era. The bedrock of that strategy is the democratisation of the technology, what we like to refer to as ‘AI for All’. With that rallying cry, we want to make Galaxy AI an everyday reality for everyone, turning it from not just a feature for the few, but an essential tool for all in Singapore. The new Galaxy S26 Series will make that dream come true,” said Ronnie Ng, Vice President, Head of Mobile
eXperience at Samsung Electronics Singapore.
Galaxy S26 Ultra comes with a customised Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, pushing its CPU, GPU, and NPU harder than any Ultra before it. You get up to 19% faster CPU performance for snappier responses and effortless multitasking, a 39% jump in NPU power to keep Galaxy AI features running smoothly in the background, and a 24% boost to GPU performance that delivers richer graphics and fluid, console‑like gameplay. It’s built to stay fast, stay cool, and stay ahead all day long. To support all-day use, the Galaxy S26 Ultra also brings Super-Fast Charging 3.0, reaching up to 75% charge in just 30 minutes.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra also steps up its low‑light game with wider apertures (47% brighter main wide camera at F1.4 and 37% brighter telephoto camera at F2.9) that pull in more light, giving you clearer, sharper shots packed with detail, even when you’re zoomed in at night. Nightography Video keeps your clips bright and vivid in dim settings, whether you’re filming an indoor concert or capturing campfire moments after dark. And with upgraded Super Steady and a new horizontal lock option, your footage stays stable and perfectly framed, even when the action gets fast.
Galaxy S26 Ultra’s upgraded AI Photo Assist lets you describe edits in plain language — from turning day into night to filling in missing details or cleaning up personal imperfections — and make changes step by step with the freedom to adjust or undo anytime. Creative Studio brings sketching, editing, and customisation into one seamless workspace, making it easy to turn ideas into polished visuals like stickers, invitations, or wallpapers without switching tools. Everyday tasks get simpler too, with AI-powered Document Scan automatically cleaning up distortions and combining multiple images into a tidy PDF for quick digitising of receipts, forms, or notes.
Now Nudge keeps you moving without breaking your rhythm, surfacing helpful suggestions right when you need them. If a friend asks for trip photos, your Galaxy S26 instantly pulls up the right shots so you don’t have to dig through albums. When a message mentions a meeting, it can recognise the event in your Calendar and flag any conflicts on the spot.
Galaxy S26 gives you flexibility in how you get things done by working with multiple AI agents including Bixby, Gemini, and Perplexity. These are all triggered with a single button press or voice prompt. Once set up, they can take on multi‑step tasks in the background, like booking a taxi through Gemini by simply asking, checking the details, and tapping confirm. These agents handle searches and complex actions across apps through natural, conversational interaction, creating a more proactive and adaptive experience that helps Galaxy devices anticipate what you need and act as reliable companions throughout the day.
Pre-orders for the Galaxy S26 Series start from 26 February 2026, Thursday, 2 am Singapore time. Consumers who pre-order their Galaxy S26 Series devices will enjoy early delivery and be able to collect or receive their devices from 6 March 2026 and also be entitled to bonus double the storage worth up to S$300 on their selected device.
The Galaxy S26 Series colour options include Cobalt Violet, White, Black and Sky Blue alongside the online exclusive Pink Gold and Silver Shadow. Prices for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series start at S$1,828 (256GB) for the S26 Ultra, S$1,628 (256GB) for the S26+ and S$1,438 (256GB) for the S26, and tops out at S$2,578 (1TB), S$1,928 (512GB) and S$1,738 (512GB) respectively.
Pre-orders can be placed on the Samsung Online Store, Samsung Shop App, Samsung Experience Stores, local telco operators (Singtel, StarHub, M1), selected consumer electronics & IT online stores (Best Denki, Challenger, Courts, Gain City, Harvey Norman), as well as Samsung Official Stores in Lazada, Shopee, TikTok, KrisShop and iShopChangi.
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
Si Jia
HSALS
