If you didn't tune in to Samsung's Unpacked event, then don't worry, as I've got you covered with all of the highlights. The Galaxy S26 series is shaping up to join the ranks as some of the best camera phones of 2026, and has some genuinely exciting upgrades this time around. But as expected, a lot of it is AI-focused.
• You can preorder the Samsung Galaxy S26 series handsets right now.
The next best announcement was that the S26 series will be getting Gemini 3 integration, becoming what Samsung calls an Agentic AI phone – meaning it can do things on your behalf, such as answer calls (call screening), and understand notifications on your screen to provide helpful suggestions and reminders.
The top upgrades (in my opinion): The S26 series has a 39% more powerful GPU, a 19% faster CPU, plus a 17% boost in ray tracing for advanced console-level gaming and clearer images thanks to the AI-enhanced Pro Scaler. It has a boosted battery (finally) with a design that looks very similar to the older S series models.
What about cameras?: Samsung didn't go into too much detail on camera upgrades this year, but I did jot down that the S26 Ultra has an advanced Pro Visual Engine, with an AI image signal processor added to the front camera, and a wider aperture applied to the rear lenses. Internally, there's a new visual reflector feature that can adjust contrast by balancing light and adding virtual light to your shots, and nightography is still an area that Samsung is investing in, with reduced grain and sharper visuals promised when using this mode.
Camera specs: When using GSMArena to compare the S26 Ultra with the S25 Ultra, it looks like only a few minor upgrades have been made to the device's cameras. The 200MP main camera has been given an aperture bump from f/1.7 to f/1.4 (remember, the lower number is better), whereas the 50MP periscope lens has been upgraded with an f/2.9 aperture as opposed to the f/3.4 on the S25 Ultra, and lastly, the telephoto lens has a slightly better sensor.
Has video changed? Kinda. The S26 series boasts a super steady horizontal lock feature to help capture cleaner footage, and offers advanced professional video recording with the APV codec for near-lossless quality in 8K. You can also capture directly to an external storage as you film, and it was revealed that the Unpacked event was being filmed using the S26 Ultra, it's that reliable.
What's new in AI? More of the same, but it sounds like the Now Brief is going to get to know us a lot better, and the AI Eraser tool within photo assist has been upgraded to add prompt based editing, to add things into the image alongside removal. The demo showed that you could merge photos together, and showed a Corgi being added to someone's lap at a cafe as an example.
That's pretty much it, in a nutshell. They started to talk about the new Galaxy Buds4 Pro, but I switched off at this point.
Wait, the price! You can preorder the Samsung Galaxy S26 series handsets right now, with prices starting at $1,299 / £1,279 for the 256GB S26 Ultra model, $1,099 / £1,099 for the S26+ (256GB), and $899 / £879 for the standard S26 (256GB).
What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series? Let me know in the comments below.
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