Artist Review: Samsung S26 Ultra

Review unit on loan from Samsung Singapore

The new Samsung Galaxy S26 series phones were released on 11 March 2026. This generation is just a slight update so if you don't have any issues with your current phone, I don't think there's any compelling reason to upgrade, unless you specifically need the new features.

Bottom line: This is one of the best phones in the market. You can expect fantastic user experience. There are several upgrades but the upgrades are slight. The yearly updates are not for people who upgrade their phones yearly.

If you do not need the pen, just go with the Plus instead of the Ultra model.

This phone, and other models, are available currently in Singapore from Shopee SG and Lazada SG from SGD 1648, and could be cheaper if there are promotions going on.

This review is from the perspective of an artist and graphic designer. I've actually used the Samsung S25 Ultra for several months as my main phone previously, and I've used the phone as my ultra portable sketchpad. But eventually I just find the display too small for comfortable drawing. And my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be so I've to ditch the idea of drawing phones.

And unfortunately Samsung removed the S Pen with the Samsung Z Fold 7 so the next largest device from Samsung for drawing is actually their 11-inch Tab S10 FE or Tab S11 tablets.

For some reason, Samsung just does not want to create an 8-inch mini tablet like the iPad mini, Xiaomi Pad Mini or Huawei MatePad Mini. There's definitely a market for a premium mini tablet with good pen support. Must we wait for Apple to upgrade the iPad Mini with an OLED display?

Specifications

And here's a table comparing with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

There are actually many uprgades but not in the substantial way that many are wishing for. Smartphone technology is getting so good nowadays that it's kinda difficult to get those substantial upgrades we used to have a decade ago.

Let's go through some of the upgrades.

Size, weight, handling

This phone is now thinner at 7.9mm and it's quite impressive. Weight is just 214g.

The 6.9-inch AMOLED display is huge and makes this phone feel like a mini tablet rather than a phone. If you have no need for the S Pen, I would actually recommend you go with the smaller 6.3-inch S26 or 6.7-inch S26+ instead which are more phone-like in size and weight.

Note that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is available for S26 Ultra in all countries, but the S26 and S26+ may ship with Exynos 2600 depending on market. There will be differences in processing power of course, but I doubt you'll notice the difference unless you do a benchmark test.

I've been using the biggest possible phones for the longest time and I've decided to switch to smaller 6.2-inch (thereabout) phones because battery life for such phones nowadays is also pretty good.

Battery life

The S26 Ultra has a 5000 mAh battery capacity. You can expect 12 hours of battery life and that's really good.

Cable charging speed has increased to 60W/b> from 45W so now you can get 75% battery life back in just 30 minutes. But the 60W charging speed is only for the S26 Ultra. S26+ only support 45W charging which will charge 50% in 30 minutes which is still really good, and S26 only supports 25W charging.

With fast charging, there really isn't any need to get the S26 Ultra just for the larger battery. And it's just 5000 mAh vs S26's 4900 mAh anyway.

S26 Ultra also supports 25W Qi2 charging. I was only able to get 18W charging with the Qi2.2 charger that I tested. The huge camera bump behind may affect the alignment of the wireless charger, and hence affect the charging speed. And it's best to get a phone case that supports MagSafe so that it's easier to align the battery for wireless charging.

Display

Samsung AMOLED displays have been amazing for years. Displays are sharp, bright enough under the sun, and so smooth with 120Hz refresh rate.

This new model adds a new feature called Privacy Display where upon activating through settings, the display will have limited viewing angles. Privacy Display works really well.

Cameras

Cameras are great and can take great photos. You can read the specs for yourself.

The camera bump is even larger now though, with an island added. You will definitely need a phone case to reduce the camera bump but even so there may still be a camera bump because it is that large.

I happen to use my phones to make Youtube videos and while the video quality from Samsung is good, it's missing the PAL 25FPS recording setting. Not many Android phones have this PAL 25FPS recording and it's such a shame because it can be added through software.

PAL 25FPS basically lets you record at a frame rate that's in sync with the electricity in some countries to that light sources will not flicker in your video. If you say the lights in your videos do not flicker, well that's just luck and not control.

It is possible to install third party apps that enable 25FPS but the UI from those apps may not be ideal, or worst you may not be able to use image stabilisation when recording video.

The lack of PAL 25FPS is the main and only reason why I don't use Samsung phones.

You can still record great videos with NTSC 30 FPS, 60 FPS by the way.

OS and software

The phone has Samsung One UI 8.5 on top of Android 16, and will get 7 years of OS and security updates.

Samsung One UI has many useful features, and since it's Android it's also very customisable, especially with the Good Lock app from Google Play Store.

There's also the SamsungDex feature that lets you connect the phone to an external display to use it as a desktop computer. This is a great setup for those with simple computing needs and don't need full desktop OS and hence won't need to spend money to buy a computer.

Drawing experience

This phone has a huge display for a phone, but for drawing it's considered a small display.

This sketch above was drawn with the S25 Ultra. Drawing detailed or huge scenes is difficult on a small screen as it involves lots of zooming in and out to check the composition and perspective. And it's also difficult to draw tiny details.

The phone is best used for drawing singular subjects in my opinion. And in this case it can be an extremely portable sketchpad, a rather small one though. I sketch with my watercolour sketchbook too, but it's just more convenient to have the phone as it's with me all the time.

Conclusion

If you want a flagship Android phone, it is very difficult to go wrong with the Samsung S26 series phones. As to whether they are worth the money, you can decide.

Maybe you can even get the prefers S25 series which are still amazing phones, but now selling at even more attractive prices.

The only thing that prevents me from getting this phone is that lack of 25FPS video recording with the native camera app. I really wish Samsung will add that in the future, and it's just a software feature.

Availability

The Samsung S26 series phones are available currently in Singapore from Shopee SG and Lazada SG from SGD 1648, and could be cheaper if there are promotions going on.