Samsung Unveils Galaxy S26 Ultra With Built-In Privacy Display, AI Upgrades

Samsung has entered 2026 with a clear mission: to prove that the most meaningful smartphone innovations are now happening beneath the surface. At the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event in San Francisco, the company introduced the Galaxy S26 series, led by a radically refined S26 Ultra. While the exterior remains similar to the previous generation, the internal hardware has been overhauled to support a new era of “Agentic AI” and hardware-level privacy.

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The S26 Ultra: Privacy at the Pixel Level

The standout feature of the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the world’s first built-in Privacy Display. Unlike traditional stick-on screen protectors that permanently dim the screen and ruin clarity, Samsung’s solution is integrated directly into the OLED panel.

• How It Works: The display controls light dispersion at the pixel level. When activated, the screen remains crystal clear for the user looking straight on, but appears almost completely black to anyone peeking from the sides.

• Smart Activation: It can be set to turn on automatically when you open sensitive apps like HDFC Bank, WhatsApp, or Gmail, or whenever you are prompted to enter a PIN or password.

• Weight Loss: By switching from titanium back to a high-grade “Armored Aluminum,” Samsung has made the S26 Ultra its thinnest and lightest “Ultra” model to date.

Performance: Snapdragon 8 Elite vs. Exynos 2600

For the Indian market, Samsung continues its dual-chipset strategy:

• Galaxy S26 Ultra: Exclusively powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, delivering a 39% boost in NPU performance for AI tasks.

• Galaxy S26 & S26+: These models feature the new Samsung Exynos 2600 (2nm process) in India, which promises significant efficiency gains over last year’s silicon.

• Charging: The Ultra model breaks a decade of stagnation by supporting 60W wired charging, while the S26+ stays at 45W and the base S26 at 25W.

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Next-Gen AI: Perplexity Integration & Agentic Search

Samsung has doubled down on AI partnerships, most notably with Perplexity AI.

• “Hey Plex”: Users can now trigger the Perplexity agent directly. It powers real-time web answers within Bixby and is deeply integrated into the Samsung Internet browser.

• Automated Actions: Through Google Gemini, users can perform complex tasks via voice, such as “Order an Uber to the airport,” which Gemini executes by navigating the app on your behalf.

• Photo Assist 11: The upgraded AI suite now allows for natural language photo editing—you can simply tell the phone to “remove the coffee stain from my shirt” or “change the background to a sunset.”

India Pricing and Pre-Order Benefits

Samsung has bumped the base storage for all models to 256GB in India, which explains part of the price increase.

Pre-order Offer: Samsung is offering a free storage upgrade—buy the 256GB variant and get the 512GB model at no extra cost. Additionally, pre-order customers get a 15% discount on the new Galaxy Buds 4 series.

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Galaxy Buds 4 Pro: The Audio Rival

The new Galaxy Buds 4 Pro (₹22,999) and Galaxy Buds 4 (₹16,999) were also unveiled. The Pro model features:

• 24-bit High-Res Audio that surpasses the current AirPods Pro bitrate.

• Head Gestures: You can now nod to answer a call or shake your head to decline it.

• Speech Detection: Automatically switches from ANC to Ambient mode when it detects you are speaking.

Reality Check

The S26 Ultra’s 60W charging is a welcome leap. Still, it falls short of the 100W+ speeds seen in Chinese flagships like the iQOO 15R or OnePlus 13. Therefore, while Samsung is closing the gap, it still prioritizes battery longevity and heat management over raw speed. In fact, if you don’t care about the “Privacy Display” or the S-Pen, the Galaxy S25 Ultra (currently discounted to ₹1.07 lakh on Flipkart) remains a formidable alternative with almost identical camera sensors.

The Loopholes

The S26 series starts at ₹87,999. In fact, this is an “Introductory Loophole”—the price includes a ₹20,000 “storage upgrade benefit.” Therefore, once the pre-order window closes on March 10, the actual market price for a 512GB model will jump significantly. Still, the “AI Longevity Loophole”—Samsung’s promise of 7 years of OS updates—is the strongest reason to buy into this ecosystem, as it ensures the hardware remains relevant until 2033.

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What This Means for You

If you are a professional who frequently handles sensitive data in public (metros, cafés, or airports), the S26 Ultra is the only phone on the market that solves your privacy problem natively. First, realize that the “Privacy Display” eliminates the need for annoying stick-on filters. Then, if you are a gamer, understand that the upgraded vapor chamber on the Ultra is specifically designed to keep the Snapdragon 8 Elite cool during 144Hz sessions.

Finally, understand that pre-orders are live now on Samsung.com, Amazon, and Flipkart. You should take advantage of the ₹8,000–₹12,000 bank cashback available on HDFC and ICICI cards to bring the effective price down. Before you buy, check the “Pair-up” offers if you also need new earbuds, as the 15% discount combined with the storage upgrade offers the best value

What’s Next

Indian customers who pre-order will see early deliveries starting March 6, 2026. Then, the general sale begins on March 11. Finally, look for the One UI 8.5 software update to hit the S25 and S24 series in late March, bringing some (but not all) of the new AI features to older devices.

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