Samsung has officially launched the Galaxy S26 series at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 in San Francisco, introducing three new flagship models — the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra — with units set to go on sale from March 11.
In Malaysia, only the Ultra is powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, while the other 2 run on Samsung’s own Exynos 2600. They run Android 16 with One UI 8.5 out of the box, with 7 years of OS and security patches promised.
The lineup also adopts a unified camera island design language across the board, which is similar to the Galaxy S25 series and the Fold7 series.
The standard Galaxy S26 features a 6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED display and a 4,300mAh battery supporting 25W wired charging in a remarkably slim 137g chassis, while the S26+ steps up to a 6.7-inch QHD+ panel and 4,900mAh battery and supports 45W charging. Both phones also support Super Fast Wireless Charging.
Both models now ship with 12GB RAM as standard, and the standard S26 still starts at 128GB, while the Plus starts at 256GB, both go up to 512GB.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra takes center stage as the headline device of the series. It sports a 6.9-inch M14 OLED display, 12 or 16GB RAM, and storage options of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB (16GB RAM).
Its camera system comprises a 200MP main sensor with an f/1.4 aperture, a 50MP ultrawide, a 50MP 5x periscope telephoto, and a 12MP 3x telephoto lens.
The device is backed by a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 60W wired and 25W Qi2 wireless charging. S26 series still don’t incorporate the Qi2 magnetic rings into the phone and instead relying on the seperate-purchase casings to provide magnetic charging capability.
The S Pen remains tucked inside the device, though Samsung has removed its Bluetooth remote shutter functionality since S25 Ultra.
The most talked-about new feature is the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s exclusive Privacy Display. Built on Samsung’s Flex Magic Pixel technology, this display-level privacy solution works at the pixel layer to restrict viewing angles — content remains perfectly visible to the person holding the phone, while becoming nearly impossible to read from the side.
Samsung calls this “Zero-Peeking Privacy,” making the S26 Ultra the first flagship smartphone to integrate a privacy filter directly into the display panel itself, rather than relying on a removable screen protector.
On the AI front, the Galaxy S26 series deepens its Galaxy AI integration and introduces a new partnership with Perplexity AI. Users can now invoke Perplexity directly by saying “Hey Plex” or by long-pressing the side button, enabling real-time web search results without leaving the home screen.
The series also gains smarter photo editing tools powered by advanced AI technology, enabling user to edit photos just by inputting prompts.
Besides, there’s enhanced AI camera system that uses neural frame prediction to suggest optimal shot composition before the shutter is pressed.
The Galaxy S26 and S26+ come in Midnight Black, Marble White, Sky Blue, and Cobalt Violet. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is available in its own set of colorways. Pre-orders are now open across major markets, with a range of trade-in promotions available at launch.
In addition to the smartphone, Samsung also launched the Galaxy Buds 4 series TWS, which supports UHQ 24-bit audio and up to 30 hours of music playback.
Prices and launch promos will be updated accordingly when we received info.
For more info, visit Samsung Malaysia website.
