The Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy Buds 4 and more

The device has a Privacy Display that’s said to be the first of its kind on a smartphone. The idea here is to prevent people around from seeing what’s on the screen from acute angles. There’s a small decrease in brightness when Privacy Display is active, and there are lots of customization options.

You can set up Privacy Display to activate when you’re asked for a password or PIN, or when you get a notification or open certain apps. So if (for instance) you tend to look at your banking apps when you’re on public transit and don’t want other passengers to see how much moolah you have, Privacy Display seems like a very handy feature.

Elsewhere, the S26 Ultra runs on the same chipset as its smaller siblings. It comes with 12 or 16GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. The battery is larger than the ones in the other S26 models, as the Ultra has a 5,000 mAh capacity. There’s support for Super Fast Charging 3.0 as well. Alas, Samsung still hasn’t seen fit to offer built-in Qi2 charging magnets in the S26 lineup, which seems like a wild oversight in the year 2026.

The selfie camera is the same as on the S26 and S26+. The S26 Ultra has 50MP ultrawide and 200MP wide lenses, along with dual 10MP 3x and 50MP 5x telephoto sensors. The resolutions of those cameras are the same as on the S25 Ultra, but the main 200M and 5x telephoto sensors now have wider apertures to let in more light. The S26 Ultra of course has the camera software features (and other AI features) found in the S26 and S26+.

We’ll have a review of the devices soon. In the meantime, head on through to our hands-on story for our initial impressions of the S26 Ultra.

Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro

While the S26 phones are more iterative updates this year, Samsung has given its Galaxy Buds a proper refresh. It revamped the design and shape of the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro to do away with the angular look of the stems and remove the lights from them.

The earbuds have a “more refined, computationally designed fit” too, according to Samsung. The company claims the latest earbuds have smaller earbud heads that allow for a better, more secure fit and a more “comfortable experience during all-day wear.” The Galaxy Buds 4 remain in an open-fit format while the Buds Pro 4 have a canal-fit design.

The latest earbuds are said to offer improved audio quality and active noise cancellation (ANC), with an ambient sound mode, adaptive EQ and adaptive ANC. On Buds 4 Pro, there’s a siren detection feature that enables ambient sound to let you hear things like alarms or emergency vehicle warnings.

The Buds 4 Pro have a wide woofer that increases the effective speaker area by nearly 20 percent compared with the previous gen earbuds, Samsung said. They support 24-bit/96kHz audio.

If you’re using Galaxy Buds 4 or Buds 4 Pro with a Galaxy device, you’ll be able to use Bixby, Google Gemini and Perplexity with hands-free voice controls (though the “hey, Plex” command for the latter might be a tad confusing for folks who use a certain media server app). The Buds 4 Pro support head gesture controls for managing calls and Bixby interactions as well.

As with the S26 phones, pre-orders for the earbuds open today and they’ll hit shelves on March 11. The Galaxy Buds 4 cost $180 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro will run you $250. Both models are available in white and black with a matte finish. There’s an online-exclusive pink option for Buds 4 Pro as well.

Android AI features

Ahead of Unpacked, Samsung confirmed that it would offer Perplexity as an AI agent option in Galaxy AI on the S26 lineup. As part of that update, it shared that the S26 series would respond to the “Hey Plex” wake phrase, and that Perplexity’s features would also be embedded in the Samsung Browser app. The company also recently updated Bixby to make its own virtual assistant more conversational.

On top of that news, Google had announcements of its own to make at Unpacked regarding new Android AI features, which will of course be available on S26 devices. On those handsets and the Pixel 10 lineup, the Gemini app will soon have a feature (in beta) that enables you to offload multi-step tasks, such as booking a ride or putting a grocery order together, to AI. It sure sounds like an attempt to build out agentic AI features on mobile devices.

Starting this week on Pixel 10 devices (and soon on S26 phones), Circle to Search will offer the ability to find details about multiple objects at once, such as entire outfits instead of single pieces. Moreover, Gemini-powered, on-device Scam Detection for phone calls will be available for S26 devices in English in the US.

Try Galaxy relaunches for the S26 series

The day after Unpacked, Samsung shared a press release on its newsroom that encouraged users to check out its Try Galaxy experience on their devices. By scanning a QR code, users can launch the Galaxy UI and check out apps, photo editing tools, AI features and more. Managing editor Cherlynn Low checked it out on her iPhone 17 Pro and found the whole setup trippy but fascinating. You can also use Try Galaxy to check out the company’s foldable phones’ software on your main device. As our editor in chief Aaron Souppouris pointed out, this isn’t the first time Samsung has made it possible to emulate a Galaxy phone on your own handset, but the new iteration for Galaxy S26 certainly is new this year.

Update, February 25 2026, 4:35PM ET: This story has been updated to include more details on the Perplexity AI integration, as well as include mentions in the intro of our hands-on and pre-order articles.

Update, February 26 2026, 12:49PM ET: This story has been updated to include the new Try Galaxy experience that Samsung announced today.