Samsung
✨ Samsung Unpacked: The Galaxy S26 Ultra 📱 and Galaxy Buds 4 🎧
Samsung beat the Mobile World Congress rush by hosting its latest Unpacked event this Wednesday at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. 🏙️ Ahead of the industry’s massive trade show, Samsung took the stage to unveil the Galaxy S26 lineup—consisting of the standard S26, the S26+, and the flagship S26 Ultra. 📱✨ We’ve already spent some hands-on time with the devices; be sure to check out our deep dive into the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as well as our initial impressions of the S26 and S26+. 🔍
Beyond the phones, Samsung also debuted the Galaxy Buds 4 and, predictably, a suite of new AI integrations. 🎧🤖 If you’ve seen enough and are ready to buy, pre-orders for all devices are open now. 🛒 For everyone else, here is a comprehensive breakdown of everything Samsung revealed at Unpacked. 📝
New year, new Galaxy phones. 🗓️ Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: The Galaxy S26 and S26+ are more expensive than last year’s models. 💸 Citing the ongoing RAM shortage, Samsung has raised the price by $100 for each. The base S26 now starts at $900, while the S26+ begins at $1,100, with both base models offering 256GB of storage. 📈
Design-wise, Samsung has softened the look, rounding the corners to better match the aesthetic of the S26 Ultra. 📐 The standard S26 sees a slight size bump to a 6.3-inch display, while the S26+ retains its 6.7-inch screen size, though it boasts a higher resolution than its smaller sibling. 📱 The base model also gets a battery upgrade, now sitting at 4,300mAh. 🔋
Under the hood, buyers in North America, China, and Japan will find Qualcomm silicon rather than Samsung’s own Exynos 2600. ⚙️ In these regions, both the S26 and S26+ are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. ⚡
While the physical camera hardware remains largely unchanged from last year, Samsung is leaning heavily on software to boost performance. 📸 New additions include ProScaler image upscaling and an MDNIe chip designed to significantly enhance color precision. 🌈 Action videographers will appreciate a new stabilization feature that keeps the horizon level when tracking moving subjects. 🏃♂️ Additionally, a new Object Aware Engine promises to render skin tones and hair textures more naturally in selfies. 🤳 Samsung has also expanded the compatibility of AI tools like Now Brief and Auto Eraser to cover more apps. 🪄
Pre-orders for the S26 and S26+ open today, with general availability starting March 11. 📅 Color options include purple, blue, black, and white, along with silver and rose gold as online exclusives. 💜💙🖤🤍
The Galaxy S26 Ultra arrives on the same date with the same color options as the standard models. 👑 The good news here is the price: it holds steady at $1,300, avoiding the price hike seen on the smaller units. ✅ Pre-orders are available starting today. 💳
The Ultra sports a massive 6.9-inch AMOLED display with QHD+ resolution (3120 x 1440) and a 120Hz refresh rate. 🖥️ However, the screen’s specifications are secondary to its most intriguing new capability: discretion. 🤫
Samsung has introduced a “Privacy Display,” touted as a smartphone first. 🛡️ This feature prevents onlookers from viewing your screen from acute angles. While it results in a slight dip in brightness when active, it offers significant peace of mind. 👁️🗨️
The feature is highly customizable; you can set the Privacy Display to kick in automatically when opening banking apps, receiving sensitive notifications, or entering passwords. 🏦 It’s a genuinely useful tool for anyone who checks their finances on public transit and wants to keep their balance private. 🚆
Internally, the S26 Ultra utilizes the same Snapdragon chipset as the rest of the line. 🚀 It is available with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and storage options ranging from 256GB up to 1TB. 📦 It carries a 5,000 mAh battery—larger than its siblings—and supports Super Fast Charging 3.0. 🔌 Disappointingly, Samsung still hasn’t integrated Qi2 magnetic charging, a glaring omission for a flagship device in 2026. ❌
Photography remains a focus, though the selfie camera is identical to the standard models. 📸 The rear array features a 50MP ultrawide and a 200MP wide lens, paired with dual telephoto sensors (10MP at 3x and 50MP at 5x). 🔭 While the resolution matches the S25 Ultra, the main 200MP and 5x telephoto lenses now feature wider apertures for better low-light performance. 🌃 Naturally, the Ultra also includes all the new software and AI camera enhancements found in the S26 and S26+. ✨
Stay tuned for our full review. 👨💻 In the interim, you can read our initial thoughts in our hands-on coverage of the S26 Ultra. 📝
Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro 🎧
#Galaxy Buds 4
While the phones feel like iterative refinements, the Galaxy Buds lineup has received a complete overhaul. 🆕 Samsung has redesigned both the Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro, abandoning the angular stems and indicator lights of previous generations. 🧬
Samsung describes the new shape as a “computationally designed fit.” 👂 The earbud heads are smaller, which the company claims provides a more secure and comfortable experience for all-day wear. The standard Galaxy Buds 4 stick to an open-fit design, while the Pro model utilizes a canal-fit seal. 🫧
Audio quality and Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) have reportedly been improved across the board, featuring adaptive EQ and adaptive ANC. 🔇 A standout feature on the Buds 4 Pro is siren detection, which automatically enables ambient sound mode when it detects emergency vehicle sirens or alarms. 🚨
The Buds 4 Pro also feature a new woofer that increases the effective speaker area by nearly 20 percent, with support for 24-bit/96kHz audio. 🔊
Integration with the Galaxy ecosystem is tighter than ever. 🤝 Users can now access Bixby, Google Gemini, and Perplexity via hands-free voice controls on both models. 🗣️ Note that the wake word for Perplexity is “Hey, Plex,” which might cause some confusion for users of the popular media server application. 🎞️ The Pro model also adds head gesture controls for managing calls and interacting with Bixby. 💁♂️
Pre-orders for the earbuds begin today, with a release date of March 11. 🏷️ The Galaxy Buds 4 are priced at $180, while the Buds 4 Pro will cost $250. Both come in matte white or black, with an online-exclusive pink option available for the Pro model. 💗
Android AI features 🤖
Leading up to the event, Samsung confirmed that Perplexity would be integrated as an AI agent within Galaxy AI. 🕵️♂️ This update allows the S26 series to respond to the “Hey Plex” prompt and embeds Perplexity features directly into the Samsung Browser. Concurrently, Bixby has been updated to handle more conversational interactions. 💬
#Android AI
Google also used the Unpacked stage to announce new Android AI capabilities available on the S26 series. 🤝 The Gemini app (currently in beta) will soon allow users on S26 and Pixel 10 devices to offload complex, multi-step tasks to AI—such as organizing a grocery order or booking a ride. 🚗 It represents a clear push toward “agentic” AI on mobile. 🧠
#Android AI