The new Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't much to shout about

"This year's Galaxy S26 Ultra, announced a few days before the Mobile World Congress kicked off, is an extraordinarily iterative update in what has become a line of near-identical flagships. The design is almost indistinguishable from the previous three years' models, and there isn't much to shout about on the inside either."

"While the S26 Ultra does come with the expected upgrade to Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, it's hard to find much else of note on the spec sheet. Samsung switched the frame from titanium to aluminum and shaved 0.3 millimeters off the thickness in the process. The screen is the same 6.9-inch 1440p OLED panel as before."

"The camera system might be the most baffling example of inertia. All the sensors are the same except on the much-maligned 10-megapixel 3x telephoto camera, which has remained in place since 2002."

Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra, unveiled before Mobile World Congress 2026, demonstrates stagnation in the flagship smartphone market. The device features an almost indistinguishable design from the previous three years, with minimal internal improvements. While it includes Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, other upgrades are negligible: the frame switched from titanium to aluminum with a 0.3mm thickness reduction, the 6.9-inch 1440p OLED screen remains unchanged, and the 5,000mAh battery lacks improvement. Charging speeds increased to 60 watts but lag behind Chinese competitors using advanced fast-charging technology. The camera system shows particular stagnation, with unchanged sensors except for the problematic 10-megapixel 3x telephoto camera that has remained since 2002.

Read at Fast Company