The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a good phone. In fact, if you’re coming from a four-year-old device, it will likely feel like a revelation. But as someone who lives and breathes mobile tech, I’ve hit a wall. At $1,300, “good” is no longer the benchmark; “extraordinary” is. And quite frankly, the S26 Ultra feels like a Galaxy S23 Ultra-S — a 2023 soul trapped in a 2026 body.
The S26 Ultra feels like an Ultra in name only
For many years, the Galaxy Note and subsequently the Galaxy Ultra branding stood for Samsung throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. Today, that $1,300 price tag feels less like an R&D investment and more like a subsidy for Samsung’s massive marketing and distribution machine.
