The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra features several design improvements, including a crucial change to the S Pen, and you may have to learn how to insert the stylus back into the device.

S Pen has been a part of the Note series since the very beginning, which later succeeded the S-series’ Ultra model. This built-in accessory offers a smart experience for millions of users despite losing its Bluetooth capabilities.

However, the biggest change arrived with the S26 Ultra. You see, the Note series remained boxy til the very end, enabling a flat click-to-release button. In that case, the user can insert the Pen facing upwards or downwards without verifying its head position.

This saga continued with the S22 Ultra, S23 Ultra, S24 Ultra, and S25 Ultra, since these phones come with a proper flat bottom frame to continue the flat clicker. That changed with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, increasing the corner radius and taking the round curves all the way to the S Pen.

So, Samsung has to amend its clicker’s design with an arc to align with the new frame design. Since you no longer have that flat clicker, you will have to match its position in the right direction.

Does the wrong position matter? On the positive note, it doesn’t, the S Pen will still insert in either direction, but that will look odd. That’s one of the noticeable drawbacks of the S26 Ultra’s design, which wasn’t the case with the S25 Ultra.

However, everything moves forward, and we don’t know what the next chapter of the S Pen will bring. Once you start using the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s S Pen, it will come into your habit, or you can choose to keep the S Pen inside the phone, just like a typical Ultra user.

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Samsung has released some of the important notes about the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display feature, which you should know before you buy this phone based on its intriguing promos and advertisements.

The privacy display feature allows you to hide the on-screen content from other people while using the phone in public or crowded places. This feature aims to improve the user’s privacy with this new display technology. If disabled, the display works like a regular phone.

Samsung suggests that enabling this feature doesn’t guarantee complete invisibility for on-screen content, which will be decided by viewing angle and the distance of other people. It means that if other people are in proximity to the phone, they’ll see some content despite the feature being enabled. However, brightness and natural light environment will play a key role in how much they can see.

The company said, “Caution is advised when exposing sensitive information.” It indirectly means that you should stay cautious while reading or watching sensitive content with this feature enabled.

Galaxy S26 Ultra’s privacy display is an innovative feature, and Samsung has won a lot of praise from the industry. However, it has certain parameters, which you must meet in order to safeguard your privacy in public places.

For instance, you should keep the device straight and close to your face while using this feature, with adequate brightness, and at an optimum distance, so that the content remains visible only to you and not others. This approach will maximize the privacy display’s effect on others’ visibility and reduce the possibility of creating a loophole.

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At Unpacked, Samsung announced Perplexity’s AI assistant integration to the Galaxy S26 series, and recently, the company has removed its Hey Plex instant AI access. Samsung partnered with Perplexity to offer different AI services to improve user experience. For example, the Galaxy S26 series comes with Gemini, Bixby, and Perplexity. Users can select which one of these will be their go-to partner. They can also switch the agent at any time from the settings.

Similar to Gemini, Perplexity offers a voice wake-up feature, so when the Galaxy S26 user says “Hey Plex”, the app will launch a screen overlay of Perplexity’s voice agent to take the user command even when the screen is off.

What’s important about this partnership is that Perplexity has gained system-level access. So its AI can read from and write to system apps. With this capability, users can ask questions and get answers from the internet with source citations. Perplexity can also save information into Samsung Notes and edit it later.

Hey Plex feature inside the Perplexity app before the recent Galaxy S26 series update

Two days ago, I received my Galaxy S26 Ultra, and while checking its features, I come down to the Hey Plex. The feature was part of the Perplexity app, which comes preloaded on the device.

To check this capability, you need to go to the app’s settings and check “Hey Plex detection” under the Assistant section. Next, Perplexity asks you to set up the voice for Hey Plex activation. It asks you to repeat the on-screen sentences to record your voice, and it’s done.

I went through the process and activated the Hey Plex voice wake-up, and it was working as promised. However, the February 2026 security update has removed the Hey Plex detection option from the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Simply put, the Hey Plex wake-up phrase is no longer working on Galaxy S26 Ultra. This may be the same scenario across the lineup. However, you can still use Perplexity’s dedicated voice assistant on the side button.

We’ll have to wait and see when this feature turns up in a future update release.

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Samsung has released the Galaxy S26 Ultra with design optimizations, and we’ve conducted its side-by-side comparison with the Galaxy S25 Ultra to highlight everything new in this latest flagship.

The need for such an exploration is evident from the divided user opinions. On one side, people are saying that it’s a refined version, while others are weighing in with “nah, it’s the same as S25 Ultra”. So, we decided to break into the conversation and tell you what you should know.

Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra – front

Last year, Samsung broke away from the Note series and adopted curved corners. Though reviewers saw this as a mere frame radius inclusion but it’s more like the end of an era. An era that made Note and Ultra look different from other premium phones in the market.

S26 Ultra (left) and S25 Ultra (right)

Building on the new design schemes, the S26 Ultra has increased the corner radius. After this change, the S26 Ultra’s symmetry aligns more with the base and Plus models. Basically, they are on the same page now.

S26 Ultra (left) and S25 Ultra (right)

Both phones bring a 6.9-inch QHD Dynamic AMOLED display, but the S26 Ultra appears a bit wider. You can only spot this difference in a side-by-side comparison. Samsung’s official specs sheet backs this observation. The S26 Ultra is 78.1mm wide and 163.6mm tall. On the other hand, the S25 Ultra is 77.6mm wide and 162.8mm tall. The new flagship is also taller and thinner than its predecessor despite offering the same display size.

S26 Ultra (left) and S25 Ultra (right)

Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra – frame

The frame is now aluminium, degrading from the titanium used in S25 Ultra. Some might argue that the build quality has declined, but it appears to be good overall.

The volume and power keys are on the right, and the USB-C port, SIM tray, microphone, and S-pen are at the bottom. That said, all of the side features are the same as the previous version, except for the S-Pen, and its clicker button had to adopt the new curves.

S26 Ultra (top) and S25 Ultra (bottom)

Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra – Rear

The back of both phones has a matte finish protected with Corning Gorilla Glass, yet the S26 Ultra has a more vibrant color. Unlike the S25 Ultra, the new model comes with a camera island.

The camera layout is the same as last year, but it no longer looks cheap with the addition of integrated camera crowns, which closely resemble the Galaxy Z Fold 7 but look better on the S26 Ultra.

S26 Ultra (left) and S25 Ultra (right)

That’s where Samsung received online criticism for gluing the camera rings around the S25 Ultra’s cameras. I guess the company has learned from the mistakes and brought a more integrated look to this year’s flagship.

With camera design enhancement, you can no longer put the phone on a flat surface, which is a kind of harsh reality, as it will wobble all the time. In that case, you’d better put on a cover on this device.

Conclusion

This comparison reveals that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is wider, taller, thinner, and looks better than the S25 Ultra. These optimizations stand tall on top of the software and hardware improvements, such as the privacy display, improved performance, cameras, and software. This is a perfect Android flagship for first-time buyers; still, we don’t recommend it as an upgrade for the S25 Ultra users.

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It’s been three months since Samsung released the first One UI 8.5 beta, but the software is in a delay mode, which kind of reminds me of the One UI 7. 2024 was the year of major changes in Samsung’s software ecosystem, with its One UI program taking a new direction. At the forefront, the One UI 7 (Android 15) took the center stage, marking the first public beta rollout in early December.

The software has brought major changes throughout the interface that awed the users across the Galaxy S24 series. Still, the new One UI version is tagged with the Galaxy S25 series.

Even after the official release, Samsung delayed the software expansion to all of the S24 series and previous flagships. The S25 series was unveiled in January 2025, but the stable software stretched to April.

This development arrived at a time when One UI 8 had already appeared on internal test servers. Yet, many users remained attached to their newly received update due to massive improvements. Still, that doesn’t stop us from criticising Samsung’s strange development cycles, filled with delays.

One UI 8.5

In early December, Samsung followed the One UI 7 and released the first One UI 8.5 beta. You should know that this new software marks the return of a feature pack update other than a major Android release.

Despite being based on Android 16, one of One UI 8.5’s betas saw a month-long delay before the Galaxy S26 launch, which shipped with a stable version out of the box.

Closest launch window

As of today, the company hasn’t said anything specific about the stable One UI 8.5 rollout for older devices. Yet, the development cycle suggests that we’re pretty much moving toward the end of March to see a final rollout.

On the other hand, the Galaxy S26 series’ worldwide launch will happen on March 11, which is a good occasion to gift this new software for the S25 series. However, if the company is still running with its old strategy, then we’ll not be seeing this happening anytime soon, at least not this month.

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Last month, Samsung released the Galaxy S26 series along with the One UI 8.5. Since Samsung has been testing this new software for almost a quarter, this occasion was the right time to release an OTA update for the Galaxy S25 series and other flagships. Instead, Samsung gave us something else, an FAQ, featuring a hilarious and strange answer about the One UI 8.5 devices’ compatibility.

One UI 8.5 refines One UI 8.0, including major changes in the user interface, animations, app transitions, fluidity, and more. The overall upgrades make it way better than the previous generation. That’s where the line is drawn. You see, this is the best One UI update so far, and Samsung is already stretching its development for the previous flagship phones, which should have ended.

One UI 8.5 device compatibility FAQ

Amid this anticipation, Samsung has published a number of FAQs about One UI 8.5 on its official website, and one of them was completely unhinged. Each year, old Galaxy smartphone users seek information about their phone’s compatibility with the latest major software release.

This sheer interest leads them to the internet and search for eligible devices. Samsung also shares this compatible devices list through its Members app, but it happens only after the official rollout kicks off.

This year, the phone maker has tried something new by sharing the eligible devices for the One UI 8.5, confirming that the Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra will be the first to receive this update in public.

The majority of people have been reading news about the Galaxy S26 series shipping with One UI 8.5 out of the box. Samsung also made it formal through the Unpacked keynote and through its official press release.

It appears that executives at Samsung have forgotten that people are seeking such compatibility information for their existing devices and not the newly launched phones, which they may not want to buy.

The phone maker did mention that the rollout will expand to more Galaxy devices, but without naming any of the former flagships, not even the Galaxy S25 series.

Still, it’s noteworthy that Samsung has a misconception that One UI 8.5 will help it sell more devices. The phone is selling on its face value, design, camera, and performance. Meanwhile, it maintains mystery around the rollout plan.

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