One UI has come a long way, and the on-device global search has become one of its key capabilities to find anything on the phone without going through specific directories and wasting your valuable time. Finder works perfectly fine in this direction, but One UI 8.5 has made it more accessible than ever.

Usually, you need to open the app drawer to access the finder feature. Here you can see suggested apps, settings topics, recent searches, and type new queries or use voice input. Besides these, on-device categories, the search also expands to online content, Play Store, Galaxy Store, and web results.

The execution is fast and accurate due to Samsung’s search algorithm optimizations. Meanwhile, the One UI 8.5 on the Galaxy S26 series has introduced a dedicated Finder button that launches the feature with one tap without opening the app drawer.

However, the feature may not be accessible by default, so you have to enable it from the home screen settings. To do so, go to Home screen settings from the home screen and tap on the slider in front of the “Show Finder on Home Screen” option. This option will now show on the home screen, and you can tap to see the feature to expand its options.

How to customize it

Finder is entirely customizable, and you can check all of its options from the Finder settings. Go to Now Brief and open Finder, then tap on the three dots outside of the search bar. Enable or disable search options to see the content in the results. You can also manage Personal data intelligence and dive deep into the data sharing for added services.

For now, there’s no confirmation whether it will come to old devices with the stable One UI 8.5, but we’ll have to wait for an official statement.

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Samsung Galaxy S26 series shipped with the newest features of Now Brief, an automated daily briefing feature that curates important information, tasks, and notifications that may improve your user experience.

Despite it being a good idea, the Now brief failed to impress users due to its low-accuracy of what Samsung promoted it to be. Most of the time, the feature shows weather, news article and YouTube video recommendations from your subscribed channels. And sometimes, it includes your photographs (from a particular day) and weekly screen time. Beyond that, the “Content to include” section has numerous categories that are part of the daily briefing.

However, the feature execution matters. The company has added a weather widget in the briefing, a news article that doesn’t refresh; if so, it’s not interesting. Most Galaxy S26 series and previous device owners may have been scrolling through videos on the YouTube app instead of waiting for them to appear slowly on their daily briefing. These might be a good example of how useless the feature could be.

That said, I recently started using Now Brief on a daily basis to test “Get richer insights“. It has YouTube and Gemini toggles; once enabled, they promise to deliver personalized content inside daily briefings. Yet, the company is asking for almost all of the important user data for personalized videos. Below is an example for YouTube.

“If you turn on this option, your schedule, reservation, and booking information from Samsung Wallet, Notifications, Messages, Calendar, Reminder, and Gmail information, and sports information from your Google Account, sports information from apps you use, the titles of websites you visit, and YouTube videos you watch that are analysed on your phone by Personal data intelligence will be shared with Google, who will collect and process this data to provide recommended travel and sports videos” reads the agreement pop-up.

So, it’s not a normal slider; Samsung wants you to give consent for Now Brief to access all of this information in exchange to get video recommendation. It’s hard to say, there will be a person who reads this information, and gives Now brief consent in exchange for YouTube video recommendations. All they need to do is open the app and explore whatever they want to watch or see.

It’s not like they can’t disable the feature, but the feature will start sipping this data as soon as you tap on the slider.

The other side of the matter is the depth of such information, including your wallet. Why should we be providing this information to see videos? It doesn’t mean that companies don’t farm data to train AI, but Samsung offering YouTube video recommendations in exchange for vital user data should only be called “data farming.”

Of course, it’s on the user to decide on the consent, but you should not overlook the intent.

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Samsung continues to add new AI features in the Galaxy AI Suite and also updates the old ones, such as Now Brief, to make it user-friendly. This feature gathers the important moments from your device, such as Gallery pictures, energy score, sleep schedule, alarm, wallet, and more, and puts them in a single briefing curated with AI.

Talking about the new stuff, the Galaxy S26 series has brought a few additions to the Now brief that aren’t available for the Galaxy S26 series.

There’s a new section in the Now brief settings, “Get richer insights”. It shares your personal data with Samsung’s partner companies to receive “relevant” and “personalized” content in your daily briefings. There are two partners currently added in the settings: YouTube and Gemini.

YouTube will suggest more videos to you, and Gemini will give you some insights into your daily Gemini use case. After enabling these two, I am not getting anything useful, and whatever you may call it, it doesn’t make Now brief any more interesting, an element that’s lacking from the very beginning.

The concept of the Now brief is great, but its results aren’t nowhere near “great” word. So, Samsung should focus on providing some user-centric statistics that are not based on AI fantasy. It lacks preciseness of all of the things that the phone maker has promised to offer with content addons. These two features might expand to other Galaxy S25 series devices with stable One UI 8.5, but we’re not sure about that.

If you found these options useful, reach out to me at X/Twitter handle. I would love to read your thoughts on the upgraded Now Brief.

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Samsung has been testing One UI 8.5 beta for the past three months and left one premium Galaxy S-series phone out of the One UI 8.5 beta equation. Initially, the S25 series entered beta testing, specifically S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra. Yet, the Galaxy S25 Edge, Samsung’s slimmest S-series phone to date, has not received the beta update.

The phone comes with flagship specs and a high-quality camera system, but the most interesting quality of the device is its outlook. On the other hand, it has the same price tag as the newly released Galaxy S26+. These reasons convinced me that the phone deserved a shot at the new beta.

However, it isn’t the first time that S25 Edge users have been neglected. Last year, the company refused to release the One UI 8.0 for this phone alongside the main lineup. Though the update arrived later on, that doesn’t summarize the course of this action.

Some might argue that the phone was released in May 2025 and has a different firmware development cycle. We can agree to that, but Samsung had enough time to match the software update release time for all four models. Yet, it didn’t bother.

Also, what about the price tag? The S25 Edge may have been demoted in Samsung’s launch cycle, but it still has a user base that paid a good sum of money that rivals its latest flagships.

Past report suggests that Samsung is working on the 8th One UI 8.5 beta. And the stable update will come in April, which may also be the time when the S25 Edge will get this new software.

But that doesn’t mean that the S25 Edge shouldn’t be included in a new One UI beta program. Eventually, we can say that Samsung wants to keep it effortless and continue the three-device testing model in its beta program. So, it can sit back, relax, and develop the firmware for these devices with limited effort.

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Samsung has released the Galaxy S26 series with One UI 8.5, so users get a new software experience out of the box, and our hands-on reveals that this new version has impressive speed gains over the beta version.

One UI 8.5, released first in December 2025, has recently completed its seventh beta rollout, and that comes with major system improvements. Though the software’s changelog only mentions bug fixes, it also serves smooth touch interactions and transitions. This suggests that the 7th update has improved the user experience a lot compared to the prior release.

However, when we compared the experience with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the result was different. This new device offers faster touch response, smoother animations, and snappy app launches.

For example, I went to the very basic and put the two phones side by side for the classic app launch test. Both phones launch the app instantly, but the S26 Ultra feels faster. The same goes for phone unlock, scrolling, and menu jumps.

Though both phones have the same software, the new one has an immersive experience. There could be two reasons behind this difference: first, the new processor. The Galaxy S26 Ultra brings 3rd gen Qualcomm Oryon CPU, improving 20% CPU and 23% GPU performance to deliver enhanced graphics.

These two are responsible for software speed increment and better UI rendering. Thus, bringing a generational advantage to the new S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra.

On the other hand, it suggests that the One UI 8.5 beta needs more work on the speed and fluency segments. A previous report indicates that the 8th One UI 8.5 beta will be released soon, which could also be the final test software before the stable rollout.

In that case, the update may make the stable software fluent, but we would definitely like to see it as snappy as the S26 Ultra.

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Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra brings a redesigned camera island, adding a new look to the phone at the cost of creating a stronger wobbly effect than its predecessor. Galaxy S26 Ultra is the slimmest and lightest Samsung Ultra phone to date, making it easy to use in the long term.

Its new structure consists of a matte glass on top of a base bump. At the top, there are three lenses: main, telephoto, and ultra-wide-angle. This new structure not only enhances aesthetics but also provides much-needed stability to rear lenses, which look low-end in S25 Ultra.

This new change scores a negative point, and that’s the balance. The phone sits well in the hand, but it wobbles on the flat surface more than any of the previously released Ultra flagships. You will find it uneasy to tap anywhere on the screen. Again, this is due to the increased height of the camera island.

So, you either have to place the phone on the display side or use a protective case, which most users will do. Still, that wasn’t the case with the S25 Ultra, which also has a large camera setup but doesn’t rock at this magnitude. If you want to use your Galaxy S26 Ultra on a flat surface, get a good protective case to reduce wobble. This will also protect the camera bump from getting unwanted scratches and save its aesthetics.

Author’s take

The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera teardown by YouTuber JerryRigEverything has created headlines in 2025. He showed how easily they can be removed with little effort. However, the YouTuber’s exploration of the S26 Ultra shows a different picture. Now, the lenses can stick back to their placeholders even after they’re removed.

It appeared that Samsung had learned from the past design flaws and fixed this structural problem. Concluding, the wobbly effect is a byproduct of this new Galaxy S26 Ultra camera island, and you’d better put a case on it, which you may already have.

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When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S26 Ultra, it labelled the phone as an AI phone, but actually, the star of the show was the privacy display, a feature that garnered spotlight all over the internet. The concept of a privacy screen is simple; it hides the phone’s on-screen content from others.

Imagine a scenario where you are using the S26 Ultra in public, and two unknown people (or more) are sitting beside you. Once enabled, only you will have a clear picture of the screen, and others won’t. And if they’re off the angles, then they won’t see anything. That will make others guess whether you are using a dead phone.

That said, this privacy display effect is based on viewing angles, but it worked pretty well in our hands-on test.

The main purpose of the privacy display is to hide sensitive content that you don’t want others to see, but you somehow want to limit the viewership to yourself. Privacy display also comes with customizations, and you can set some conditions, such as enabling password entry, set it for a specific app, or just make the notifications area disappear.

Redesigned

Once you stop playing with the privacy display, the next thing that catches your attention is the design. The S26 Ultra does come with some notable design improvements.

• Galaxy S26 Ultra measures at 78.1mm wide, 163.6mm tall, and 7.9mm thin, while weighing 214 grams.
• Galaxy S25 Ultra measures at 77.6mm wide, 162.8mm tall, and 8.2mm thick, while weighing 218 grams.

Both phones bring the same screen size, but the new version is wider, larger, and thinner, and don’t forget it’s also slightly lighter. These aren’t just numbers; the phone feels lighter and slimmer than the S25 Ultra.

One of the biggest changes in the design segment is the return of the Armor Aluminum frame, replacing the titanium. Despite changing the frame material, the phone maintains its build quality and offers vibrant color schemes.

Contributing to the form factor is the new camera island, which is bigger and better, but rocks more on a flat surface without a protective case.

Specifications

• Display – 6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel, 120Hz adaptive refresh rate with vision booster
• Chipset – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
• Memory – 12+256GB, 12+512GB, 16GB+1TB
• Camera – 200MP Main (f/1.4) + 50MP Ultra-Wide (f/1.9) + 50MP Telephoto (5X Optical Zoom, F/2.9) + 10MP Telephoto (3X Optical Zoom, F/2.2), Front – 12MP (f/2.2)
• Battery – 5,000mAh
• Software – One UI 8.5 (Android 16)
• Connectivity – 5G, LTE, WI-Fi 7, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 6.0
• Rating – IP68, water resistance – 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes

AI Software

Galaxy S26 Ultra packs the One UI 8.5, based on Android 16, out of the box. The software has speed and efficiency to run apps more smoothly. Since Samsung is diving deep into AI and trying to simplify user experience with new partnerships, this flagship offers more AI features than before.

Now brief has turned more smart in Samsung’s eyes, but it remains dumb in consumers’. While you may not want to use Now Brief, the upgraded Bixby has finally gained competitiveness against Gemini. It can now pull answers from the web and write content on its own, thanks to Perplexity’s APIs.

This new AI agent sits inside the phone as the third AI assistant, which can be assigned to the side button to launch anytime. Despite improvements to Bixby and Perplexity’s inclusion, Gemini remains in the top spot for its natural language comprehension and instruction following.

Features like Now Nudge promise to keep track of your phone’s interactions and offer help when needed. One UI 8.5 also has a new AI drawing tool that helps to generate images and wallpapers with AI in different art forms. These are just some key additions, and the software has a dedicated Galaxy AI section listed all of its top AI capabilities.

Besides the AI feature group, the Galaxy device has a standard 7 OS and 7 years of security patches. Simply put, S26 Ultra will be getting OS upgrades up to Android 23 and security support till February 2033.

Snappy Performance

Qualcomm and Samsung have once again collaborated to launch a Galaxy-tweaked chipset, this time it is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

The new speed and efficiency of the S26 Ultra come from this chip, it’s enabling smoother interactions and faster gameplay without frame drop. It would be too much to say, but the new Snapdragon chip handles everything as smoothly as it should.

On the other hand, a redesigned Vapor chamber keeps the phone calm while playing online multiplayer games on a long run. The difference isn’t significant compared to the S25 Ultra, but still, it’s noticeable.

Same Battery, Faster Charging

The Galaxy S26 Ultra comes with a 5000mAh battery pack, identical to the capacity of last year’s S25 Ultra. It can give a full day of power backup while using all of your essential apps. Even gamers would get a better battery performance, but in 2026, this power backup feels tiny.

To offset the disappointment with the same old capacity, Samsung has launched max 60W charging support, which reduces the charging time, taking it from 0 to 75% in about 30 minutes and 100% in about 45 minutes. Yet, users will have to buy the adapter separately.

Camera Upgrades

This premium Samsung phone brings you a quad camera system, and the main 200MP camera is getting new upgrades thanks to a larger aperture size. The images capture more bright and dark pixels than the S25 Ultra, along with improved color composition.

The default camera mode is 12MP, but there is a 24MP mode ready to be unlocked through the Camera Assistant app, which substantially improves the photo quality. Furthermore, the nightography is getting upgrades with brighter scenes.

One of the major outcomes of the new camera system is the horizontal lock super steady mode, which has taken over the internet since the launch day. The key reason for this popularity is its gimbal-like steady camera, which enables rotation in any direction without disturbing the output.

The S26 Ultra also marks the beginning of All Lenses on Prism (ALoP) telephoto camera with a folded zoom structure. The system places lenses on top of the prism and reduces module size with improved light intakes for brighter zoomed images. It not only saves module space but also provides the same zoom quality as the Periscope used in the S25 Ultra.

Unfortunately, zoom over 30x-50x is still not good on either of these phones. The ultra-wide-angle camera has been improved in brightness control, and again, it’s no major upgrade.

S Pen Tweaks

S26 Ultra continues a priceless accessory – the S Pen, but with a new style. Its design is tweaked to match the curves and corners of the phone’s frame, and it’s slightly lighter than its predecessor. Though Samsung has not returned the Bluetooth features, you can still take notes, draw, and move things around on the screen.

Final Verdict

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the top Android phone that could get into the market, and it is loaded with features that suit both newbies and power users in one pack. Its new privacy display is innovative; you won’t find it on any other phone in the market.

The new chip is optimized for a better software experience, bringing high-touch response on every tap. Whether you’re surfing the internet or playing games, the S26 Ultra will give you optimum performance at every level.

It’s also the only Android phone that is practically shipping AI features that are tailored for users, and you can use them without waiting for an OTA update rollout.

Providing 60W charging support is a good step, but rubbing the same 5-year-old battery size is not a genuine offering against the current trend. Eventually, if you want a premium Android phone that lives up to its price tag, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the way to go. However, if you already possess a S25 Ultra or S24 Ultra, give this new launch a pass and wait for the next iteration.

Pros

• Large, high-quality screen
• Privacy display innovation
• Best in class cameras
• Powerful performance
• 60W charging support
• Stylish design
• In-built stylus

Cons

• High price
• Privacy display has angle limitations
• Max telephoto isn’t clear
• 60W Charger sold separately
• Titanium removed

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