TECH NEWS – A test result has emerged that allows for comparison of the South Korean tech giant’s device with Apple’s flagship.
Over the past weeks and months, Ice Universe, Schrödinger, and @SPYGO19726 have been arguing over whether the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will ship with a 10 MP or 12 MP telephoto camera. At the same time, it also remained unclear whether the upcoming flagship would feature a 5,000 mAh or 5,200 mAh battery. Samsung’s official promotional material for next week’s Galaxy Unpacked event has now settled both debates. We can definitively state that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will use the following camera configuration: a 12 MP selfie camera, a 10 MP 3x telephoto lens, a 200 MP main camera, a 50 MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 50 MP 5x periscope camera. The upcoming flagship will feature a 5,000 mAh battery, refuting earlier rumors that predicted a slight increase in battery energy density.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to arrive in multiple color options (Cobalt Violet, Black Shadow, White Shadow, Galactic Blue). It is also expected to feature rounded edges, a dedicated camera island (with a triple-camera layout), an all-black color tone (including the frame), and a USB-C port. Despite earlier rumors, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to skip built-in Qi2 magnets, which would have opened up the full MagSafe accessory ecosystem.
Samsung will bring its Flex Magic Pixel OLED technology to the upcoming flagship, enabling the so-called Privacy Display. The tech uses artificial intelligence to dim off-angle viewing without reducing perceived screen brightness, preserving the direct viewing experience. The goal is to prevent people from peeking at the user’s smartphone activity from the side. Samsung also wants to improve camera performance across the Galaxy S26 series by introducing a new noise-reduction algorithm that could produce very sharp high-resolution images.
If Samsung was looking for extra bragging rights ahead of the Galaxy S26 unveiling, it seemingly got them today, as the Galaxy S26 Ultra beat the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max in the latest Geekbench 6 tests. The tested Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra ran on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. These results represent the best performance seen so far from the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, suggesting Samsung likely applied a number of device-level optimizations. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra outscored the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max in both single-core and multi-core Geekbench 6 results.
