Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra: Comparing price, specs, and features

Just how much does one phone change in a year, anyway?

That’s what we’re here to find out. Samsung just launched its Galaxy S26 Ultra flagship handset at a Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco, which means it’s time to see how it compares to the Galaxy S25 Ultra from a year ago. Both phones are powerful Android devices, but one would hope that an extra year has given Samsung some time to refine and improve the S26 Ultra.

We’ve only gotten a little hands-on time with the newest flagship, and we’ll have a full review coming soon. In the meantime, here’s how the two phones compare in terms of price, specs, and feature set.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. S25 Ultra: Price

This one’s easy. The S25 Ultra launched at $1,299.99 last year, and so did the S26 Ultra this year. Samsung didn’t increase the price year-over-year, which will make this comparison easier. (The S26 and S26 plus did get a price increase, however.)

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. S25 Ultra: Specs and display

Here are the basic specs of the Galaxy S25 Ultra:

• 6.9-inch AMOLED display with adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and 3120×1440 resolution

• Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor

• 256GB/512GB/1TB storage options

• 12GB RAM

• 5,000mAh battery

And here are the same specs for Galaxy S26 Ultra for simple comparison’s sake:

• 6.9-inch AMOLED display with adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate and 3120×1440 resolution

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor

• 256/512GB/1TB storage options

• 12/16GB RAM

• 5,000mAh battery

As you can see, Samsung didn’t rock the boat with this annual upgrade. Both phones seemingly have almost the exact same display specs, as well as the same battery sizes. That said, Samsung did make some changes for 2026. The processor is newer and theoretically more powerful, and the 1TB storage model also comes with an increase to 16GB RAM. That means performance should be better on the new phone, though it remains to be seen just by how much.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. S25 Ultra: Design

The S25 Ultra’s back end.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

Samsung didn’t reinveint the wheel when it came to the physical design of the S26 Ultra, but it’s not exactly the same as the S25 Ultra, either.

For starters, the new phone is very slightly thinner and lighter than last year’s model. Samsung also raised the rear camera up a little bit, meaning they jut out more prominently from the phone’s profile than they did before. It’s not entirely clear from where we stand why Samsung did that, but it did, so it’s worth pointing out. Lastly, based on our short time with the device, it has a less boxy design overall.

Here are the available colors for the S25 Ultra:

• Titanium Grey

• Titanium Whitesilver

• Titanium Silverblue

• Titanium Black

• Titanium Pinkgold

• Titanium Jadegreen

• Titanium Jetblack

And here are the colors for the S26 Ultra:

• Cobalt Violet

• Sky Blue

• Black

• White

• Silver Shadow

• Pink Gold

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. S25 Ultra: Top new features

As for what’s new with the S26 Ultra, the biggest answer would probably be Privacy Display. This is a new, built-in feature at the device level that will dim the screen to anyone looking at it from an off angle, hopefully giving users some peace of mind as they look at…whatever they’re looking at in public. We don’t yet know how well this works due to a lack of direct testing, but the S25 Ultra didn’t have this, and the S26 Ultra does.

Beyond that, the S26 Ultra brings 60-watt fast charging to the mix. If you have a compatible charger and are tired of waiting around for your phone to fill up, this is great news.

The new Privacy Display feature in action.
Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. S25 Ultra: Cameras

Samsung’s S Series phones are overdue for camera upgrades, and the S26 has the goods.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and its predecessor feature four rear cameras: 200MP wide, 50MP ultrawide, 50MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom, 10MP with 3x optical zoom. Both devices also have a front-facing 12MP selfie camera.

However, according to Samsung, the new Galaxy S26 Ultra features wider camera apertures, allowing more light to enter and resulting in clearer and more detailed photos. The company also says the Galaxy S26 Ultra has upgraded Super Steady capabilities for smoother 4K video and Enhanced Nightography Video to enhance output in low-light settings.

Overall, you can expect a better camera system with the S26 Ultra, which is no surprise.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. S25 Ultra: More AI features

Like the S25 Ultra, the S26 Ultra will generate a daily briefing.
Credit: Chris Taylor / Mashable

Credit: Chris Taylor / Mashable

Samsung has made some upgrades to the overall AI feature set with the S26 Ultra. Unsurprisingly, the S26 is being called an “agentic” phone with a unified artificial intelligence experience across all your devices, and Galaxy Unpacked focused heavily on AI. As one example, the S26 Ultra will offer AI call screening, answering calls and taking notes when you’re too busy to answer. Users can also choose between Samsung’s Bixby, Google Gemini, and Perplexity.

In addition, the S26 Ultra has a new suite of AI image and video editing tools, dubbed Creative Studio. A new AI image editor is also built directly into the camera app. Users can describe the edits they want, and the AI will take care of the rest.