Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Debuts in India with Privacy Display and Smarter AI Features

Samsung has officially unveiled its latest flagship smartphones — the Samsung Galaxy S26 series — bringing notable design refinements, stronger performance, and new AI-driven experiences to users in India and globally. Announced at Galaxy Unpacked in San Francisco, the lineup includes the Samsung Galaxy S26, Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, and the premium Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Starting at Rs 87,999 in India, the new series focuses heavily on privacy, display innovation, and artificial intelligence enhancements.

Built-in Privacy Display Makes Its Debut

The standout feature this year arrives with the Galaxy S26 Ultra — an integrated privacy display. Samsung says that when activated, the feature prevents people nearby from viewing sensitive information on the screen. Unlike external privacy screen protectors, this solution is built directly into the display hardware, offering protection without compromising clarity for the primary user.

The S26 Ultra sports a 6.9-inch 10-bit AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus feature 6.3-inch and 6.7-inch AMOLED displays, respectively, maintaining the brand’s signature vibrant visuals.

Refined Design and Fresh Colours

Samsung has subtly refreshed the design language this year. All three models now feature a unified camera housing, reminiscent of recent foldable devices. The S26 Ultra also adopts softer, rounded corners and measures just 7.9mm in thickness, making it slimmer than its predecessor.

The series is available in new colour options: Cobalt Violet, White, Black, and Sky Blue.

Performance and Battery Improvements

Powering the Galaxy S26 Ultra is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, designed to deliver flagship-grade performance. Meanwhile, the S26 and S26 Plus run on Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2600 processor.

Battery capacity sees selective upgrades. The S26 Ultra retains its 5,000mAh battery but now supports faster 60W wired and 25W wireless charging. The standard S26 packs a larger 4,300mAh battery (up from 4,000mAh previously) with 25W fast charging support. The S26 Plus houses a 4,900mAh battery and supports 45W wired charging.

Camera Capabilities and AI Focus

Camera hardware on the S26 Ultra remains largely consistent with last year’s configuration, including a 200-megapixel primary sensor, 50-megapixel 5x periscope telephoto, 50-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lens. However, Samsung has introduced wider apertures for the main and periscope cameras to improve low-light performance.

The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus offer a triple-camera system featuring a 50-megapixel main sensor, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto, and 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens.

Artificial intelligence continues to be a central theme. Samsung has collaborated with Perplexity to enhance Bixby with agentic capabilities. Users also gain access to features such as AI-powered photo editing and AI noise reduction.

The entire S26 lineup runs on Android 16-based One UI 8.5 and comes with a commitment of seven years of major OS and security updates.

Pricing in India

The Galaxy S26 starts at Rs 87,999 for the 12GB/256GB model, while the 12GB/512GB variant is priced at Rs 1,07,999. The S26 Plus is available at Rs 1,19,999 (256GB) and Rs 1,39,999 (512GB). The S26 Ultra begins at Rs 1,39,999 for 12GB/256GB, with higher variants priced at Rs 1,59,999 (512GB) and Rs 1,89,999 (1TB).