Samsung at Unpack opens doors to AI phones
Samsung has announced its new flagship Galaxy devices: The S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra. The new Galaxy Buds 4 were also announced, and they’ve been touched up with AI. Some Gemini upgrades are also introduced, such as booking rideshares and ordering food. Now, that last bit, we can’t be sure if it will work here in the Philippines just yet, but it’s a possibility to look forward to.
Galaxy S26 Ultra
If you’re a dedicated Samsung power user, then you’re probably most excited for the S26 Ultra. One of the newest features introduced here is the Privacy Display. When enabled, certain angles of the screen become unviewable, as if a privacy filter has been placed on it. It’s pretty impressive, especially if you’re careful about who can see what’s on your screen while you’re going about your day-to-day business. You can open your bank apps or e-wallets without worrying as much as other people, seeing how much money you’ve got. It might not be good news for some screen protector makers, though, since some of them have privacy filters built into their products.
The S26 Ultra has a 6.9-inch AMOLED display with QHD+ resolution, and that’s 3120 x 1440 with a 120Hz refresh rate. In short, it’s a very pretty display with very bright colors, as Samsung is well known for.
The device is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, while some regions will use Samsung’s own Exynos 2600. Either one basically translates to “This is a powerful phone.” RAM is either 12 or 16GB, and storage options range from 256GB to 1 TB. The battery is 5000 mAh and supports Super Fast Charging 3.0.
The camera features 50MP ultrawide, 200MP wide, 10MP X3, and 50MP 5X telephoto. The front camera gets 12MP.
The Ultra’s S Pen is more or less the same as last year’s.
The little siblings: The Galaxy S26 and S26+
Now let’s check out the S26 and the S26+. These two are powered by the same chipset as the Ultra, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB or 512GB of storage. For the camera setup, you get a 50MP wide, a 12MP ultrawide, a 10MP telephoto, and a 12MP front camera. Now, besides screen size, what separates the S26 and S26+ is the battery: the former has 4300 mAh, and the latter has 4900 mAh.
Galaxy Buds 4
Samsung has always had good buds. They sound great, and they look great. The newest Galaxy Buds are touted with improved audio quality, but by how much, we’re not exactly sure yet. But unless you’re a hardcore audiophile, I don’t think that matters as much. It’s got the stuff we’ve expected for Buds, such as ANC, adaptive EQ, and adaptive ANC. The Buds 4 Pro has siren detection, which temporarily disables ANC to let you hear alarms and ambulances.
As part of Samsung’s push toward what they call an “AI Phone,” you can use the Buds 4 or Buds 4 Pro paired with a Galaxy device for voice control AI, which includes Gemini and Perplexity, and also Bixby.
An AI Phone
Samsung has expanded its AI partners beyond Google to include Perplexity as well to power the Galaxy AI. You can use “Hey Plex” as a wake phrase and start giving it commands. Perplexity is also accessible in Samsung’s own Browser app. On a side note, I find it very interesting that Samsung is working with Perplexity here. I have thoughts, but they’re all baseless assumptions.