Galaxy S26 Ultra: Five impossible upgrades that we need, but Samsung will never give us
It doesn't hurt to dream for a moment, does it?
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is right around the corner with a rumored launch event in just three weeks at the end of February.
And while Samsung has some exciting upgrades like a digital built-in privacy protection for your screen that no other phone has, it also feels like the S26 Ultra is incredibly iterative.
The biggest criticism is around the rumored unchanged 5,000 mAh battery size in the S26 Ultra, same as on the last five generations of Ultra. Disappointing, considering how other Android flagships now often come with a 7,000 mAh battery or even bigger.
But there are five other upgrades that I think we need as users, and Samsung just doesn't seem willing to give them to us.
3D Face Unlock
At this point, it seems that Samsung just doesn't care about a truly secure 3D face unlock system on its flagship phone. Of course, Apple was the first company to introduce this with the iPhone X nine years back in 2017, but it's not the only one.
Chinese phone maker Honor, for example, has had 3D face unlock on its Magic series in the last few years (pictured above is the Magic 8 Pro with face ID), and the system is working brilliantly.
At this point, the system takes little space and seems genuinely useful to implement, but Samsung just ignores this altogether. And sure, I don't mind a good fingerprint scanner either, but why can't we have both?
The Return of the MicroSD Slot
With 4K60 video, LOG video and motion photos, storage tends to fill up faster than you'd think on modern flagships.
Yet, companies continue charging quite steep prices for storage upgrades. Apple is the worst offender here, while Samsung's upgrade prices are a bit easier to swallow, but what if the company brought back the microSD card slot?
MicroSD cards have gotten faster and more reliable in the past few years, and this way, you wouldn't have to think about overpaying for every new smartphone, plus it would be way easier to carry over your photos and videos from your older device. Unfortunately, that ship seems to have sailed when it comes to Samsung and there are no indications the company is bringing microSD card support back.
The anti-S Pen edition
I get it — many people love using the S Pen and swear by it. After all, it has become a symbol of the Samsung brand.
But let's be real: an overwhelming percentage of people never ever use that S Pen and it's just one giant waste of space inside your phone.
I can think of a thousand good uses for that space, but the most obvious one is battery. Samsung, just give users the choice — one Ultra model with an S Pen and one without it, but with a much bigger battery. I bet the second one will be selling like hotcakes.
A Pro-grade 3X lens
In the past, Samsung phones were known as zoom kings. They were among the first to adopt a 10X telephoto lens, and most recent Ultras come with two telephoto cameras, not one.
The only problem with that is that the secondary, 3X telephoto camera has not changed much in these past years.
It comes with a tiny sensor and it produces just average photos that often have quite a bit of noise and not as much detail as you'd expect out of a flagship.
While there were some early rumors claiming that Samsung might finally upgrade this lens with the S26 series, those have now died down and we are probably in for yet another year of the same camera and the same disappointment.
Truly fast charging
One of my favorite rumored upgrades for the S26 Ultra is the jump to 60W fast charging (up from 45W). While that is a welcome step, I think that Samsung is just being far too conservative here, especially when you look at flagship phones out of China, where you commonly see 80W and 100W charging speeds.
Essentially, you could get a 90% charge on these phones in just half an hour!
As someone who never charges their phone overnight and typically just plugs it in for half an hour in the morning, that would be a massive upgrade, but unfortunately, it's not happening this year.
Conclusion
If there is one thing that's clear about Samsung, it's that they have turned into a mini-Apple. Happy to deliver tiny upgrades every year, without changing the fundamentals of their overall successful phones.
The reason for that is simple — there is just no competition outside of Asia. There, you have multiple brands pushing high-end specs at relatively low prices and Samsung has to compete. But not in Western markets, where the only rivals are the similarly slow to adopt new hardware Apple and Google.
And sure: the S26 Ultra will be a great phone, but for those of us who remember the "Everything Phone" that was the Galaxy Note, it will always feel like it's holding something back.
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