Galaxy S26 Ultra: Seven possible upgrades beyond the leaked specs
Galaxy S26 Ultra specs may hide these seven key improvements.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
Samsung is releasing the Galaxy S26 Ultra along with the rest of the Galaxy S26 series on February 25, 2026, but we already seem to know almost everything about the lineup. From the design language to the complete hardware specs, from the unique features to the official colors, there's not muchlittle left to the imagination.
But then again, some cool new upgrades might have slipped through the cracks of the rumor mill and could make the Galaxy S26 Ultra more compelling than it seems right now. Here are seven of them:
Higher screen brightness
The Galaxy S26 Ultra should arrive with Samsung's M14 OLED panels, which will mark the first major upgrade in display tech in years (the Galaxy S24 and S25 families used the M13 OLED panel). A newer and more efficient display panel could technically allow for even higher brightness; thus, the Galaxy S26 Ultra might beat its predecessor in this one key area. The OnePlus 15, for example, already uses this panel, and it achieves nearly 3,500 nits in the PhoneArena tests, which is lovely to see!Faster NAND storage
Samsung could potentially throw in faster NAND storage on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as input/output speeds are crucial for the overall performance of a phone. The Galaxy S25 Ultra arrived with UFS 4.0, which is already very fast, but UFS 4.1 is slightly faster and more stable.
UFS 4.1 has been out for a couple of months and already found on devices like the OnePlus 15. Can we say Galaxy S26 Ultra next? Hopefully, as this would make the device more future-proof. Samsung has also revealed that it expects to commercialize UFS 5.0 by 2027, which would essentially double the IO speeds in order to meet the tasking demands of on-device AI.
Improved thermal management
Globally, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will come with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the fastest Qualcomm chip right now. However, "fastest" usually means "hottest" in the context of mobile computing, and this leads to throttling when you really step on the gas.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra might potentially feature an improved thermal management system and a larger vapor chamber, which would rein in the excess heat and passively improve the performance with some careful performance tuning.
Enhanced anti-reflective layer
Samsung's Galaxy S Ultra flagships have been featuring anti-reflective screen coating since the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and there's a chance that Samsung will surprise us with an even better one on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Paired with the hopefully even higher peak brightness and the software privacy screen, we might get the most refined display on a Galaxy so far, especially under harsh lighting conditions with plenty of reflections, glare, or prying eyes.
Dedicated AI processing unit
Seeing that the highlight of the Galaxy S26 series would be AI, it would make sense for Samsung to have thrown in a hardware accelerator for all on-device AI processing. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is already strong enough, but nothing beats a dedicated unit that AI can be offloaded to. This could improve the overall efficiency and therefore battery life.
Improved image-processing
The Galaxy S25 Ultra was already one of the phones with the best and most versatile cameras out there. This doesn't mean it didn't have a couple of minor issues that the Galaxy S26 Ultra could fix by improving the image-processing. There's always room for improvement in terms of dynamic range, better zooming capabilities, and improved low-light camera performance. That is especially valid for videos, where the Galaxy S25 Ultra still trailed some other devices.
Samsung has proved that it can pull off major camera improvements by tweaking the software and relying on the same hardware, so here's to hoping that the Galaxy S26 Ultra could pull that off.
More intriguing new colors
Galaxy S26 Ultra's standard colors have already leaked out, and while they're fine, they look a bit too gloomy and unexciting to me. Luckily, Samsung has the knack for launching several extra exclusive colors on its online store, and these are usually more colorful and intriguing. We haven't heard what these might be just yet, so Samsung can definitely pull off a surprise here and give us some exciting hues to pick from.
Conclusion
Okay, so we know mostly everything about the Galaxy S26 Ultra. But it's still nice to pretend that some elements are still kept a surprise. And the way I see it, all those mentioned above are entirely plausible still, so who knows, maybe Samsung will pull a rabbit out of the cylinder once again.
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