Galaxy Unpacked is officially over, and boy, did Samsung ever pack a ton into this event. Galaxy Unpacked was aired live on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, in San Francisco, and featured the unveiling of a new series of flagship Galaxy S26 phones, a new set of Galaxy Buds 4 earbuds, and a boatload of new AI-powered software features for fans to get excited about.
In addition to some refined designs and a Galaxy Ultra model that finally looks like a larger version of the rest of the line (instead of a totally different phone), Samsung unveiled a few impressive innovations like Privacy Display and built-in agentic AI agents from Perplexity.
Galaxy S26 Ultra
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is what people seem to be excited about most, and for good reason! Not only did this year’s phone introduce a new design that fits more in line with the rest of the series, but it’s also debuting a new display that’s sure to get privacy advocates excited. In short, it utilizes a special trick that makes the display darker from an angle, and can even use AI to darken notifications and other sensitive content to keep prying eyes from spying on your info.
The S26 Ultra features the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor as the rest of the Galaxy S26 line, but most of the other specs differ from there. It sports the largest battery of the three, the fastest charging, the S Pen everyone knows and loves, wider apertures for the telephoto and main cameras, and a new imaging processor that’s designed to enhance detail and reduce noise.
The S26 Ultra ships in four colors and can be preordered right now. My colleague Derrek Lee went hands-on with the Galaxy S26 Ultra ahead of the event. Check that out for his full impressions of it and how well the new features work.
Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus
The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus are fairly vanilla upgrades of their Galaxy S25 counterparts, but that doesn’t mean these are dull phones. They sport the next-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, which is 30% faster than last year’s, and includes a bevy of AI processing enhancements to make all the new Galaxy AI features possible.
The base Galaxy S26 now also starts with 256GB of storage, getting rid of the rather useless 128GB model that Samsung has kept around for far too long. The base Galaxy S26 retails for $899, and the S26 Plus starts at $1,099. Those prices are $100 more than last year, but some great preorder deals will help ease that problem.
New One UI features
Every Galaxy S26 model ships with a ton of new features that’ll get you geeking out the moment you open the box and sign into the phone. Several of our favorite Pixel 10 features have made their way into One UI thanks to the partnership between Samsung and Google, including a Magic Cue-inspired feature called Now Nudge that delivers context-sensitive actions for what’s on screen.
Google’s Pixel-exclusive call screening feature is finally making the jump over to Galaxy phones, starting with the Galaxy S26, and ensures that those irritating scam callers get what’s coming (and you don’t even have to know about it).
Samsung’s new photography modes include Photo Assist, which recommends edits and lets you change photos on the fly with AI while you take them, plus a new underwater mode that fixes dull colors often associated with underwater photography. Samsung also partnered with Perplexity to deliver more agentic AI smarts to the entire system, making it the first non-Google AI assistant that uses a wake word on a Samsung device. Check out our hands-on for all the new features!
Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro
After feedback from the Galaxy Buds 3 design, Samsung went back to the drawing board in an effort to make these earbuds look less like AirPods clones, all while retaining what Samsung calls “superior comfort and microphone performance.”
As in prior years, the Galaxy Buds 4 series comes in a Pro and non-Pro variant. The Pro models sport interchangeable ear tips to ensure an air-tight seal and provide the best noise-cancelling possible. The non-Pro models still fit in your ears, but don’t provide a seal since they forego the rubber tips, which might be more comfortable for some people.
Regardless of the model you choose, you can enjoy superior sound thanks to larger drivers, an improved fit, and better connectivity and sound balance. Check out our Galaxy Buds 4 hands-on to see all three colors of each model and preorder them if you like what you see!
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