The Galaxy S26 lineup makes one thing clear: Samsung wants you in the Ultra

Price hikes squeeze you up to the next tier

26 Feb 2026, 04:00 · TechRadar

Opinion By Lance Ulanoff published 26 February 2026

(Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter

Get the TechRadar Newsletter

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful

An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter

Samsung's new Galaxy S26 lineup is by no means a reinvention of the popular smartphone brand. Instead, it's a collection of design tweaks and some important, even one-of-a-kind, under-the-hood updates that could change the way you use your phone.

The best features, like the actually unique Privacy Display (a first for mobile phones), are confined to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Not surprising when you consider it's the true flagship, and the S26 and S26 Plus are more or less like bridesmaids carrying the bride's lengthy train.

However, Samsung did something unusual this go around. It raised the prices of the Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus by $100 compared to the S25 versions. So instead of $799.99 to start, the S26 is now $899.99 / £879.00, and instead of $999.99, the S26 Plus is $1,099.99 / £1,099.00.

I sort of expected some price hikes, given the skyrocketing cost of RAM and the potential impact of persistent US tariffs on virtually all imported goods (Samsung is a South Korean company, after all).

What's strange is that the Galaxy S26 Ultra, despite new features like brighter cameras, a new vapor chamber, and a thinner, lighter design, is the same price as it was last year: $1,299.99 / £1,279.00.

Tell me why

Look at what the S26 Ultra gives you (Image credit: Future)

Every Galaxy S26 model starts with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM (the Ultra pops up to 16GB with a terabyte of storage). So it's not significant differences in storage or RAM that are making the difference.

I'm not saying the S26 Ultra is suddenly a cheap phone. It's not, and I encourage anyone checking it out to look for solid trade-in offers (there are many). And it's not like the S26 Ultra has fewer AI features. It boasts all the same Bixby (with Perplexity-enhanced), Gemini (with new Circle to Search), and emerging Agentic capabilities as the rest of the lineup. Now Brief, Now Nudge, Now – you get the idea – are all the same. You can chat with this phone's various AI systems, just as you can on the S26 and S26 Plus.

Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors