When the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was launched in late February, it was the first time in years that I felt excited for a new flagship launch, thanks to rumors of innovations like the Privacy Display in the lead up to the big reveal. On seeing the new phone in person, even the Super Steady Horizontal Lock feature for shooting videos seemed like a fabulous idea.
As a recent iPhone convert from only a year ago, I honestly thought the S26 Ultra would lure me back to Android, especially since my iPhone 16 Pro Max is a generation behind.
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AI phone? No thanks
Samsung leaned hard into the Galaxy S26 Ultra being an “AI phone”, and rightly so. The Super Steady feature and the AI-powered call screening were highlights for me, but most of the AI additions were novelties that aren’t particularly useful.
The “Now” features were highlighted during the launch, but none of them were useful to me. The Now Brief widget was meant to show me how my day went, but it was nothing more than the weather, my calendar and recommended YouTube videos that were already on my Watch Later playlist.
The Now Bar works somewhat similarly to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island, but I found it less useful — plus it only lives in the home screen whereas the Dynamic Island is always there. Now Nudge, meanwhile, felt like nothing more than glorified predictive texting, and it also doesn’t help that it’s only available through Samsung Keyboard (I prefer Gboard for Android phones).
The S26 Ultra added a prompt-based generative AI photo editing tool called “Photo Assist” , which is useful in theory, but the end result makes it obvious that AI did a lot of the heavy lifting. The image generation feature, Creative Studio, is also just another novelty, and it also outputs lower-quality pictures.
Samsung also added Perplexity to its Bixby voice assistant, which just feels like a replication of the existing Google Gemini integration that I already use, which is more than enough for my needs.
That camera bump and what’s not there
Samsung also boasted how much slimmer and lighter the S26 Ultra is compared to its predecessor, which unfortunately resulted in a much more prominent camera bump.
The bump is so big that the handset wobbles quite vigorously when placed on a flat surface — hardly the kind of movement I want to see from a device this expensive. Seeing the bump immediately made me look for a case thick enough to make the S26 Ultra lie a little bit flatter. This means I’d end up hiding that thin chassis that Samsung was boasting about inside a thick case, which kind of defeats the purpose.
Speaking of cases, using them to add magnetic charging just isn’t the same as the built-in magnets in iPhones and Google Pixel phones. It doesn’t help that the S26 Ultra’s camera bump design also blocks some accessories from attaching properly to the cases’ magnets.
The S26 Ultra also switched back to aluminum after using titanium, with Samsung citing better thermals, ergonomics and cost reasons. It’s understandable, but I’ve gotten so used to my iPhone’s titanium chassis that the S26 Ultra now feels comparatively cheaper.
It’s iOS for me… at least for now
With the AI overload from the Galaxy S26 Ultra, I’m actually glad that Apple Intelligence didn’t take off, as my iPhone is virtually generative AI-free. I don’t have Siri activated, and having that option is a big plus for me. I use Gemini for all my AI needs, which isn’t a whole lot — like research for shopping and looking up recipes.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max does have a prominent camera bump as well, but its design makes the handset less wobbly when placed on a surface. My iPhone case also doesn’t add too much thickness to the handset, while also making it lie flatter on a table.
MagSafe is, in my opinion, a game changer — and it’s not because of improved wireless charging. I love how it changed the way accessories interface with iPhones, where I don’t have to worry about cheap plastic mounts and tripods rubbing on the handset.
My last point is somewhat unfair to the S26 Ultra, but I’ve invested in other Apple devices like an iPad, an Apple TV 4K and a Mac mini, so their integration with my iPhone was something I missed when I temporarily switched to the S26 Ultra. I also own a pair of AirPods and some AirTags, and even a Find My-compatible MagSafe wallet to further entrench me into the Apple ecosystem.
With all that said, my thoughts on the S26 Ultra could still change in a few months (maybe Samsung delivers something game-changing with its software updates?), given that the iPhone 16 Pro Max is also an older device. But then again, there are many more flagships expected to come out later in the year, so I’m not holding my breath.
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