Enhanced privacy protection comes with a healthy package!!
Samsung's S lineup of smartphones brings new innovation and technology with each of its generations, and here it is no different with the Galaxy S26 series. The Galaxy S series has been at the forefront in delivering the perfect flagship smartphone, as we saw with the Galaxy S25 Ultra (Review), which was launched last year with flagship-level specifications and was a solid product which was unbeatable out there.
With the smartphone advancing in the field of AI, Samsung has taken another leap in incorporating AI features with each of its S-lineup, and now, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, things have improved further. The Galaxy S26 Ultra brings the newer Privacy Display feature, a few upgrades in terms of cameras and faster charging support over the Galaxy S25 Ultra. On top of that, there is a newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset under the hood.
These may not be major improvements, but it does lift the experience further. Do these upgrades over the Galaxy S25 Ultra make the Galaxy S26 Ultra worth considering? Can the Galaxy S26 Ultra set the momentum for itself in this highly competitive market?
Let's find out in the full review.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Design:
Like all Samsung S series smartphones, the Galaxy S26 Ultra gets a premium build and design with a glass sandwich design both at the front and on the back. When compared to its predecessor, i.e. Galaxy S25 Ultra, the back look has been slightly tweaked. The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a cylindrical camera island which houses the three cameras, and alongside them, there is an LED flashlight along with two other cameras.
So as a result, the cameras protrude out quite a bit, which does make the smartphone wobble when kept on a flat surface. The back has that premium frosted finish, which remains unchanged from its predecessor, i.e. Galaxy S25 Ultra, which means you get a solid grip while holding it in your hands, and it does not catch many fingerprints or smudges. Both the front and the back are flatter which no curves around.
Around the edges, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is more rounded, making it easy to hold in the hands. Around the sides, there is the newer Armour Aluminium frame, which is a sort of a downgrade when compared to the more sturdy titanium frame of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but this would not make much of a difference. Around the sides, to the right side are the volume buttons along with a power button, whereas the left side remains completely cleaner.
At the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker grille, a dual SIM card slot, a primary microphone and an S-Pen holster that houses the S-Pen. This time, the S-Pen has become even lighter and thinner with the same controls as on its predecessor, i.e. Galaxy S25 Ultra, with the lack of Bluetooth connectivity. On top, there is a secondary speaker only, which doubles up as a stereo speaker for audio output.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra now weighs 214 grams, which is a tad lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which weighs around 218grams. In terms of thickness, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the slimmest S-series smartphone at 7.9mm till date as opposed to the 8.2mm thickness on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
In terms of ingress protection, the Galaxy S26 Ultra boasts an IP68 rating, which means it can survive splashes of water and is dust-resistant up to some extent, which is a slight disappointment when compared to other smartphones that are priced lower and provide an IP69 rating, which is much better than the IP68 rating. However, the Galaxy S26 Ultra can survive 1.5 metres underwater for around 30 minutes.
On the front, there is Corning Gorilla Glass Armour 2 for protection, whereas the back glass is protected by Corning Glass Victus 2. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is available in four different colours - Black, Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, and White. On the front, there is a flat display with the camera punch hole located at the top centre. The bezels are very slim, giving it a premium look as always.
Overall, the build and design exudes premiumness except for the side frame dropping from titanium to aluminium.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Display:
Just like its predecessor, i.e. Galaxy S25 Ultra, the Galaxy S26 Ultra sports a larger 6.9-inch Quad HD+(1440x3120 pixels) 2X Dynamic AMOLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 19.5:9. As this is a Samsung display, you get deeper blacks and blues with great viewing angles. However, this is an 8-bit panel and not a 10-bit panel, but nonetheless, the display is great for multimedia consumption.
It also has an anti-reflective coating, which means there will be less glare on the display when viewed outdoors or under direct sunlight. Just like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, there is support for a 120Hz refresh rate on the display and since it is an LTPO panel, the refresh rate scales between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the content on the display. Talking about the refresh rate, there are two different options to choose from: Adaptive and Standard.
Switching to Adaptive mode, the display switches between different refresh rates. For example, while you are watching a 24fps or a 48fps video, the display switches to standard 60Hz; when playing games like Genshin Impact, the display switches to 120Hz, and when the display is idle with no activity, the refresh rate scales down to 1Hz. With the display set to Standard mode, the display refreshes at standard 60Hz throughout.
Combined with the 120Hz display, there is a 240Hz touch sampling rate for faster touch responses. The biggest talking point has to be the newer Privacy Display feature on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It is present under Settings with three options: Turn on Privacy Display, Conditions for turning on, and Maximum privacy protection. So when you turn on the first option, it turns the display darker by reducing the pixels, ensuring that the person sitting beside you cannot view the display.
So this comes in handy as it completely blacks out the screen, making it useful when you are using the smartphone in a crowded space. When you turn on the Conditions for turning on mode, it provides additional security in terms of PIN, password, patterns, etc. and also hides sensitive content in notifications, thus preventing other people from looking at your smartphone except you, which is a great move.
However, currently, this feature is limited to system applications and the lock screen only. Maybe a future update is required to enable this feature for third-party applications. As mentioned above, the second option is the basic Privacy Display feature, and the third one is called the Maximum Privacy Protection, which, when turned on, completely turns the blacks to grey and the contrast gets reduced to a larger extent.
This mode provides the highest level of privacy, ensuring nothing is visible to the person sitting next to you. However, this one is not always recommended, as the display completely gets washed out and is used when required. This is a hardware-based feature which Samsung likes to call the Flex Magic Panel that switches off or lowers the brightness for certain pixels on the display, only letting the user who is holding the smartphone view the display and not others.
There are two types of pixels, which include wider and narrower ones. So when the Privacy Display feature is turned on, the wider pixels' brightness is reduced, and the narrower pixels emit more light, making them very hard to see. In terms of display brightness, the Galaxy S26 Ultra achieves similar brightness levels to its predecessor, which is around 2600nits while viewing content in HDR mode.
Under normal mode, the display brightness hovers around 1200-1500nits which is good. In terms of display colour calibration, there are two different options to choose from: Natural and Vivid. Going for the Natural mode provides realistic colours with a slightly washed-out effect in some scenarios, thus covering the sRGB colour space, whereas Vivid provides punchier colours which cover the DCI-P3 gamut scale.
You can also set the temperature of the display to a warmer or a cooler tone. The display has support for HDR, so you can stream HDR content on YouTube, and the presence of Widevine L1 ensures that streaming HDR content on OTT platforms is a breeze. However, there is no Dolby Vision present, which is slightly disappointing considering smartphones priced less than this have that. The display houses an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner that works faster and is as accurate as ever.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Performance:
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is powered by this year's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is seen on many flagships launched this year. As in previous years, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset for Galaxy is present in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This means the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is slightly clocked higher than the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset found on other flagships.
The two primary Oryon V3 Phoenix L cores are now clocked at 4.74GHz as opposed to the 4.6GHz clock speed on the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. The remaining six Oryon V3 Phoenix M cores are clocked at 3.62GHz as usual. Coupled with this, there is the powerful Adreno 840 GPU, which is also clocked higher at 1300MHz when compared to 1200MHz on the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
In terms of daily performance, whether lighter or heavier tasks, the smartphone handles all of them easily without breaking a sweat. Even all games like BGMI Mobile, Genshin Impact, etc., ran easily at the highest graphics settings, but there were a few frame drops noticed during an extended session of gameplay, i.e. 3-4 hours. In BGMI, the gameplay remained smooth with the graphics set to Smooth and frame rates set to Extreme.
However, the frame rates were not as consistent when compared to other Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered smartphones that do offer a slightly better gaming experience. There is a Game Booster mode which does increase the frame rates during gaming and allows you to set the game performance level. While playing games, the display usually tries to maintain around 90-110fps in most of the scenarios, with very few cases of achieving 120fps.
This time, Samsung has also increased the surface area of the vapour cooling chamber, which helps in dissipating heat faster. The Galaxy S26 Ultra scores very well in terms of benchmarks, but still, the scores are not the best when compared to other smartphones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. However, the scores are a good improvement over last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
In terms of the CPU throttling test, the Galaxy S26 Ultra achieved a sustained performance of around 70-75 per cent, which is decent, but there is some thermal throttling present. With the Performance Mode turned on, the throttling is noticed more, which needs some room for improvement. But the benchmark scores come out better. In terms of network connectivity, you get support for carrier aggregation and almost all bands of 5G.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is available in four different variants - 128GB/256GB/512GB, and 1TB storage variants paired with 12GB/16GB RAM, respectively, where the RAM speeds are UFS 4.1, and the RAM is of LPDDR5X configuration. Overall, the performance and gaming capabilities have been improved over the last year's Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Software:
The Galaxy S26 Ultra runs on the latest OneUI 8.5 based on Android 16 out of the box. OneUI 8.5 is a slightly tweaked version of OneUI 8.0, which came on last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7 (Review). There are a couple of newer additions in terms of AI features on top of the existing AI features which are already present. OneUI 8.5 provides a lot of customisations where you can change the icon, shape, size and colour on the homescreen as well as on the lockscreen.
For instance, with the OneUI 8.5, you get a much improved version of Bixby, which is Samsung's own chat assistant, now provides more functionalities which can understand context and natural language much better, like for instance it can access the live location and provide up-to-date information to the user. It also points out to the relevant settings or system apps when asked for help while giving instructions.
For example, instead of going to settings and performing any activity, with Bixby now you can just simply write "the screen is idle for a long time, so I need to adjust the screen-on time", where automatically it goes to settings under Screen Timeout, where you can set the screen timeout to 15 seconds, 30 seconds, etc. Other than this, all other functionalities like getting weather information or any activities come in handy with Bixby.
Samsung has integrated with Perplexity AI, where saying "Hey Plex" initiates a quick search where you can write queries like scheduling a meeting on Google Meet, which works extremely well. The Now Brief remains unchanged from the OneUI 8.0, which provides personalised summaries of schedule, weather, news and health stats. Now it provides more information, which is useful.
Now Bar is also present, which is Samsung's own Dynamic Island, which lets you control music playback, different directions in Google Maps, and provides on-time information, which comes in handy as always. There is now the Now Nudge, which is a newer addition and tracks the conversations on a real-time basis. For example, when you are planning to go somewhere with friends, it shows suggestions and also books the place, which is quite handy.
The Now Nudge is supported in a few applications like Google Chat, the default Samsung Messages application, Google Messages, etc. The Circle To Search feature also gets an upgrade where it can recognise and search for multiple objects on screen at once. Suppose you have clicked a photo of a pair of shoes with a dress; it will search and provide information for both of these simultaneously.
The Photo Assist tool in the gallery application works flawlessly, where you can search for an image and edit it by writing different suggestions, like if there is a black coloured shirt in the photo, you can change it to blue by writing the same, which is quite an interesting feature. It lets you remove, resize, and transform doodles into realistic additions to sketch images and convert portraits to artistic styles.
There is a newer, smarter Screenshot feature in the Gallery application where AI analyses the content in the screenshot, and you can search for it. The search bar provides quick search tags for a particular screenshot. There is the Audio Eraser tool, which works well in removing noise in the background in videos, enabling a richer sound experience. You can adjust the "Strength" slider to fine-tune noise reduction and enable "Voice Focus" to hear sound clearly.
It provides real-time audio control in applications like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc. The Document Scanner works well where, if the camera detects a document by analysing edge detection, auto captures pages, removes unwanted elements like finger marks, folded corners and patterns from scans. It also allows you to export it to a PDF file. There is the newer Creative Studio feature, which lets you generate brand new images, turn S-Pen sketches to realistic look with colours, etc.
Some other customisations include the slightly tweaked notification panel with more rounded icons, which is close to the iOS 26-designed theme called the floating theme. Other features like Secure Folder work as expected, and then there is the Samsung DeX, using which you can connect to various wired devices such as laptops, PCs, and Galaxy devices. There is Knox Security present, where you can keep all your personal data for use.
With OneUI 8.5, there are newer themes and wallpapers also. There are newer animations which feel silky smooth throughout the usage. The presence of the S-Pen makes multitasking much easier as it is well integrated with the Samsung Notes application, where you get functionalities like Create Note, Screen Write, Smart Select, etc. Just like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, this one also lacks Bluetooth support, so you cannot click images or take videos using the S-Pen.
There is a new feature, partial screen recording, where OneUI 8.5 adds a magnifying glass and a cropping tool so that you can record only a specific part of the screen. There are very few pre-installed applications present in the user interface which can be uninstalled easily. Samsung Browser does throw in quite some notifications. In terms of software updates, just like all S-series flagships, this one will also receive another seven years of Android OS updates and security patches.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Cameras:
In terms of cameras, the Galaxy S26 Ultra brings the same identical setup as that of its predecessor, i.e. Galaxy S25 Ultra, except for a few tweaks in aperture for the cameras. The primary camera is a 200MP Samsung ISOCELL HP2 sensor with a larger f/1.4 aperture (f/1.7 on Galaxy S25 Ultra), and a 50MP f/2.4 Samsung ISOCELL JN3 sensor for the ultrawide camera, 10MP f/2.4 telephoto camera, and a 50MP f/2.9 telephoto camera, both of which have support for 3x and 5x optical zoom, respectively.
On the front, there is a 12MP f/2.2 camera for selfies. The small changes come with the primary camera, which has a larger f/1.4 aperture; the 50MP telephoto camera now has an f/2.9 aperture as compared to f/3.4 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. One downgrade has to be the 10MP telephoto camera (3x optical zoom) compared to the 12MP telephoto camera on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the aperture remains similar.
With the wider aperture and the newer image processing with the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, we do expect better results. In terms of images taken during the day, the details look sharper with a wider dynamic range. The colours look saturated without any kind of oversharpening in the background. The contrast and white balance are handled well. The HDR images provide slightly better results compared to the ones taken from the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
All these results are captured at 50MP resolution, but with the 200MP resolution, the images come out with punchier colours and a wider dynamic range with almost no oversharpening in the background. Though the details look a tad softer when compared to the 50MP ones, the noise is well under control in the background. The 2x zoomed images captured have sharper details with a wider dynamic range, with almost no noise in the background.
When compared to the 2x zoomed images taken from the primary camera of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the highlights are well controlled, and the contrast has been improved slightly. At night, the primary camera clearly shows an improvement over the one present in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, thus providing excellent details in shadows and controlling highlights well. The details captured are much sharper than before, with a slight improvement in dynamic range.
In very low-lighting scenarios, the exposure is well handled with almost no noise in the background. The colours look saturated with no oversharpening present in the background. Similarly, the 2x zoomed images provide sharper details with a wider dynamic range and less noise in the background. The colours have a warmer tone compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra night shots. The 200MP images taken during the night perform well with sharper details and less noise in the background.
The 50MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of details that look sharper with almost no noise in the background. The dynamic range is wider with saturated colours in the background, with no oversharpening present. The contrast is good, and the white balance is handled very well. Similarly, during the night, the images have sharper details with very little noise in the background.
The dynamic range is wider with saturated colours in the background. The colours do have a warmer tone as opposed to the cooler tone in the Galaxy S25 Ultra ultrawide images. The exposure is also well under control and slightly improved over the Galaxy S25 Ultra. In terms of the 3x telephoto camera performance, the slightly lower resolution (10MP vs 12MP) does not make much of a difference.
Still, the details look sharper and have a wider dynamic range with less noise in the background. The colours look saturated with no oversharpening present. Going beyond 3x zoom, the details look a tad softer with slightly higher noise, and colours look saturated as expected. During the night, the 3x zoomed images come out with sharper details and have a wider dynamic range with less noise in the background.
Using the dedicated Night Mode, the noise is reduced to quite a large extent, though. The 50MP telephoto camera takes some excellent images, which come out with sharper details and have a wider dynamic range with almost no noise in the background. At 10x zoom levels, the details look sharper with very little noise in the background. Beyond 10x zoom, let's say 30x, 50x or 100x zoom levels, there is a slight drop in details, and colours look a tad washed out.
But still up to 50x zoom, this telephoto camera maintains a good balance in terms of details, which look sharper with decent dynamic range. At 100x zoom levels, the details look softer with a lot of noise in the background and colours look washed out. At night, the 5x telephoto camera does a great job in terms of details that look sharper with a wider dynamic range and less noise in the background. At 10x zoom levels, the details look sharper with slightly washed-out colours.
Beyond 30x zoom levels, the details look softer with much higher noise in the background. The dynamic range remains average. With the dedicated Night Mode, things do improve quite a margin. In terms of portraits, both the 3x and 5x telephoto cameras do an excellent job in terms of edge detection, and the level of background blur is well implemented. The dynamic range is wider with saturated colours in the background.
The human subjects have natural-looking skin tones with finer grain in textures. The portraits captured using the primary camera come out with sharper details and a wider dynamic range with less noise in the background. The skin tones look natural, with some oversharpening present in the background. The edge detection is good, and the level of background blur is well implemented, but still, the depth in portraits is better captured on the 5x telephoto camera out of the three cameras.
In terms of selfies, the 12MP camera does a great job in terms of details that look sharper and have a wider dynamic range with almost no noise in the background. The skin tones look natural without any kind of oversharpening, and the contrast is well handled. Even portrait selfies come out with proper edge detection, and background blur is well implemented. The skin tones look natural with a wider dynamic range and less noise.
At night, the selfies come out with sharper details and have good dynamic range, but there is a slight light flare noticed at times, which may be a software bug and can be fixed with a future software update. In terms of videos, all three cameras can record 8K videos at 30fps, whereas the front camera can record 4K videos at 60fps only. There is an option for recording 8K videos at 24fps, also, which is part of Pro Mode. It also includes 4K video recording at 120fps for both main and ultrawide cameras.
The 8K videos from the primary camera come out with sharper details and have a wider dynamic range with less noise in the background. The 4K videos from the primary camera come out with excellent details that look sharper, have a wider dynamic range and offer good contrast with proper white balance. The noise is almost non-existent since EIS works extremely well, but there are areas of oversharpening at times.
When you switch to 1080p videos at 60fps on the primary camera, OIS works extremely well in masking noise to a huge margin. Compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the colours look a tad saturated, but there is not much of a difference. The 4K as well as 1080p videos on the ultrawide camera come out with sharper details and have a wider dynamic range with less noise in the background. There is a slight distortion present in the videos, though.
The videos from both the telephoto cameras come out with sharper details and have a wider dynamic range with saturated colours in the background. With OIS on board for both telephoto cameras, the noise is very low, with the 5x telephoto camera yielding better output of the two. During the night, the ultrawide camera does struggle quite a bit by introducing light flare and noise in the background, whereas the primary and the 5x telephoto camera output excellent videos.
The videos from the front camera come out with sharper details, a wider dynamic range and less noise in the background. The 1080p videos at 60fps provide better stabilisation with no noise in the background. The human skin tones look natural, but there is a slight boost in colours. Overall, there are some improvements over the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the low-light photography and video output from the ultrawide camera need some improvement.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Battery Life:
Just like its predecessor, i.e. Galaxy S25 Ultra, the Galaxy S26 Ultra houses a similar-sized battery, i.e. 5000mAh, which is kind of disappointing as other smartphone brands are going with silicon carbide solution, thus carving out much larger 7000 or 8000mAh batteries out there. But still, Samsung claims that paired with the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and OneUI 8.5, the battery life seems to be improved.
With normal usage that includes scrolling through webpages, streaming social media, and other lighter multitasking activities, the smartphone easily lasted for two days with some charge left. The standard screen-on time came around 8-8.5 hours, which is good but not the best. When it comes to heavy usage that includes playing heavy games, rendering videos, taking images and videos using the camera, etc., the smartphone easily lasted for a single day and a half with some charge left.
The standard screen-on time came around 5.5-6 hours, which is good and a slight improvement over last year's Galaxy S25 Ultra. In terms of charging, Samsung has made a few improvements this time with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as charging speeds now support up to 60W compared to the standard 45W charging speed on the previous S-lineup of smartphones. However, there is no Samsung-branded charger in the box, which is disappointing.
By using another third-party 65W fast charger, the smartphone easily charges from 0 to 100 per cent within 45-50 minutes, which is good and almost similar results were obtained using Samsung's own 60W fast charger also. These charging speeds are still not the best in class, as other brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, and iQOO are going with faster 100W and 120W fast charging speeds and come with a charger inside the box.
Still, the gap is much closer when compared to charging time on other smartphones, with the bump in charging speeds to 60W. The wireless charging speeds have been increased to 25W, which is an improvement over the 15W wireless charging speeds in earlier models. Using the Qi 2.1 standards wireless charger, the smartphone takes around 1hour 10 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent, which is good. Other than that, there is 4.5W reverse wireless charging, which is unchanged.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Audio Quality:
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear. The sound does not feel muffled or distorted even at the highest volume settings. There is no support for Dolby Atmos, though.
Verdict:
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is a great flagship that builds on itself, with improvements we see in each generation. It has a premium build and design, an excellent display along with stereo speakers for multimedia consumption, provides flagship-grade performance in daily activities, has a great set of cameras for taking both images and videos, and good battery life with faster charging. The software experience is by far one of the most refined, with OneUI improving in terms of AI-related features.
With AI being the buzzword in the technology world nowadays, the Galaxy S26 Ultra brings newer additions to the existing AI features already present as part of the software. The Privacy Display is the main point of attraction, which is a very useful feature when you are viewing the smartphone in a crowd, ensuring security and preventing prying eyes. The slightly faster charging speeds over the previous S-lineup are a good improvement.
However, though the Galaxy S26 Ultra is a great all-rounder, there are a few areas where it could have been better. In terms of haptic feedback, Samsung could have been slightly better in terms of the vibration motor. Though the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is a flagship-grade chipset that provides solid performance is not so well optimised on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as it does show signs of thermal throttling, and the gaming experience pales in competition to other flagships.
The images and videos from all the cameras come out the best in class, but still, the ultrawide camera needs improvement in terms of videography and low-light photography. The 3x telephoto camera also needs some room for improvement in terms of video. The charging speeds have been upgraded, but the speeds are still slower when compared to other competitors out there. There is no charger even bundled inside the box.
When you compare the Galaxy S26 Ultra with its predecessor, i.e., the Galaxy S25 Ultra, or even the Galaxy S24 Ultra (Review), you are getting better performance and slightly better camera output; the charging speeds have been increased, and the design is more rounded, making it easier to hold in the hands. The addition of Privacy Display will not matter to most, as it is just a small addition. The S-Pen functionality remains unchanged, which is handy in all aspects.
So if you are someone who is looking to buy the Galaxy S26 Ultra, you can definitely buy one and feel the experience of this Samsung flagship, but if you are someone who already has the Galaxy S25 Ultra and wants to upgrade, then consider factors like daily performance, slightly better output from cameras, faster charging speeds, and the Privacy Display are worth, you can upgrade easily. But if these do not matter, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is still a good option to consider, as it is now priced lower and makes a value-for-money option out there.
But as an overall package, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is a no-brainer flagship smartphone out there in the market.