Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Review: Powerful, Familiar Flagship
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Reception And Sound Quality
The S26 Ultra packs stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos that sound pleasantly loud and clear. Audio performance is excellent, on par with today’s best-sounding flagships, including the Pixel 10 Pro XL and iPhone 17 Pro Max. The S26 Ultra also supports aptX HD, LDAC, and SSC UHQ (Samsung Seamless Codec Ultra High Quality) for high-quality wireless playback over Bluetooth, and digital accessories for wired listening via USB Type-C.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Performance And Benchmark Results
Like its predecessors, the Galaxy S26 Ultra boasts a special “for Galaxy” version of Qualcomm’s latest flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This reworked 3nm chip features CPU performance cores capable of hitting higher peak clock speeds (4.74GHz vs. 4.61GHz) and incorporates Qualcomm Smart Transmit technology, which improves connectivity by optimizing uplink power across 5G, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, and satellite links.The S26 Ultra comes with 12 or 16GB LPDDR5x RAM, and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage. Obviously, this phone feels extremely responsive day-to-day. Everything runs smoothly and without hiccups. The S26 Ultra handled my usual collection of apps – from productivity, communication, and social media to entertainment and gaming – like a champ. It never skipped a beat, even when juggling multiple apps.
Subjective performance is one thing, but benchmark results show that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy delivers blazing speeds across the board. This is especially obvious with GPU and NPU workloads, which benefit from a performance boost over last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. In addition, the S26 Ultra is more thermally efficient and throttles less than the S25 Ultra in 3DMark’s Wild Life Unlimited stress test.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Geekbench Results
Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real-world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics calculation scenarios. We tested all of the smartphones featured here with GeekBench 6's single and multi-core workloads, as well as Geekbench AI's NPU workloads.
As you can see, the Galaxy S26 Ultra performed quite well in these tests, thought it scored lower than expected in the multi-core workload.
Galaxy S26 Ultra PCMark Results
Futuremark's PCMark for Android is an excellent suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks on any handset -- things like image and video editing, as well as lighter-duty, everyday workloads such as email and web browsing. When you see the test running live, it's clear the scripted application tests are carefully selected and tuned to make use of the each mobile platform in a very controlled way...
Here Samsung's latest flagship shows slightly better performance than previous generation models, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra scoring between the Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped Galaxy S25 Edge, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 prototype.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra AnTuTu Results
AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of metrics ranked with somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates or time to complete. Here we're running the latest version of AnTuTu across multiple Android devices. AnTuTu returns four top level performance results which are all included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or User Experience), along with a total score.
According to AnTuTu, the Galaxy S26 Ultra offers an notable increase in performance vs. previous generation Android handsets, slotting right below the RedMagic 11 Pro in terms of its overall score.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 3DMark Results
3DMark Wild Life is the latest cross-platform test from UL. Its primary purpose is to measure GPU performance across platforms, and two distinct tests are available. The standard Wild Life test is designed to give feedback on how a game performs over a short period of time. With mobile games, people typically play in brief spurts when they find some free time; be it on the bus, on the subway, or a quick battle royale session over lunch break. The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, on the other hand, shows how a device performs over a longer stretch of time, and takes note of performance degradation that might crop up due to increased heat levels and throttling.
3DMark Wild Life is a significantly more taxing graphics benchmark that employs cutting-edge mobile game engine technologies to deliver impressive visuals, as you can see in the screen shot above. Here the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered Galaxy S26 Ultra delivers a big gain in performance versus the fastest Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped devices like the Galaxy Z Fold7 and the OnePlus 13.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Sustained Performance
The Galaxy S26 Ultra does exhibit some throttling in the Wild Life stress test, but still achieves a stability score of 69%. It doesn't fare as well in the Solar Bay Stress test with a stability score of just 41.7%, but performs better in the Steel Nomad Light stress test, managing a stability score of 56%. It's worth noting that while the S26 Ultra throttles more than the OnePlus 15 it doesn't get nearly as hot.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Additional Features And Battery Life
The remaining specs are pretty much what you’d expect from a modern flagship, and include sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G (SA / NSA), CAT 22 LTE, tri-band WiFi 7 (802.11be), Bluetooth 6.0 (LE), NFC, UWB, dual-band A-GPS / GLONASS / BeiDou / GALILEO / QZSS positioning, and the usual array of sensors. Haptics feel great thanks to a high-quality linear vibration motor, and the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable. So is face unlock.On the charging front, the S26 Ultra now features 60W wired (USB PD 3.0) and 25W wireless charging (Qi 2.2, with 4.5W reverse wireless charging) up from 45W wired and 15W wireless charging on the S25 Ultra. But the S26 Ultra still lacks the built-in magnets needed for MagSafe/Pixelsnap support, and that’s a real shame. In typical Samsung fashion, you’ll find a USB C-to-C cable in the box, but no charger.
But there’s a huge elephant in the room. Many Chinese flagships, like the OnePlus 15, and even mid-range handsets, routinely boast silicon-carbon batteries with a capacity of 7,000mAh or more, Samsung, Apple, and Google seem content to ignore this game-changing battery tech, which is now mature (5th generation) and well understood. It’s frustrating because it doesn't add significant cost and who doesn’t want a phone with two solid days of battery life?
Next up: software, AI, and review summary...
