Gadget of the Week: Samsung’s
S26 surprise package

What is it?

Three months is a long time in the life of a smartphone.

Our first review of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, based on playing with it at its launch, focused on the camera. The wider aperture delivered an immediate improvement in low-light photography, and the zoom capabilities gave the phone one of the clearest advantages in the premium smartphone market.

The way AI was integrated into the device also caught the eye, and we made a big deal of the extended intelligence on offer.

Three months later, a more nuanced picture has emerged. The camera remains a strength, but the S26 Ultra’s strongest quality lies in the way it has come into its own, both inside and out.

The inside is defined by the extent to which the operating system has evolved into an ecosystem. Of course, AI plays a big role, but the handset became especially useful when it became possible to install third party AI apps, like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s Codex.

My big epiphany came the night I was caught up in an event where speech after speech kept me both from dinner and from getting home to work on an idea for a new interactive website. I decided to test the limits of the device I had in my hands. I opened Claude and asked if it could build the site for me. It hummed and hah’d, offering the basics and trying tom palm me off on other sites. With enough prompting, or rather shepherding, however, Claude wrote the code and held my hand through deploying it via services like Github, Supabase and Vercel.

This had little to do with the capabilities of the S26, but also everything. An expansive 6.9-inch display, 5,000mAh battery and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 3 nm processor combined to meet three demands: room to play, power enough for demanding processes, and life enough to keep going through software deployment and into rigorous testing.

The general stability of the device thorough this exercise made it feel less like forcing a phone to behave like a computer and more like discovering how much computer had already been packed into the phone.

Such intensive usage, under the potentially intense glare of people sitting at the same table, would usually come with interpersonal issues ranging from account security to protection of intellectual property, but the device had one more trick up its sleeve: Privacy Display.

To be honest, that initially sounded like a clever extra, the sort of thing one might try once and forget. It turned out to be far more useful than that. Working on a new idea in a very public place made it clear that it was one of the rare smartphone innovations that affects everyday use. The perils of shoulder-surfing receded, as the Privacy Display narrowed the useful viewing angle of the screen.

The person holding the phone sees the content clearly, but it blurs doe someone sting alongside. It has proven to be useful on flights, in airport lounges, and at conferences, as the handset has come into its own as a portable office.

Maximum privacy mode does reduce some of the visual richness one expects from a Samsung display, but the benefit outweighs the irritation. I did not need it all the time, but often enough for it to become part of the phone’s character.

Day-to-day value also came from the feeling that Samsung had tightened the whole package. The display is excellent and the body feels solid, yet comfortably so.

The camera, meanwhile, became increasingly reliable. The low-light advantage remained clear, but the zoom became the party trick that turned into a practical tool. Conference stages, distant signs, architectural details and a blood red rising moon all came within reach. At times, the results were startling, especially in photographing the moon without the benefit of an AI mode that was all the rage a few years ago in providing an artificially sharp full moon.

The most satisfying part came from learning the camera’s secrets over time. The S26 Ultra rewards experimentation, and invites unlocking of “secret” modes and settings. The easiest and most useful of these came from going into Camera Settings and clicking on Camera Assistant. It took a small download, and suddenly I could customise my phone camera easily and extensively. Among other, it allowed me to switch manually between lenses instead of the phone handling it automatically, to prioritise focus over speed, and to show 2X, 10X and 100X zoom shortcuts in Camera mode.

In short, the camera grew more useful because I learned how to ask more of it.

That is the broader beauty of the S26 Ultra after three months. It built its case through cumulative quality.

How much does it cost?

The Samsung Galaxy S26 series is available at these recommended retail prices: Galaxy S26 Ultra from R30,999; Galaxy S26+ from R25,999; and Galaxy S26 from R20,999.

Does it make a difference?

The S26 Ultra moves beyond the standard flagship bragging rights of faster chips and better cameras. Privacy Display gives it a practical advantage for people who work in public, travel often or handle sensitive information on a phone. The camera remains one of the strongest in the market, but the real advance lies in the way the device performs as a complete mobile workstation. That makes it more compelling after three months than it was after three days.

What are the biggest negatives?

• Privacy Display can reduce brightness and visual richness, especially at stronger settings.
• The size and price keep it firmly in a serious-buyer league.

What are the biggest positives?

• Privacy Display proved useful and practical in public working situations.
• The camera became more reliable and more capable as its hidden strengths emerged.
• The S26 Ultra feels like a complete premium device, inside and out.

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge”.