The Biggest Announcements from Samsung Galaxy Unpacked

You would think that with the number of leaks and early reveals of Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 line of phones, the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event would just be a formality. But seeing official announcements is different from piecing together and analyzing rumors. Today’s event brought some big news and some surprises.

Watch this: Samsung Unpacked 2026: The future of AI is here (highlights)

10:34 a.m.

Galaxy S26 Ultra

One anticipated announcement was the reveal of the flagship Galaxy phone, the S26 Ultra. In fact, Samsung barely mentioned the other two phones rolling out today: the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is slightly lighter and thinner than the S25 Ultra, features the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor for Galaxy, has an aluminum frame instead of titanium, and features new display technology, including Privacy Display.

The S26 Ultra became the hook on which almost everything else announced at the event rested, from AI features to camera technology.

CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti wrote about his first hands-on experience with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and we’ll follow up with full reviews of it and the other S26 phones as we have more time to test them.

S26 ultra confidential screen

Phone display news usually focuses on brightness and resolution, but Samsung Unpacked revealed a new technology that seems genuinely useful in everyday situations.

“Watch” probably isn’t the right word, because the Privacy View feature lets you hide sensitive information on your screen. It’s like a sheet of privacy foil that can be turned on or off and applied to specific apps and content.

When you enable Privacy View, people who peek at your phone from the sides will only see a dark screen. You can also choose to enable it when, for example, you use your banking app or send text messages. The technology isn’t just a full-screen, all-on/all-off implementation: you can configure it so that only incoming notifications get the privacy treatment.

All of this is accomplished through clever technology that Samsung calls Black Matrix. Normally, display pixels are designed to project light in the widest possible angle for better visibility. With Black Matrix, some display pixels include physical rings that can reduce their light output and disrupt visibility to the sides.

CNET’s Katie Collins thinks the privacy display is the one feature that currently sets the S26 Ultra apart from all other phones, and Macy Meyer can’t wait to parade in peace away from the “shoulder surfers.”

Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus

The S26 phones that most people will buy have only received a few mentions, but a few things about them stand out, as CNET’s Patrick Holland explains in his first-hand preview.

The Galaxy S26 has a larger screen than the S25 it replaces, which means it’s also slightly taller and wider. However, it maintains the same thickness of 7.8mm, which Holland says makes it thinner overall. This design also includes a larger 4,300mAh battery, which is good news; the S26 Plus includes the same 4,900 mAh battery as its predecessor.

Not as welcome? Both phones now cost $100 more than the ones they replace, at $900 and $1,100 for the 256GB models. (The Galaxy S26 Ultra retains its $1,300 price, however.)

All-new Samsung browser, including Perplexity

I know it’s a shock, but AI is widely present in Samsung’s presentation. And while much of the language is still phrased in the future tense “you will be able to do it,” Samsung showed off some practical applications of AI.

It introduced a new Samsung browser that, basically, is tied to AI vendor Perplexity. Using an Ask AI tool, the browser can search queries across all browser tabs, and even your search history, to display the answers you’re looking for.

Patrick Holland got more details on the relationship between Samsung and Perplexity.

Now give it a boost

Another AI tool announced at the event is Now Nudge, a feature intended to be like an unobtrusive personal assistant but one that doesn’t attempt to micromanage your life.

In the example Samsung gave, when a friend mentions photos they and you shared in a chat, Now Nudge can surface those photos so you have them ready to share, instead of digging through your photo library to find them.

Or, it can display calendar events related to a conversation: when a friend asks if you’re free on a specific date to go out to dinner, Now Nudge can appear on that day without you leaving the chat app. According to Samsung, “it helps you stay in your flow.”

It is certainly interesting to see at least partial recognition that not everyone wants AI to handle all tasks.

Galaxy Buds 4 series

It wasn’t just all phones present at the Galaxy Unpacked event. Samsung introduced the Galaxy Buds 4 headphones, featuring a new look and many internal changes. The woofer design is larger, with 20% more vibration area for deeper, richer sound.

CNET’s David Carnoy, in his review, says the $250 Galaxy Buds 4 Pro deliver great sound with upgraded drivers, updated noise cancellation, and top-tier voice calling and transparency mode.

They are available for pre-order on February 26 and will begin shipping on March 11.

Smarter Search Circle

Samsung and Google really, really want you to buy clothes using AI, it seems. The Circle to Find feature, which lets you identify an item in a photo and get more information about it, has been updated to let you select multiple items in the circle.

In the Samsung example, you can draw a circle around someone’s entire outfit and it will identify all the pieces: shirt, jacket, pants, shoes, etc. Are clothing stores seeing an increase in sales from features like this, or is it just a good demo? We’ll have to see for ourselves.

Galaxy AI Photo Editing

Cameras still feature heavily in new phone announcements, and while the camera hardware of the Galaxy S26 phones remains largely unchanged (the S26 Ultra has wider apertures to let in more light on its main and ultra-wide cameras), AI features continue to advance.

One thing that stood out is the ability to use AI to edit photos by making voice requests or text prompts. This is what the company mentioned before the event when it announced that a new “Galaxy camera experience” was coming. In one example, the presenter demonstrated how to repair a cupcake that had a bite removed (with a not-so-subtle scolding from the anonymous friend who dared to chew before a photo was taken).

The benefit is that people who don’t know how to edit photos or are intimidated by the different controls can request a result and let the generative AI engine create it for them.

Google introduced similar features by introducing the Pixel 10 Pro last year.

Check out Andrew Lanxon’s look at what’s changed in the S26 camera systems.