Samsung Electronics on Wednesday launched a new line of flagship smartphones—the Galaxy S26 series—infused with artificial intelligence (AI) features designed for everything from editing photos to enabling contextual awareness, positioning the smartphones as everyday tools for experiencing AI.
Samsung’s S26 series comes in three variants: the S26 ($900), S26 Plus ($1100), and the S26 Ultra ($1300), as has been the case with previous flagship launches. The company will start taking preorders for the S26 series on Wednesday, and the devices will go on sale on March 11. Both the S26 and S26 Plus are getting a $100 price hike.
Samsung has been adding AI features to its previous Galaxy S series smartphones, positioning the Galaxy S24 and S25 as AI-powered devices. However, with the Galaxy S26, its Galaxy AI suite of artificial intelligence features is more prominent, and additional AI applications enable the new phones to carry out tasks across multiple apps when prompted.
While generative AI technologies such as chatbots create content based on prompts that users input into trained large language models (LLMs), these tools are generally static and generate responses based on the information they were trained on. AI agents, on the other hand, are autonomous or have the ability to reason and are designed to learn on behalf of users by interpreting context and then taking action.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s “Privacy Display” technology impressed analysts.(Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)
For example, the Now Nudge feature first understands what’s happening on the screen and then provides context-aware suggestions. Instead of manually switching between apps, users may receive prompts that help them complete tasks with fewer steps. During a text conversation about an appointment, it may display an “Open Calendar” option. It supports a wide range of tasks, including rental services such as ride-sharing, flight-related actions, and location searches.
Samsung is adding contextual awareness to Bixby to make it more useful as an AI assistant. The Galaxy S26 models will also support Google Gemini and Perplexity, giving users a choice between AI agents. This approach reflects a broader shift in strategy, as companies avoid limiting their devices to a single AI service.
The Galaxy S26 series is also getting an improved Now Brief, a feature that offers a daily summary and lets you know what’s on your calendar for the day or how your commute looks. It also comes with an enhanced Circle to Search feature from Google, which now supports multi-object recognition. AI-assisted photo editing and creation tools are also getting an upgrade.
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Betting big on personal AI
Samsung’s latest AI features and upgrades show how the South Korean tech giant and its peers are racing to make artificial intelligence on devices more personal and autonomous, catering to users’ habits and preferences. AI technology has improved significantly and is beginning to reshape society, and devices like smartphones are the ideal vehicles for distributing it. Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker, does not want to let this opportunity slip away.
The Galaxy S26 base model features a 6.3-inch display, the S26 Plus comes with a 6.7-inch display, and the S26 Ultra gets a 6.9-inch display. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)
At the same time, Samsung is taking a swipe at Apple’s Achilles’ heel with the iPhone. So far, Apple has only introduced a few basic AI features on the iPhone as part of Apple Intelligence, with many features still unavailable, including its botched virtual assistant, Siri.
All three smartphones in the Galaxy S26 lineup are upgraded, though the top-end Galaxy S26 Ultra, which competes with Apple Inc.’s iPhone 17 Pro Max and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, received the maximum features. The phone is getting a new “Privacy Display” technology, which blacks out specific screen elements for anyone but the phone’s owner, using a software toggle to provide a shaded view when the user isn’t looking directly at the screen, preventing prying eyes from seeing private content.
Under pressure to up sales
Samsung is positioning its Galaxy S26 Ultra as the world’s most advanced smartphone, with an unbeatable camera designed for prosumers and excelling at capturing professional-grade videos. Although it has a homegrown chipset in the Exynos 2600 inside the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus, the flagship is getting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor.
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“With the S26 Ultra, there is a lot more focus on specs and delivering the best experience that Samsung has to offer. In that segment, I think it’s more important to have continuous innovation in both hardware and software. The Ultra is where people expect Samsung to make the biggest hardware improvements,” said Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst for Smartphones, Wireless, PC, 5G & XR, at Moor Insights & Strategy.
Rising memory prices amid the AI boom have forced device makers to make tough decisions about when to launch and how to price their products. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)
Samsung is under pressure to increase smartphone sales, with Apple overtaking the South Korean company last year as the top smartphone vendor in the world, according to International Data Corp figures. Meanwhile, Chinese players such as Xiaomi and Vivo continue to offer aggressively priced devices boasting high-end specifications.
For Samsung, the Galaxy S lineup remains its mainline flagship smartphone series, helping it compete with Apple neck-and-neck in the highly competitive premium smartphone market. Relying on a once-successful formula of hardware upgrades no longer works, especially at a time when software and AI are key factors in differentiating devices from the rest.
“Apple’s approach is grounded in the reality of its AI capabilities. If Apple could go all-in on AI, it would. That said, consumers are experiencing AI overload in many ways, and Apple can capitalise on that for now,” Sag said when asked how Apple’s AI strategy differs from Samsung’s, even though both brands cater to the premium segment. “Then again, Samsung is delivering meaningful AI experiences that make it more attractive when marketed properly.”
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Samsung announced a slew of new AI-focused capabilities and features across its new devices. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)
With smartphone sales not growing as fast as they once were, phone makers are thinking differently to better position their devices. Rising memory prices amid the AI boom have forced device makers to make tough decisions about when to launch and how to price their products.
“Samsung’s success will heavily depend on pricing, promotions, marketing and relevance of new features. They need to drum up a lot of excitement, and I think the best way of doing that is with relevant new features,” Sag said.
