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Samsung S26 Ultra/S26/S26 Plus
- Thread starter HouseLannister
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hovscorpion12
macrumors 68040
jamezr
macrumors P6
The S26U feels lighter! Also the sides are a little softer so not as sharp ss the S25U. It feesl better in the hand because of that.
I may be the minority, but i like the direction samsung is going witht he Ultra line. I like the more rounded corners and softer sies. It makes it feels nice in the hand and esier to hold over time.
I am loving it so far! Have to wait a few days to get a feek for what the battery life will be. But so far it seems to be on par with the S25U...or maybe just a bit better.....
I got he Cobalt Violet and love it!
ToddH
macrumors 68040
I’d like to have one… I have the S25 ultra at the moment & two iPhone 17 pro max phones. I use the iPhone more, the S25 ultra was purchased only for the cameras & at one point I thought about switching to android. The new f/1.4 optics on the S26 ultra is appealing, I’d like to see how much more detail is seen in the Milky Way & night sky shots using expert raw for the 12 minute exposure. But I don’t think I’ll be seeing any of those samples anytime soon. Not many people shoot the night sky or know how. The camera sensors are exactly the same as in the S25 ultra, so no image quality difference, just better in low light. So I’m on the fence at the moment with buying one. Currently I really like my 17 Pro max phones. I’ll keep reading the reviews. I have no interest in AI or the privacy screen option. Good options, but probably not good enough for me to buy one.
In comparison the Xiaomi 17 Ultra on Amazon UK is offering £200 off plus trade in value of your old phone if I’m reading it right. And that’s for 512GB model.
I'm not paying $5000 for a S26 Ultra phone that's only new benefit/feature is the privacy screen. That doesnt appeal to me anyways. Unless you work for the secret service, people don't spy on other peoples phones. Even if they do, why not just use your hand or a piece of paper instead? A pointless feature IMO. I guess the people at Samsung are running out of ideas to how to make phones better.
Put in a screen that can pump out 10,000 nits and I would buy it day one.
Put in a screen that can pump out 10,000 nits and I would buy it day one.
jamezr
macrumors P6
Yeah...no else is either. With my S25U trade in I only paid $350.
The privacy screen is legit useful to a whole lot of people. Then this new tech is in it's infancy so it will get better and evolve. It may not be useful to YOU but that doesn't mean others don't value the feature.
Then a phone that can do 10,000 nits would need quite a large battery to keep up with it.
After tax, you're paying an additional 500 bucks (not 350) to trade in a perfectly good s25 ultra. No way does that make any financial sense as you're basically buying the same phone twice....
Who's paying $5,000 for a $1,200 phone?
Lately as is the case with Apple, Samsung and Google, your trade in, has tax applied and is added to the trade. In my case, I was taxed after the trade in value. So I was taxed on the difference of the phone and trade in, which was, paying tax on $94. That was the balance after my trade.
drinkingtea
macrumors 65816
With a piece of paper? What? How exactly would that work, especially when I'm using transit?
jamezr
macrumors P6
Samsung gave me $900 for my S25U. That's a great deal. I can't get that for it if I tried to sell it myself.
As with a lot of things tech related, upgrading every year doesn’t make financial sense. Most of us who do, get enjoyment from it and don’t look at it simply in monetary terms
Nice! I found that Samsung tends to give the most when using their products in a trade, the same with Google. The exception this time was when I checked and I got more for an iPhone 13 than a Google phone.
I remember Samsung giving me back more in a trade for a used Galaxy Tab S2 towards a Galaxy Tab S7 plus than I actually paid for the S2. I've never been able to replicate that.
Will a screen protector from a S24 Plus work on a S26 Plus?
My son has a S24 Plus and thinking of taking advantage of a trade in offer for a S26 Plus. He still has some new screen protectors that he didn't need to use from his current phone. I am hoping they will work good since the phone is the same screen size.
My son has a S24 Plus and thinking of taking advantage of a trade in offer for a S26 Plus. He still has some new screen protectors that he didn't need to use from his current phone. I am hoping they will work good since the phone is the same screen size.
Thickness is different at the camera, so depends on if it has an applicator tray or if it is an old-fashioned one. But it's worth a try. Worse case, you need to get some more later.
Edit: updated image.
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jamezr
macrumors P6
So far so good so to speak.
The S26U is so much nicer in the hand than the S25U because of the smoother or rounded edges and rounded corners.
The battery life has been great so far right on par with the S25U or maybe a little better.
Honestly...on paper the S26U doesn't have much over the S25U. But so far in everyday usage it feels sooo much smoother and faster. OneUi 8.5 on the S26U has been amazingly fast and flawless.
Harthag
macrumors 68030
Do you keep your phone in "light" power mode or normal mode? On my S25U I needed to keep the phone in light power mode otherwise battery life wasn't all that great. Amazon delivers mine on Thursday, we shall see.
So it is similar to the 17 Pro in the roundness and improvement in hand feel?
One reason I still have my Pixel 8 Pro is BECAUSE of this factor, I didn't like the harder edge on newer phones when I held them.
I want to go look at one in the store, I can likely get over the One-UI dislikes I have, but not sure I want a large phone again.
I REALLY wish Samsung had an offering like Google & Apple in a smaller chassis, with all the features (sans maybe S-Pen). That new display, cameras, speed, and other features would be greatly welcomed in a smaller device!
Great point, thank you very much, I'll have to check that out. The brand is Spigen and for that one the tray is only to go over the display (the phone doesn't sit in a tray) so it will probably work.
MarkX
macrumors 68000
The screen protector for a s24 plus fitted the s25 plus, so it should fit the s26 plus. It might not be perfect though!
jamezr
macrumors P6
I just keep it in normal mode. I really don't tweak things at all.
jamezr
macrumors P6
IMHO the 17 PM and Pixel 10 XL are the better as far as rounder edges and corners. But the S26U is almost to that level of feel in the hand.