- Samsung has unveiled its new flagship S26 range, complete with a big boost in AI features.
- The S26 is slimmer, lighter and more powerful than its predecessor, with big improvements to the camera in the Ultra.
- New "Horizontal Lock" features turns the S26 into the perfect dash-mounted action cam for track days too.
If, like a lot of us, your phone is essentially your co-driver on a daily basis, doubling as your sat-nav, dashcam, music studio, roadside office, and more, the new Galaxy S26 range just revealed by Samsung takes a lot of that to the next level and even brings new features to boost your in-car experience.
Samsung’s latest flagship line-up - the S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra - leans hard into performance, camera upgrades and AI tools. But beyond the stage demos and spec sheets, there’s an even stronger case for the S26 as an in-car companion.
The S26 Ultra runs the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, while the Base and Plus models use Samsung’s Exynos 2600. Samsung says the Base and Plus deliver performance on par with Snapdragon 8 Gen 5-class hardware, aided by its “Pro Scaler” upscaling system and mDNIe AI-powered colour tuning tech.
In real-world driving terms, this translates to faster navigation route recalculations when you miss a turn, smoother wireless Android Auto projection, lag-free streaming of high-bitrate music, and stable multi-tasking between maps, music and calls.
Thermals matter in a car - especially when a phone is mounted on a dash in direct sunlight - and Samsung has fitted the S26 with a larger vapour chamber and a new thermal interface material (TIM) said to improve heat transfer by more than 20 percent, which is a significant improvement for long navigation sessions, 4K/8K recording runs or a bit of serious gaming on Asphalt Legends or Grid Autosport.
The S26 Ultra has clearly been the focus of the new range, getting the most significant upgrades, including faster 60W wired charging and 25W wireless charging, bringing proper fast charging via a high-output USB-C car adapter or significantly faster wireless charging, which means less range anxiety - for your phone, at least.
Samsung has made some big upgrades to the Ultra’s camera too, with the 200MP main camera now featuring an f/1.4 aperture, allowing significantly more light than the previous model. A secondary 50MP camera promises additional brightness gains. Samsung has also massively upgraded low-light capability, fixing one of its long-standing weaknesses: nighttime video.
All S26 models also get “horizontal lock” stabilisation which locks the gyro to maintain a level horizon even if the phone tilts, much like modern action cams from DJI and GoPro do, making it the perfect stabilised action cam for in-car use, particularly track days.
The Ultra also supports APV (Advanced Professional Video), preserving near-lossless quality at up to 8K/30fps through multiple edits.
But it is Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite where things get interesting for drivers, with the use of voice commands like "Hey Google" to activate Gemini for tasks such as starting playlists, and the return of Samsung's much-maligned Bixby assistant, this time with a Galaxy AI overhaul and a focus on operating "on-phone" functions that Gemini can't access.
For example, Bixby can manage phone settings like screen brightness with voice commands, keeping your hands on the wheel, while head gestures are a new addition for true hands-free call management, allowing you to simply nod to accept calls and shake your head to decline them.
The Now Nudge feature automatically checks your calendar when you receive messages about availability, informing you if you have conflicting appointments without needing to manually check and, while currently limited to Korea and the US, the phone can also proactively suggest booking an Uber for appointments, streamlining travel arrangements.
But possibly the biggest boon for in-car phone usage is the AI Call Screening feature. The phone's Galaxy AI can now answer unknown calls, provide a summary on screen, and allow you to decide whether to pick up, helping filter out unwanted calls while driving.
Samsung is at pains to separate Galaxy AI (on-device functions) from cloud-based assistants like Gemini: in simple terms Galaxy AI handles on-device features such as call screening, photo editing and automation, while Google's Gemini handles broader web-based queries and Galaxy AI acts as a gatekeeper for personal data on your phone.
This also has the advantage of allowing drivers to automate tasks, generate edits and screen calls without constantly shipping personal data to the cloud. You can also dial AI usage up or down, even limiting functions to on-device processing only.
A standout new feature for those of you who use public transport rather than private car - or just don't want your passenger to see your screen - is the Ultra's new Privacy Screen function, which limits screen visibility beyond roughly 45 degrees and can automatically obscure password entry.
Said by Samsung to be a world first, the display reduces the viewing angle by using a combination of wide and narrow pixels, which are separated by "partition walls". Activating the privacy display turns the wide pixels off, making the display only visible from a more acute angle than usual. You can also narrow this angle even further by turning on maximum privacy protection mode.
It works incredibly well, with only a slight reduction in colour saturation when viewing the screen head on, but making the screen appear to be off from anything more than a 45 degree angle.
The S26 range is available for pre-order now and comes in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, white and black, with Silver Shadow and Pink Gold options available exclusively from Samsung's website. The S26 starts at $1799 and is available with 256GB and 512GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, while the S26+ starts at $2199 with teh same storage and RAM options.
The S26 Ultra starts at $2549 and is available with 256GB or 512GB with 12GB of RAM, or 1TB with 16GB or RAM in the top model that costs $3149 on pre-order.
