Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on Wednesday saw the Korean tech giant unveil its new Galaxy S26 smartphone series and a pair of new headphones, while there was a lot of talk about AI assistants and agents.
Here’s a quick recap of everything that was announced at the event.
Galaxy S26 smartphone
The South Korean tech giant has lined up three new smartphones for the year: Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26 Plus and Galaxy S26, all of which feature repeated updates compared to their predecessors.
As a flagship, the S26 Ultra features Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, a 6.9-inch QHD+ display and a 5,000mAh battery. Samsung says the phone can charge from 0% to 75% in 30 minutes with a 60W charger and supports the S-Pen stylus.
Samsung said that while the S26 Ultra’s wide (200 megapixel) and telephoto (50 megapixel) lenses retain the same pixel count as its predecessor, the new wide camera has a larger f/1.4 aperture, as does the telephoto lens, with an f/2.9 aperture.
The other two phones have the same processor as the S26 Ultra, but Samsung uses its own Exynos 2600 processor for these devices in certain geographies. The smaller Galaxy S26 packs a heftier battery than last year’s phone, and the S26 Plus can charge wirelessly at 20W.
The Galaxy S26 starts at $899 ($100 more than last year’s model), the Galaxy S26 Plus starts at $1,099 (also $100 more than last year), and the Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,200.
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Privacy View is the feature for Ultra
In addition to the hardware upgrades, Samsung has made a clear update to the S26 Ultra’s display that prevents those around you from reading what’s on the phone’s screen.
Users can choose to hide certain parts of the screen, such as the notification area or the password field on login forms, or all of it. The privacy screen can be configured for each app.
Samsung said there’s also a “maximum privacy protection” mode, which reduces bright areas and lifts dark areas of the screen.
The Gemini Agency and the new “Circle to Search”
Google also made two major announcements at Samsung’s event. First, the search giant previewed a new agent version of Gemini that can perform tasks for you, like hailing a taxi from Uber.
Sameer Samat, head of Google’s Android ecosystem, showed a demo where Gemini looks at a group chat and calculates the meal order to place on Grubhub.
The company also introduced a new version of “Circle to Search” that uses multi-object recognition to search for anything you point to on your phone’s screen.
AI features
Earlier this week, Samsung said it was in collaboration with Perplexity to preload the company’s AI app on its smartphones and use its APIs to do things like set alarms or take notes, as well as enable its browser’s search capabilities.
Samsung smartphones now come with three AI assistants: Bixby, Google Gemini and Perplexity. The company also uses Galaxy AI to screen calls and give you a summary of what the caller is saying.
Samsung Galaxy Buds4
Samsung also launched two new earbuds: the Galaxy Buds4 and the Galaxy Buds4 Pro. These headphones have a flatter body design than their predecessors and are IP54 and IP57 rated, meaning they are somewhat protected from dust and water.
Samsung says the Buds4 Pro has a new 11mm woofer, which expands the speaker range by 20%. The Pro models also have slightly longer battery life without the case compared to the regular version.
The Buds4 costs $179 while the Buds4 Pro costs $250.
