Samsung just opened pre-orders for its entire Galaxy S26 lineup (the S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra) and if you’ve been on the fence, the launch deals alone might be reason enough to pull the trigger today. The phones ship on March 11 which means pre-ordering now gets you the device the moment it hits shelves without the queue.
See Galaxy S26 Ultra at Samsung.com
The headline offer is hard to ignore: trade in an eligible smartphone and Samsung will give you up to $900 in credit toward the Galaxy S26 Ultra 256GB which is selling for $1,299, and it is almost 70% off the cost of the most powerful phone in the group. Samsung is offering $150 off add-ons without a trade-in, plus up to 10% off Galaxy Watches, Buds, and more. This means you can get a Galaxy Watch Ultra or a pair of Galaxy Buds4 Pro at a big discount at the same time.
Samsung Care+ is also available for the Galaxy S26 Ultra: Plans start at $10 a month and include repairs for cracked screens, 24/7 expert support, and technicians who are certified by Samsung. That peace of mind is worth adding to the total cost of ownership for a flagship phone that costs $1,299 for the 256GB version.
What’s Really New and Why it Matters
The built-in Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the most exciting new feature of this generation and no other flagship has done this before. This isn’t a stick-on privacy filter: it’s pixel-level technology that is built right into the screen. It darkens the edges of your display so that the person next to you on the subway can’t read your messages. It can also hide notifications, passwords, PIN codes, and unlock patterns on its own.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip is only available for Samsung devices and powers all three Galaxy S26 models: this phone has a CPU that is up to 19% faster, a GPU that is up to 24% faster, and a neural processing unit that is up to 39% faster than last year. This is important because this phone has a lot of AI features. A new vapor chamber keeps the temperatures in check, so you can get more performance without having to throttle it.
The S26 Ultra also gets a big camera upgrade where it matters most: in the dark. Because all four lenses now have wider apertures, the main 200-megapixel sensor is 40% brighter and the 50-megapixel telephoto is 37% brighter. The Nightography video mode from Samsung has also been improved, and the Audio Eraser feature, which removes background noise from videos, now works in third-party apps like YouTube and Instagram.
Samsung has fully committed to Galaxy AI on the AI side. “Now Nudge” uses your data to suggest tasks like adding an event to your calendar or sharing photos you talked about in a text. You can also type something like “order me an Uber to the airport,” and the phone will take care of everything, even asking for your payment confirmation. Screenshots are now automatically grouped into categories like boarding passes, coupons, QR codes, and events so you can find them later. Call Screening and Scam Detection give you extra protection against unknown and fake callers. An improved Photo Assist lets you describe changes in simple terms and see them happen.
The phone comes in four standard colors (Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, White, and Black) and two colors that are only available online: Silver Shadow and Pink Gold. The S26 starts at $899 and the S26+ starts at $1,099 and you can now place a pre-order at samsung.com, and it will be delivered on March 11.