Samsung is days away from officially unveiling the Galaxy S26 Ultra at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on February 25, 2026 — and ahead of the announcement, a combination of leaks, early benchmarks, and Samsung’s own teasers have painted a detailed picture of the device’s two standout features: a hardware-level Privacy Display and the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor.
A Built-In Privacy Screen, No Protector Required
The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display is designed to mask on-screen content from side viewing angles, preventing others from seeing what’s on the screen in public settings. Android Police Unlike aftermarket privacy screen protectors, the effect is digitally toggled rather than permanently baked in, and early hands-on footage shows the feature working largely as described in pre-launch leaks — when viewed from off-angles, on-screen content becomes nearly impossible to see, while head-on clarity and brightness are maintained. Android Police
Samsung is reportedly using its Flex Magic Pixel panel technology to enable the feature, combining it with software and artificial intelligence. Samsung Samsung has promoted Privacy Display as an Ultra-exclusive feature, and the company shared a teaser on its official US social account demonstrating a scenario where a user activates the mode on a crowded train to block a nearby person from viewing her screen. Samsung
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Across All Markets
Unlike the standard Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus — which will use Qualcomm’s chip in the US and China but Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2600 elsewhere — the Galaxy S26 Ultra is confirmed to ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 globally, meaning all buyers worldwide receive the same performance baseline. JV UPSELL REVIEW
The chip is a tuned variant built specifically for Samsung’s flagships. Leaked promotional materials indicate it delivers a 39 percent improvement in neural processing, a 24 percent gain in GPU performance, and a 19 percent faster CPU compared to the previous Snapdragon 8 Elite. Samsung Pre-release benchmark results show the Galaxy S26 Ultra scoring roughly 7 percent higher in multi-core tests than competing Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 devices tested so far. Notebookcheck
What Else to Expect
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has recorded an AnTuTu score of approximately 3.72 million, alongside strong single- and multi-core Geekbench results. Samsung Other confirmed specs include a 6.9-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display with 120Hz adaptive refresh, a titanium frame, a 200-megapixel main camera, a 5,000mAh battery, and storage options up to 1TB. JV UPSELL REVIEW
Camera hardware is not expected to see major upgrades over last year’s S25 Ultra Notebookcheck, making the Privacy Display and chipset the primary differentiators for the new model. Samsung will formally reveal pricing and full specifications when Unpacked begins on February 25.