As we prepare to leave the winter months, Samsung announced another family of Galaxy S flagships for those looking to upgrade. As usual, the company put its best components and features into the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it also added more to the base S26 and S26+. The company has hit its groove with its smaller (and cheaper) flagships, delivering solid devices with increasingly better cameras, occasionally even offering feature parity with its most expensive smartphone.
In 2026, thats what were getting, with the 6.3-inch S26 ($899) and 6.7-inch S26+ ($1,099). Both phones are more expensive than last year, and its often a game of spot-the-difference when it comes to showing whats new.
Fortunately, the best parts have been retained, too. Samsung has unified the design style across the entire S26 series, with the same corner ratios, curved edges and other design touches. While I tested both phones, Ill focus on the S26. Barring screen differences and battery size, theyre identically specced.
This years S26 color selection has a premium Samsung mood to it that I cant quite explain. Does purple mean Samsung to my brain? Maybe. Cobalt Violet is the particular shade Im talking about, but there are also blue, black and white colors. Additional silver and pink-gold options will be available as online exclusives. Theres not much else to say about the design: its another Galaxy S flagship, and if it aint broke
Mat Smith for Engadget
Samsung has increased the battery capacity to 4,300 mAh on the S26, while somehow maintaining the same thickness as last years S25. However, the S26+ has the same 4,900mAH battery as its predecessor. All S26 devices will launch with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM, with bigger storage options available. With the S26, Samsung has slightly increased the screen size to 6.3 inches, up from last year's 6.2-inch S25.
The S26 comes with a familiar camera trio: a 50-megapixel main sensor, 12MP ultrawide, and 10MP telephoto with up to 3x optical zoom. On paper, thats identical to last years base S25. However, Samsung has improved performance with its ProScaler technology for upscaling images and an MDNIe chip, which the company says provides four times the color precision compared to previous devices.
There are software improvements too, with video features being the most tangible upgrade, among more AI-assisted photo editing tools. Super Steady video has been upgraded to a 360-degree horizontal lock. This camera mode uses the S26s gyroscopes to maintain a consistent horizon even as you rush to chase a pet or family member while recording, or to capture snowboarding buddies. (Theres always a snowboarding example when a company mentions horizontal lock.) Its nice to see a feature were used to finding on gimbals and action cams built into an unashamedly mainstream phone like the S26.
Auto Framing is another new feature coming to both 4K and 8K video capture. It uses AI to lock onto subjects and automatically tighten framing to what you want to capture. Even during brief testing, I was intrigued and liked the dramatic punch-in effect as I recorded nearby people. It creates a faux-panning effect as it tracks moving subjects, something you might have experienced with Center Stage on Apple devices.
Samsung has also upgraded image processing on its front-facing cameras with a new Object Aware Engine for improved portrait mode shots, hair textures and more accurate skin tones. Based on my early testing, images seemed sharper than on my older Samsung devices, even though this is (again) largely the same 12MP camera as last year.
With processors, it's getting a little more complicated. In the US, Samsung's entire S26 series will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, but in Europe, both the S26 and S26+ will be powered by the companys own Exynos 2600, apparently the worlds first 2nm chipset. Comparing it to Snapdragons top mobile processor, however, will have to wait until review time.
With more power for AI functions, Samsung has continued to evolve and expand its AI software, although it seems less of a priority this year. Only one AI feature stood out during my briefing: Audio Eraser. While this launched on the S25, it only worked on audio and video you captured yourself. Now, Samsung expanded it to most major video platforms, including Netflix, Instagram and YouTube, adding the ability to strip out noise and distractions and amplify the volume of voices. It was especially effective with a rowdy replay of an Arsenal football soccer match, and sounded like I was listening to a dedicated commentary channel. Interestingly, unlike many sound editing apps and features, it will work on downloaded videos on those platforms without an internet connection.
Elsewhere, Now Nudge will attempt to suggest actions based on whats happening onscreen, such as sharing contact numbers with someone or suggesting calendar times while dealing with work emails. Samsungs Now Brief can pull information and notifications from a wider array of apps and sources to deliver in its daily briefings. However, again, thats hard to assess at this early stage.
There are several more qualityof-life software updates, too, like the ability to sift through all those screenshots after theyve been automatically categorized into sections like barcodes, events and more. If you cant get enough AI image generation, you can now use Photo Assist to edit your photos using descriptive prompts. Elsewhere, Circle-to-Search now supports multiple, well, circles, if youre looking to tag and search for multiple objects at once.
Mat Smith for Engadget
Its not the most exciting year for Samsungs smaller flagship phones. While the S26 Ultra can boast a new Privacy Display thats the first of its kind, the rest of the S26 family have a little too much in common with their predecessors. The new video features seem useful and intuitive, so theres more to explore there. Well have more to say in our full reviews soon.
Both the Galaxy S26 and S26+ launch on March 11th and are available to preorder now.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s26-hands-on-launch-date-price-180005654.html?src=rss
Samsung has announced the latest version of its flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and just like last year, the high-end phone is where the company is making some of its biggest changes. The S26 Ultra includes a new processor, a new privacy-focused display technology, an improved camera system and like Samsung's other phones, a crop of new AI-powered software features.On first blush, the Galaxy S26 Ultra isn't all that different from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung is still using a 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED screen, with an 120Hz refresh rate and support for an S Pen stylus. The S26 Ultra also features the same flat sides, utter lack of Qi2-compatible magnets and pronounced camera bump. Despite those similarities, the new flagship does have some differences: for one, it's ever so slightly thinner at 0.31-inches than the S25 Ultra was at 0.32-inches. It also comes with an aluminum frame rather than the titanium frame of the previous generation. For stylus fans, the new S Pen has a curved top that lets it better match the curves of the S26 Ultra. Biggest of all, Samsung's new phone includes "Privacy Display," a new technology that lets the phone limit how much of its screen is visible when you're not looking directly at it.Sam Rutherford for EngadgetInside, the Galaxy S26 Ultra uses Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip, a modified version of the flagship mobile chip it debuted last year, and either 12 or 16GB of RAM. In terms of storage, the Galaxy S26 Ultra can come with either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of memory. Regardless of which version you pick, you'll get a 5,000mAh battery with support for Samsung's wired and wireless fast charging, and Wireless PowerShare for topping up accessories like wireless earbuds.The Galaxy S26 Ultra, just like the S25 Ultra before it, includes an array of four cameras on the back and one selfie camera on the front. The phone features a 200MP f/1.4 wide, 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide, 10MP f/2.4 3x telephoto, 50MP f/2.9 periscope telephoto and 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera. If you were to just look at just the megapixel counts of the phone, they're identical to last year's model. Samsung's major tweaks are to the aperture of both the wide and periscope cameras, which should let them capture more light.Sam Rutherford for EngadgetOf course, plenty of the flashiest parts of Samsung's new smartphone are software features. The improved photo and video performances of the Galaxy S26 Ultra's cameras is partially driven by software tweaks. Samsung is also adopting Perplexity as a second, system-level AI assistant. The AI can be called with a button press or "Hey Plex," powers improvements to Bixby and can act inside Samsung apps. That doesn't mean Gemini isn't still available, though. Google's AI will gain the ability to handle things like booking a rideshare or filling an online grocery cart in the background on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,300 and is available to pre-order today in a purple-ish "Cobalt Violet," light blue "Sky Blue," black, white and exclusively through Samsung's online store, "Silver Shadow" and "Pink Gold." The phone will become generally available on March 11.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-galaxy-s26-ultra-offers-a-subtle-set-of-hardware-improvements-180000725.html?src=rss
Samsung isnt waiting a full year to reveal its latest Galaxy Buds. The company debuted the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro at its Galaxy S26 Unpacked event where the hot topic was three new phones. When it comes to Samsungs earbuds, the company has overhauled the shape and design while improving sound quality, active noise cancellation (ANC) and adding new features. As always, the best of what the Galaxy Buds 4 lineup has to offer will be reserved for people with a recent Samsung phone.
While the company is keeping its AirPods-esque blade design, it retooled that element to ditch the angular shape and the gimmicky lights. Its now a flat, metal panel and the area that allows for pinch controls has been engraved so that your fingers find it easily. In terms of shape, Samsung says it analyzed data from hundreds of millions of ear data points and ran over 10,000 simulations to improve overall fit with smaller earbuds. The Galaxy Buds 4 remain an open-fit design while the Pro version has a tip that seals off your ears. Like before, the company kept the transparent lids for the charging cases, although this time the earbuds lay flat in those rather than standing up.
Inside of the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, Samsung is using a wider woofer as part of its two-way driver setup for cleaner bass. That configurations dedicated tweeter should also deliver natural, rich treble, according to the company. Both Galaxy Buds 4 models support high quality audio up to 24bit/96kHz (from a recent Samsung device) and direct multi-channel 360 audio is available as well.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Although the Galaxy Buds Pro 4 got the bulk of the ANC upgrades, Samsung says it improved noise-canceling performance for both models. The company promises effective noise blocking for transit sounds engine noise from buses, trains or planes in addition to everyday background noise. Whats more, both of the Galaxy Buds 4 devices feature ambient sound mode, adaptive EQ and adaptive ANC, with the latter two applying adjustments automatically as needed.
The Pro model can also detect the users voice and increase ambient sound for conversations a feature thats held over from the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. When you stop talking, the earbuds will automatically resume ANC. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro also has a Siren Detect feature that activates ambient sound so that you can hear safety alerts like alarms or emergency vehicles.
The new item that pushes the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro closer to the AirPods Pro 3 is head gestures. Samsung will now let users manage calls and interact with Bixby by nodding or shaking their head side to side. As before, the Galaxy Buds remain a conduit to Bixby, but theyre also a gateway to Gemini and Perplexity all of which can be accessed hands-free via voice controls.
The Galaxy Buds 4 ($180) and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro ($250) are available for pre-order today before hitting shelves on March 11. Both models will be available in black and white, and theres a pink gold option on the Pro, although that third color is a Samsung online exclusive.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/samsungs-redesigned-galaxy-buds-4-lineup-has-retooled-sound-improved-anc-and-new-features-180000718.html?src=rss
The wait is over. At its Unpacked event today, Samsung took the wraps off its new S26 family of phones. Unlike the S26 Ultra, the S26 and S26+ represent mostly iterative updates. Samsung has tweaked the design of the two devices, making it so they share the same rounded corners of their more expensive sibling. Additionally, the S26 has a slightly larger 6.3-inch AMOLED display and a higher capacity 4,300mAh battery inside. As for the S26+, it still has a 6.7-inch screen and 4,900mAh battery. Like in years past, Samsung is depending on new and expanded software capabilities rather than updated hardware to give the S26 and S26+'s cameras an edge over the competition. As before, both phones feature a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. For selfies, theyre equipped a 12MP front-facing camera. The company says its new Object Aware Engine will allow the front-facing cameras to deliver more pleasing portrait mode shots, with better rendering of skin tones and hair textures. For videos, Samsung has updated its Super Steady tech, making it capable of maintaining a 360-degree horizontal lock. The upgraded feature should make it easier to maintain a consistent level horizon while trying to record a video of a moving child or pet. A new feature named Auto Framing uses a machine learning algorithm to automatically tighten the frame while filming 4K and 8K clips. The S26 will be available in six different colorways, with the four pictured here available in store. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetAnd if you're a Snapdragon fan, you can rest easy. While some pre-release reports suggested Samsung was planning to use its new flagship Exynos chipset across the entire S26 line, North American and Japanese variants of the S26 and S26+ will once again ship with Qualcomm silicon instead. Specifically, the two phones come specced with the speedy Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which debuted alongside the OnePlus 15 in November 2025. It will be interesting to see how the new Exynos 2600 compares with its Snapdragon counterpart; the former is the world's first 2nm chipset. Over on the software front, Samsung has upgraded its suite of AI features. For instance, the company has made Now Brief capable of pulling from a wider variety of apps to generate more comprehensive daily summaries. Similarly, the company's handy Auto Eraser feature now works across streaming services like Netflix, allowing you to make it easier to hear dialogue in a greater variety of videos. The two phones will retail for $899 and $1,099, making them both $100 more expensive than their predecessors. They come standard with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Samsung will also offer 512GB variants, alongside six different colorways of each phone. In-store, you'll find the S26 and S26+ in purple, blue, black and white, with silver and rose gold being online exclusives. Pre-orders open today, with general availability to follow on March 11. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-s26-and-s26-offer-familiar-designs-snapdragon-8-gen-5-chips-and-new-software-features-180000224.html?src=rss
Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, but Samsung got out ahead of many rivals that will be showing off new handsets at that event by running the latest edition of Unpacked on Wednesday. The company took the opportunity to reveal the Galaxy S26 lineup, which includes the base S26, the S26+ and the S26 Ultra. We've got some hands-on impressions of all three handsets as well.In addition to those, Samsung announced the Galaxy Buds 4 along with (you guessed it) some AI updates. Here's a look at everything Samsung announced at the latest Unpacked:Galaxy S26 and S26+ Sam Rutherford for EngadgetNew-ish year, new Samsung phones. Let's deal with the out-and-out bad news first. The S26 and S26+ are each $100 more expensive than their predecessors (the RAM shortage isn't exactly helping to keep prices down). They start at $900 and $1,100, respectively, for variants with 256GB of storage. Samsung has tweaked the design a bit this time by rounding the corners to align them more with the S26 Ultra's look. The base model has a slightly larger display than the S25 at 6.3 inches, though the S26+ still has a 6.7-inch screen (albeit with a higher resolution than the S26 can handle). The S26 has a larger battery capacity than the S25 too at 4,300mAh. In North America, China and Japan, Samsung is sticking with Qualcomm chips rather than using its own Exynos 2600. If you pick up an S26 or S26+ in those markets, it will run on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.The camera modules are the same as last year, but Samsung is aiming to supercharge them with upgrades elsewhere, such as ProScaler image upscaling and an MDNIe chip that's said to greatly improve color precision. There's also a video stabilization feature that tries to keep the horizon level while you're following a moving person or pet, which sounds useful for action shots. The new Object Aware Engine is said to better render skin tones and hair textures to make your selfies look better. Samsung has reworked some AI features too, such as making Now Brief and Auto Eraser compatible with more apps.Pre-orders for the S26 and S26+ are open today, and they'll be available on March 11. The phones will be available in purple, blue, black, white, silver and rose gold, though the latter two are online exclusives. We've already had a chance to try the Galaxy S26 and S26+, so be sure to check out our hands-on story for our first impressions.Galaxy S26 UltraThe Galaxy S26 Ultra will be available in the same colorways and on the same date as its smaller siblings. It starts at $1,300, so theres no price increase from the S25 Ultra. Preorders open today.The S26 Ultra has a 6.9-inch AMOLED display with a QHD+ resolution of 3120 x 1440 and a 120Hz refresh rate. That's all well and good, but the display is hiding (that being the key word) what's perhaps the Galaxy S26 Ultra's most interesting feature.The device has a Privacy Display thats said to be the first of its kind on a smartphone. The idea here is to prevent people around from seeing whats on the screen from acute angles. There's a small decrease in brightness when Privacy Display is active, and there are lots of customization options. You can set up Privacy Display to activate when you're asked for a password or PIN, or when you get a notification or open certain apps. So if (for instance) you tend to look at your banking apps when youre on public transit and dont want other passengers to see how much moolah you have, Privacy Display seems like a very handy feature.Elsewhere, the S26 Ultra runs on the same chipset as its smaller siblings. It comes with 12 or 16GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. The battery is larger than the ones in the other S26 models, as the Ultra has a 5,000 mAh capacity. There's support for Super Fast Charging 3.0 as well. Alas, Samsung still hasn't seen fit to offer built-in Qi2 charging magnets in the S26 lineup, which seems like a wild oversight in the year 2026.The selfie camera is the same as on the S26 and S26+. The S26 Ultra has 50MP ultrawide and 200MP wide lenses, along with dual 10MP 3x and 50MP 5x telephoto sensors. The resolutions of those cameras are the same as on the S25 Ultra, but the main 200M and 5x telephoto sensors now have wider apertures to let in more light. The S26 Ultra of course has the camera software features (and other AI features) found in the S26 and S26+.We'll have a review of the Galaxy S26 Ultra soon. In the meantime, head on through to our hands-on story for our initial impressions.Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 ProSam Rutherford for EngadgetWhile the S26 phones are more iterative updates this year, Samsung has given its Galaxy Buds a proper refresh. It revamped the design and shape of the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro to do away with the angular look of the stems and remove the lights from them. The earbuds have a "more refined, computationally designed fit" too, according to Samsung. The company claims the latest earbuds have smaller earbud heads that allow for a better, more secure fit and a more "comfortable experience during all-day wear." The Galaxy Buds 4 remain in an open-fit format while the Buds Pro 4 have a canal-fit design.The latest earbuds are said to offer improved audio quality and active noise cancellation (ANC), with an ambient sound mode, adaptive EQ and adaptive ANC. On Buds 4 Pro, there's a siren detection feature that enables ambient sound to let you hear things like alarms or emergency vehicle warnings.The Buds 4 Pro have a wide woofer that increases the effective speaker area by nearly 20 percent compared with the previous gen earbuds, Samsung said. They support 24-bit/96kHz audio.If you're using Galaxy Buds 4 or Buds 4 Pro with a Galaxy device, you'll be able to use Bixby, Google Gemini and Perplexity with hands-free voice controls (though the "hey, Plex" command for the latter might be a tad confusing for folks who use a certain media server app). The Buds 4 Pro support head gesture controls for managing calls and Bixby interactions as well.As with the S26 phones, pre-orders for the earbuds open today and they'll hit shelves on March 11. The Galaxy Buds 4 cost $180 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro will run you $250. Both models are available in white and black with a matte finish. There's an online-exclusive pink option for Buds 4 Pro as well.Android AI featuresAhead of Unpacked, Samsung confirmed that it would offer Perplexity as an AI agent option in Galaxy AI on the S26 lineup. It also recently updated Bixby to make its own virtual assistant more conversational.On top of that news, Google had announcements of its own to make at Unpacked regarding new Android AI features, which will of course be available on S26 devices. On those handsets and the Pixel 10 lineup, the Gemini app will soon have a feature (in beta) that enables you to offload multi-step tasks, such as booking a ride or putting a grocery order together, to AI. It sure sounds like an attempt to build out agentic AI features on mobile devices.Launching soon as a beta feature in the Gemini app for #Pixel10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S26 series, you can offload multi-step tasks directly to Gemini.Simply long-press the power button and ask Gemini to help book you a ride home or reorder your last meal. Gemini https://t.co/GjfXTnGg0k pic.twitter.com/YGIvqBkbu3 Google Gemini (@GeminiApp) February 25, 2026
Starting this week on Pixel 10 devices (and soon on S26 phones), Circle to Search will offer the ability to find details about multiple objects at once, such as entire outfits instead of single pieces. Moreover, Gemini-powered, on-device Scam Detection for phone calls will be available for S26 devices in English in the US.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/everything-announced-at-samsung-unpacked-galaxy-s26-lineup-and-more-180000129.html?src=rss
To coincide with the release of Samsung's new Galaxy S26 family of phones, Google is pushing out a small but meaningful update to Circle to Search. As a reminder, Circle to Search allows you to carry out a Google Search from almost anywhere on your phone. Just tap and hold your device's home button, and then circle the passage or image you want to know more about. With previous iterations of Circle to Search, the tool's underlying AI system was limited to searching against a single object in an image. Now, thanks to Gemini 3, it can scan and identify multiple objects at the same time. Naturally, Google is quick to point out the boon this represents for shopaholics. If you see a fit you like on Instagram, you can circle an entire person and the tool will attempt to find a match for each item they're wearing, including any shoes and accessories. At the same time, Google has made it easier to see how those clothes might look on you by bringing its virtual try on feature directly inside of Circle to Search. The benefits of the new model aren't only limited to shopping queries. Building on a search technique Google debuted with AI Mode, Circle to Search can now also reason through the relationship between different objects in an image. So say you see a photo of a coral reef and want to know how all the different pictured fish live together, Circle to Search will not only be able to identify the different species shown but also explain how they coexist with one another. Google is bringing the new and improved Circle to Search to Galaxy S26 and Pixel 10 phones first before rolling it out to more Android devices soon. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/googles-circle-to-search-can-now-identify-multiple-objects-in-an-image-180000385.html?src=rss
Last year, it felt like Samsung relied a bit too much on AI when trying to convince people to upgrade to its flagship phone. And while theres no shortage of features that utilize machine learning on the new Galaxy S26 Ultra, it feels like Samsung has done a much better job of filling out the rest of the phones kit with fresh hardware, faster charging and a more cohesive design. Its still rather expensive, but its price has stayed flat year-over-year at $1,300, which when combined with everything else makes it a much more attractive package than its predecessor. Design and displaySamsungs Ultra phones are always going to be somewhat boxy and thats OK. However, for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the companys top-of-the-line handset is getting a slightly curvier appearance thanks to rounder corners. Theres also a very (and I do mean very) small reduction in size that technically makes this version the thinnest and lightest Ultra to date (214 grams and 7.9mm thick). That said, considering the previous model weighed 218 grams and measured 8.2mm, its incredibly hard to feel a difference even when you know what youre looking for. The two biggest changes to the S26 Ultra's exterior design are more rounded corners and an aluminum chassis instead of titanium like we got on the S25U. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetIn reality, the biggest exterior change is that Samsung has ditched the titanium frame from last years phone in favor of an Armor Aluminum chassis with Corning Gorilla Armor 2 panels in front and back. Samsung says this new design is meant to make the Ultra fit in better with its less expensive siblings while also making it easier to do things like color match the phones body to the rest of the device. Also, for anyone who keeps track of Samsungs palette, the hero color for the S26 Ultra is a rather fetching shade of purple called cobalt violet, with sky blue, white and black available as well (plus silver shadow and pink gold being Samsungs online exclusive hues).If you look closely at the top of the phone, you can see where a notification has been blacked out by the S26 Ultra's Privacy Display. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetHowever, my favorite new thing on the S26 Ultra is its Privacy Display. When activated, it functions a lot like HPs Sure View tech, which prevents people from peeking at your screen from acute angles. It works both when viewed from the side or up and down and has a surprising amount of customization. Not only can you set it to turn on automatically when the phone asks you for a password or PIN, it can also be triggered by specific apps or whenever you receive a notification. But perhaps the most impressive thing is that theres almost no impact on image quality. When Privacy Display is active, there is a minor reduction in overall brightness, but aside from that, its really hard to tell when its on (at least from the front). Furthermore, the S26 Ultras 6.9-inch AMOLED screen has the same underlying specs as last year, including its 120Hz variable refresh rate and 2,600 nit peak brightness, so there are pretty much no trade-offs for the added functionality. Performance and chargingThe S26 Ultra still comes with an included S-Pen and a built-in storage slot, but it still doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity like on some of Samsung's older models. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetInside, the S26 Ultra features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip along with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Compared to its predecessor, Samsung claims the NPUs performance has made the biggest leap with it being 39 percent more powerful year-over-year with respectable increases for its CPU (19 percent faster) and GPU (24 percent faster) as well.As for charging, both wired and wireless speeds have gotten a big boost with the former now rated at up to 60 watts (up from 45 watts) or 25 watts (up from 15) for the latter when using compatible Qi2 pads. Samsung says buyers will even get a three amp cable in the box, so all you need to do to get those peak wired speeds is to hook it up to the right adapter.A small quirk with the S26 Ultra's S-Pen is that because the end of the stylus is curved to match the corner of the phone, if you put it in "wrong," it'll stick out a bit. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetUnfortunately, were still not getting a magnetic ring inside the phone, which means if you want to use the S26 Ultra with magnetic accessories, youll need to pair the phone with a case that supports that functionality. This is super frustrating because Samsung says this decision was made in part to keep the handset as thin as possible, but when you consider the difference between the S26 Ultra and the S25 Ultra is 0.3mm, that choice feels rather misguided. CamerasOne of my biggest complaints about last years S25 Ultra is that the only new hardware was an updated 50MP sensor for its ultra-wide lens, which is the camera I (and probably most people) use the least. Thankfully, it seems Samsung took note of that because while the resolution of its 200MP main cam, 10MP 3x telephoto and 50MP 5X telephoto are the same as before, the S26 Ultras main and 5x zoom lenses now have significantly wider apertures (from f/1.7 to f/1.4 and f/3.4 to f/2.9, respectively). This results in as much as 47 percent more light reaching the phones primary sensor (or 37 percent for the 5x telephoto), which should result in some mjor gains in photo quality and low light sensitivity. That said, I wasnt able to properly test this during my hands-on session, so Im going to reserve final judgement for a proper review. The S26 Ultra's 200MP main and 50MP 5x zoon lenses feature significantly larger apertures, which should deliver much improved image quality in low light conditions. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetMeanwhile, for video capture, Samsung is adding support for the APV codec at up to 8K/30 fps to the S26 Ultra along with a new horizon lock feature that will keep your footage level no matter how much you rotate the phone. Now I will admit that the latter didnt impress me much when I first heard about it, but after testing it out and spinning the phone a full 360-degrees while recording a clip, I was shocked when the resulting video showed no hint of being whirled around. Samsung also says the handsets improved Nightography processing uses AI to recognize noise patterns in low light to improve image quality. But similar to the wider apertures bringing in more light, Ill believe it when I see it. Finally, theres a new AI-powered Photo Assist tool that lets you edit or adjust images using natural language prompts. From what I experienced, its effective and works as youd expect. However, with the proliferation of services and devices offering similar functionality over the past year, this feature feels more like Samsungs attempt to keep up with the Joneses. AI featuresWhen it comes to AI, the S26 Ultra is getting the same batch of new and improved features as the rest of the S26 family. So if youre big into machine learning, theres no need to pay extra for this model. Furthermore, many of the updates for 2026 are tweaks or refinements of existing things like the Gallery app, which now uses AI to automatically sort screenshots into eight different categories so theyre easier to find later. Theres also what Samsung is calling Now Nudge, which functions a lot like Googles Magic Cue. Its built into the Samsung keyboard and it can do things like suggest relevant photos based on your conversations. One of the S26's most powerful new AI features is Automated App Actions, which allows the phone to do things like book a car ride via Uber while you continue to use other apps in the foreground. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetTo me, the most impressive of the bunch is the S26s Automated App Actions, which allow you to ask the phone to do slightly more complicated tasks like ordering an Uber to a specific location. After your initial prompt, Gemini can even complete the task in the background while you go back to doomscrolling or watching videos. When its done, youll get a notification so you can manually review and confirm the command. Unfortunately, Uber will be the only supported app at launch, though Samsung says its working on expanding the feature to others like Instacart. Early thoughtsThe Galaxy S26 Ultra will be available in four main colors: sky blue, black, cobalt violet and white, along with two more online exclusive hues in silver shadow and pink gold. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetLook, theres no getting around it: $1,300 is a lot to spend on a phone. That said, considering the RAM shortage thats going on right now, keeping the S26 Ultras price the same as last years phone feels like a small blessing. And when you get that on a handset with a more refined design, a beefier chip, a fancy Privacy Display, faster charging and an updated generation of AI-powered tools, Samsungs latest flagship feels like a much better deal than its predecessor. Really, the only thing that hasnt been improved is the Ultras S-Pen, which as time goes on, is starting to feel more and more like a consolation prize for people who are still nostalgic about the Note line than a true tentpole feature. Now this doesnt mean that people with an S25 Ultra or even an S24 Ultra should run out and upgrade. But for anyone with something older than that whos in the market for a true do-everything phone, the S26 Ultra has quite a bit to offer. Pre-orders for the Galaxy S26 Ultra are live now, with official sales slated for March 11. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s26-ultra-hands-on-meaningful-tweaks-plus-a-slick-new-privacy-display-180000057.html?src=rss
Here's yet another troubling story about this "golden" era of AI. A hacker has exploited Anthropic's Claude chatbot to carry out attacks against Mexican government agencies, according to a report by Bloomberg. This resulted in the theft of 150GB of official government data, including taxpayer records, employee credentials and more.
The hacker used Claude to find vulnerabilities in government networks and to write scripts to exploit them. It also tasked the chatbot with finding ways to automate data theft, as indicated by cybersecurity company Gambit Security. This started in December and continued for around a month.
It looks like the hacker was able to essentially jailbreak Claude with prompts, finally bypassing the chatbot's guardrails. Claude originally refused the nefarious demands until eventually relenting.
Hackers Used Anthropics Claude to Steal 150 GB of Mexican Government Data> Tell Claude youre doing a bug bounty > Claude initially refused: > That violates AI safety guidelines > Hacker just kept asking > Claude: OK, Ill help > Hacked the entire Mexican pic.twitter.com/Qaux239K8t Nawaz Haider (@nawaz0x1) February 25, 2026
"In total, it produced thousands of detailed reports that included ready-to-execute plans, telling the human operator exactly which internal targets to attack next and what credentials to use," said Curtis Simpson, Gambit Securitys chief strategy officer.
Anthropic has investigated the claims, disrupted the activity and banned all of the accounts involved, according to a company representative. The spokesperson also said that its latest model, Claude Opus 4.6, includes tools to disrupt this kind of misuse.
It's also been reported that this hacker used ChatGPT to supplement the attacks, using OpenAI's chatbot to gather information on how to move through computer networks, determine which credentials were needed to access systems and how to avoid detection. OpenAI says it has identified attempts by the hacker to violate its usage policies and that the tools refused to comply.
The hacker remains unidentified. The attacks haven't been attributed to a specific group, but Gambit Security did suggest they could be tied to a foreign government. It's also unclear what the hacker wants to do with all of that data.
Mexico's national digital agency hasn't commented on the breach, but did note that cybersecurity is a priority. The state government of Jalisco denies that it was breached, saying only federal networks were impacted. However, Mexico's national electoral institute also denied any breaches or unauthorized access in recent months. It's worth noting that Gambit found at least 20 security vulnerabilities during its research that the country is likely not keen on highlighting.
Anthropic just dropped the core commitment of its safety policy: the promise to not train models it couldn't prove were safe first.The new version commits to matching competitors on safety and publishing more transparency reports. But the actual constraint, "we stop if we can't pic.twitter.com/k5Zi6dHUMN Raphael Pfeiffer (@raphpfei) February 25, 2026
This isn't the first time Claude has been used for a major cyberattack. Last year, hackers in China manipulated the tool into attempting to infiltrate dozens of global targets, several of which were successful. Anthropic just nixed its long-standing safety pledge, which committed to never train an AI system unless it could guarantee in advance that safety measures were adequate. So who knows what fresh hell the future will bring as the company's tools become more advanced.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/hacker-used-anthropics-claude-chatbot-to-attack-multiple-government-agencies-in-mexico-171237255.html?src=rss
An open-world racing game from a studio formed by ex-Forza Horizon developers was due to be published by Amazon, but that is no longer the case. As reported first by The Game Business, UK-based Maverick Games is now in "active dialogue" with prospective new publishing partners for its currently untitled debut game, which remains in development.
Maverick was founded in 2022 by Mike Brown, who served as the Horizon series creative director during his stint at Playground Games, and was able to tempt a number of other ex-Playground veterans to join the new studio. Little was publicly known about the game Amazon picked up, but shortly after Maverick was established Brown told GamesIndustry.Biz that his ambition was to make a game that was AAA, premium and eventually released with the intention of "winning all the awards."
"As part of our strategic evolution to focus on projects that leverage Amazons unique strengths and scale, including the recent re-launch of Luna and our Tomb Raider franchise partnership with Crystal Dynamics, we have decided to release Maverick Games from their publishing agreement with Amazon Game Studios," an Amazon Game Studios representative said in a statement to The Game Business.
"We have tremendous respect for the Maverick Games team and the compelling narrative-led driving experience theyre creating," the companty said. "This decision allows Maverick Games the flexibility to find a publishing partner whose strategic priorities are better aligned with bringing their game to market. Were proud of what we accomplished together during our partnership and wish them every success in the future."
Amazons push into gaming has yielded mixed results. It seemingly remains committed to developing its Luna streaming service, but as a publisher and developer things haven't been smooth. 2020s free-to-play multiplayer shooter Crucible vanished so quickly that most people have probably forgotten that it ever existed. The MMO New World has proved more of a hit, but Amazon is still winding down support for the game next year. The future of the companys Lord of the Rings MMO is unclear, but The Game Business reports that last years cuts to its MMO division also affected the team working on that game.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the Amazon Games-published co-op dungeon crawler King of Meat will shut down on April 9, less than a year after its October 2025 launch. The company does still have a pair of Tomb Raider games on its release slate, one of which is a reimagining of the original series entry from 1996. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/amazon-abandons-open-world-racing-game-by-former-forza-horizon-devs-170234100.html?src=rss
With its ProArt lineup, ASUS has commendably addressed a glaring hole in the PC market by targeting video editors and other creative pros. Its latest model even uses a popular camera marque in its name: the ProArt GoPro Edition PX13. Its a true co-branding exercise, with GoPro-like styling, a dedicated GoPro hotkey, mil-spec durability for extreme outdoor users and 12 months of GoPros Cloud Plus Premium.
It has a lot going for it on the inside, too. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor offers 16 Zen 5 cores with integrated Radeon 8060S Graphics (40 cores) and AMD Ryzen AI with up to 50 NPU TOPS. It packs a relatively small but pixel-dense 13-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED convertible 360 touch display, 1TB of storage and an impressive 128GB of unified memory.
The rub, as you might expect with all that RAM, is the price. The ProArt GoPro Edition PX13 costs $3,000, while a version with the same processor but half the memory is $2,800. Thats high-end MacBook Pro money, and while the ProArt is a good PC creator machine, it falls short of its Apple counterpart in terms of performance and usability.
Design
In place of the ProArt P13s smooth lines, the ProArt GoPro Edition comes with a ribbed metal back thats designed to look like the front of a GoPro Hero 13. It also has GoPro-like ridges on the hinge and plastic above the keyboard, along with GoPro and ProArt branding. The rugged design may appeal to the extreme sports crowd, but Id prefer something a bit sleeker.
The laptop is relatively light at 3.06 pounds, but the dedicated 200W power brick adds an extra pound of weight. Despite the small size, it offers MIL-STD 810H military-grade durability, so it can handle hot and humid conditions while surviving 500Hz vibrations and multiple four-inch drops while running. To help keep the laptop safe outside, ASUS includes a protective padded sleeve with a braided pouch to tuck a selfie stick or another accessory.
Steve Dent for Engadget
The 2,880 x 1,800 OLED touchscreen is nice but not super bright, with up to 400 nits of brightness or 500 nits in HDR mode. Thats the usual tradeoff for OLED compared to super bright MiniLED displays. However, it has deep blacks and very high color accuracy of Delta < 1 with 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage, along with Dolby Vision support, so its great for photo and video work or entertainment.
The ProArt is a 360-degree convertible model and ships with an ASUS Pen and Pen charger. That makes it a good option for graphic artists who want to tent the screen or fold it around to use in tablet mode for sketching or painting. The ASUS Pen works well, and though its not as accurate as Wacom or other dedicated pen devices, it has nice haptic feedback when you perform actions in the app.
The ProArt GoPro Editions keyboard is excellent, with a nice amount of travel for typing or gaming. The touchpad is also one of the better ones Ive used on a PC thanks to the quality tactile feel. The top left of the touchpad contains ASUSs control dial designed for jogging video footage or adjusting colors, but its a bit fussy and gimmicky.
For ports, you get HDMI, 3.5mm audio, USB-A 3.2 and two USB-C 4.0 with power delivery that allow up to 130 watts of charging. The laptop weirdly comes with a microSD slot to load GoPro footage straight from the camera, but it would be better to have a regular SD port and microSD adapter. As for wireless and audio, it offers Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 and Dolby Atmos support.
Performance
Steve Dent for Engadget
Built on TSMCs 4nm line, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is AMDs most powerful APU designed to blend performance and low power consumption. Its married to a Radeon 8060S GPU with 40 compute units (equivalent to an NVIDIA RTX 4060, AMD says) that makes it ideal for creative chores, AI processing and gaming. This unit also comes with 128GB of unified LPDDR5X RAM thats soldered directly to the motherboard, shared between the CPU and GPU. Given todays RAM prices, that amount of memory no doubt contributes to the ProArt GoPro Editions high price.
AMD finally got its act together for video encoding and decoding. The Ryzen AI Max+s GPU supports most 8- and 10-bit MP4 codecs, including H.264, H.265, VP9 and AV1. That means you can play back nearly all MP4 or Quicktime camera video files in real time, including the 8K H.265 files recorded by a GoPro Hero 13. At the same time, the large number of cores and threads (16 and 32) helps the ProArt GoPro Edition render certain VFX and do color adjustments quickly. The 1TB of NVMe SSD storage is limited to PCIe 4.0, but its relatively speedy with 6.55 GB/s read and 5.86 GB/s write speeds easily fast enough for 8K video playback.
All of that made video work a breeze in DaVinci Resolve 20, Adobe Premiere Pro or GoPros Player that can be activated by a special hotkey on the ASUS laptop. Actions like color correction work in real time as well, and 4K H.264 exports can also be performed quickly.
That said, some functions like OpenFX and stabilization would work better with a more powerful discrete GPU. Also, unlike my MacBook Pro, the ProArt GoPro Editions fans need to engage frequently under intense workloads, creating a lot of noise and killing the battery quickly if the unit isnt plugged in.
Steve Dent for Engadget
For other apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightroom Classic, the ASUS ProArt is ideal. Its very responsive and the touch display and pen support fine masking or drawing work, something you cant do on a MacBook Pro.
The ProArt also handles synthetic benchmarks well for a PC with an integrated GPU. The single/multi Geekbench 6 CPU score of 2,219/19,088 shows the benefit of 16 processor cores. The 93,108 Geekbench 6 GPU mark isnt that far behind Acers NVIDIA RTX 5070-equipped Predator Titan 14 AI. Geekbench AI scores were also up there with the best laptops. However, Hadbrake video encoding was slower than several MacBook M4 laptops Ive tested.
For gaming, it had some of the higher laptop scores Ive seen on several 3DMark tests (Wildlife Extreme and Port Royal Ray Tracing). It also did pretty darn well on Cyberpunk 2077, hitting 82 fps at 1080p and 60 fps at 1440p in Ultra mode. Considering the machines small size, those framerates are really good. However, the laptop is held back gaming-wise by the OLED display that tops out at 500 nits and just 60Hz.
A big benefit of the 128GB of fast unified memory is that you can run AI models locally for improved privacy. While the ProArt GoPro Edition normally allocates 64GB of memory to the CPU and splits the rest between the CPU and iGPU, you can dedicate up to 96GB of memory to the GPU for extra large AI applications via the MyASUS app.
Another plus of this APU is the battery life. The ProArt GoPro Edition lasted a solid 11:31 hours on the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery rundown test, besting all rivals with similar performance. That tells me that AMD is narrowing the performance-per-watt gap with Apples silicon to improve gaming and content creation for PCs on battery power alone.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent for Engadget
ASUS is one of the few PC manufacturers trying to compete with Apple in the creator market, and with the ProArt GoPro Edition laptop, it has largely succeeded. This model offers excellent performance and battery life, a huge amount of memory, a very nice OLED HDR display, a nice range of ports and an excellent keyboard and trackpad.
It easily handled my typical video and photo editing chores, even on battery power alone, and the included GoPro features like the Storyblocks cloud storage are a nice option for action cam users. The convertible configuration and touchscreen with pen option are also useful to artists and photo editors.
However, this laptop is not cheap at $3,000, which is the same price as a high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro. The latter offers superior battery life, better overall performance on apps like DaVinci Resolve and a far better macOS user experience than the hot mess that is currently Windows 11. However, if you want a Windows PC with a touchscreen, I think the ASUS ProArt GoPro Edition laptop is the best creator model you can get right now.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-proart-gopro-edition-px13-review-an-incredible-if-pricy-windows-creator-laptop-170016800.html?src=rss
