Hardly anybody bought Samsung's last smartphones for AI. It hopes this year's models change that

hands on Just 20 percent of punters who bought Samsung's 2025 flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, cited AI as the main reason for their purchase. With this year's S26 models, the Korean giant hopes to improve that number.

The company also told The Register that customers' main "pain point" isn't AI performance – it's battery life. Yet only the base model Galaxy S26 gets a bigger battery than last year's model, up 300 mAh to 4,300 mAh. The other two models, the S26 Ultra and S26+, must make do with faster charging.

The Register last week handled all three models and can report they follow the familiar template for premium smartphones by incorporating gorgeously bright screens into small packages that are a little thinner and lighter than last year's efforts.

The S26 Ultra gets the most interesting addition, a "privacy display" that renders ...