Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra: I'd upgrade for this one feature alone

It's crazy to think it'll soon be two years in January 2026 since Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S24 Ultra. For its time, it was arguably one of the top Android smartphones with very little competition. But that will soon change in a few months once Samsung unveils the Galaxy S26 Ultra. If you've not yet upgraded to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, should you finally trade your S24 Ultra in for the S26 Ultra?

Theoretically, the Galaxy S26 Ultra should offer a much more noticeable improvement in design and features compared to the S24 Ultra. While it's all speculative right now, based on rumors and leaks that we have, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is shaping up to be a pretty impressive flagship. Let's break down all the details we know so far about the Galaxy S26 Ultra and see how it's better than the S24 Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra: Design and display

Samsung seems to be preparing for a major design overhaul for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, if the leaked CAD renders of the new series turn out to be true. The Ultra is expected to more closely resemble the standard S26 line with even more prominently rounded corners. This should definitely help better the ergonomics from before. The phone is also expected to be a lot slimmer, dropping down to 7.8mm in thickness.

This will be a huge improvement compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra's 8.6mm thickness. There's no mention of weight, but that should also take a nose-dive to the lower 200-gram territory. Overall, you should expect a drastically improved in-hand feel with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, compared to the S24 Ultra.

The Ultra series has always had one of the best displays in any Android phone, and that's expected to get even better. Rumor has it that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will continue to sport the slightly larger 6.9-inch display of its predecessor, but it will be getting a new Privacy Display feature. Hints of this feature were found in a One UI 8.5 teardown, pointing towards it being exclusive to the S26 Ultra. This also means we'll be getting new display tech in the Ultra, which could be the “Flex Magic Pixel” technology that Samsung's display division has been working on.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will end up being more distinctive compared to the S26 Ultra, thanks to its sharply contoured edges. This boxy look is what helped the Ultra stand out from every other Android flagship all these years. This, of course, comes at the cost of ergonomics. It's not the most comfortable phone to hold to carry around due to its sheer size and weight. Build quality is still top-notch, and it's a phone that should last long after even the software updates stop coming.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra has one of the best displays on a flagship, and this holds true even today. It's not perfect, though, as some units in the initial batches reported a phenomenon called mura, where not all pixels produced the same level of brightness, leading to a grainy look. It does get the anti-glare coating, which makes a massive difference when viewing the display under sunlight or against artificial light sources.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra: Performance and specs

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will most likely use a custom version of Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC. This chip promises a 20% boost in CPU and GPU performance, while using 20% less power. The neural processor is also said to have been improved for handling more on-device AI tasks. Other specs will most likely include 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage, although a 1TB variant and even 16GB RAM should be on offer in select countries, just like the S25 Ultra. We might also see a new hero colorway for the Ultra, inspired by the iPhone 17 Pro.

As for when the Galaxy S26 Ultra will launch? Given how Samsung has announced the new S series at the start of the year in January, we could expect the same for the S26 Ultra as well. The phone should go on sale in the weeks following the announcement. If Samsung sticks to the same pricing, then the S26 Ultra should start at $1,299.99.

Other features that the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to have include the S Pen, an IP68 rating (or maybe IP69), and run One UI 8.5 based on Android 16. Samsung should continue to offer seven years of software and security updates, too. While we would absolutely love a larger battery, I'm not entirely sure if that'll be possible if the Ultra slims down further. I'll be surprised if Samsung manages to squeeze in the same capacity as the S25 Ultra.

Another question that remains is whether the S26 Ultra will get native Qi2 charging or if you'll need a case to enable this. For wired charging, rumors from back in July 2025 suggest that the S26 Ultra could get 60W wired charging, which will be a massive upgrade.

Samsung only sells refurbished models of the S24 Ultra on its U.S. site, and while you can buy a new piece from Amazon at a lower price, I'm not so sure it'll make sense to do that in 2026. If you've already set aside a budget of over $1,000 for an Ultra phone, it'd better be the latest model. Samsung only offered 12GB of RAM on all its storage tiers for the S24 Ultra.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the S24 Ultra is still plenty powerful and should have no trouble handling modern games and multitasking. Some of the newer AI features in the upcoming One UI 8.5 might be hardware-dependent, which means you may or may not be able to use them on the S24 Ultra. Also, many of the AI features that debuted with the S24 Ultra relied on cloud connectivity, which is something the new Gen 5 chip in the S26 Ultra hopes to resolve.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra: Cameras

The fact that there aren't any solid leaks or murmurs yet about any new camera upgrades on the S26 Ultra has me worried a bit. The Galaxy S25 Ultra had a fine set of cameras, and the new 50MP resolution upgrade for the ultrawide was more than welcome. But I have a feeling that the S26 Ultra might not get any truly exciting hardware upgrades for the next generation.

You could expect some software trickery and new GalaxyAI features in the camera app, but that'll probably be the extent of it. In all honesty, the Ultra series has always had the best cameras in the lineup, so it's hard to top that.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's cameras can still give stiff competition to today's flagship phones. Zoom performance is really impressive, and low-light images and video recording look great. The only issue we really faced was that the camera has a tough time capturing sharp-looking motion shots of moving kids or pets. Although Samsung did try and rectify it in 2024 by issuing a patch, it still wasn't perfect when compared to its peers.

If you go pixel-peeping, you may spot a bunch of differences between shots taken with the Galaxy S26 Ultra and S24 Ultra. Other than that, I don't see the cameras in the upcoming Ultra to be drastically different.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Galaxy S24 Ultra: Is it worth the upgrade?

If you currently own a Galaxy S24 Ultra and are looking for something new with a stylus, the Galaxy S26 Ultra should be worth trading it in for. If not the new features or better performance, the rumored slimmer and lighter design itself should be worth the upgrade. You'll be able to make a more informed decision once Samsung makes it official, but so far, I'm liking the new design direction Samsung has gone with. Keep in mind that the S Pen in the S26 Ultra will most likely not have Bluetooth (just like the S25 Ultra), so be prepared to lose that feature.

Buying a new Galaxy S24 Ultra in 2026 does not make a whole lot of sense unless you score some crazy deal and get the 512GB variant for under $800. Even then, I'd take a second look at all the best Android phones in the market at the time before taking the plunge. The Galaxy S26 Ultra might not be the most exciting of upgrades when compared to the S25 Ultra, but it could offer compelling reasons for an S24 Ultra user to consider trading up.