Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S26 series on Wednesday, positioning the new line, particularly the S26 Ultra, as a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is priced at $1,300, whereas the iPhone 17 Pro Max starts at $1,199.
The S26 Ultra introduces a “Privacy Display” feature designed to protect on-screen content from side views. This technology utilizes a combination of wider-angle and narrow-angle pixels; the narrow pixels radiate light at 90 degrees, limiting viewing angles and obscuring the screen from onlookers. Samsung allows users to customize the feature through Routines, automatically activating it for specific apps and times of day, with options for “Partial Screen Privacy” and “Maximum Privacy Protection” which also reduces brightness.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra features a 6.9-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and a 3,120×1,440-pixel resolution, protected by a Corning Gorilla Armor 2 layer to reduce glare. The baseline Galaxy S26 and S26+ models are each $100 more expensive than their previous generation counterparts, starting at $900 and $1,100 respectively.
While the S26 Ultra maintains the same $1,300 price point as the S25 Ultra, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with 256GB of storage, is available for $1,200, and the standard iPhone 17 begins at $800. The Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra are available for preorder as of February 25th, with shipping beginning on March 11th.
Both Samsung’s new devices and the iPhone 17 have shifted away from titanium frames, opting for aluminum to reduce weight and potential overheating. A key difference in design remains the absence of a programmable Action button on Galaxy phones, a feature present on the iPhone.
According to sources, the ongoing RAM shortage may be impacting Samsung’s pricing decisions, as the company has refrained from reducing memory specifications, a move that could have affected the phones’ AI processing capabilities.
