No More Prying Eyes on Your Phone with the Galaxy S26

SAN FRANCISCO, The Financial News — Samsung Electronics held its "Galaxy Unpacked 2026" event at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, United States, on the 25th (local time) and unveiled its third-generation AI phones, the "Galaxy S26 series" (Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra). The AI features have become more powerful, and the Ultra model is the first smartphone to integrate a privacy protection function directly into the display.
Roh Tae-moon, head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division and CEO of Samsung Electronics, stated, "We have been leading the popularization of AI by advancing the mobile experience so that people can truly feel the usefulness of AI in their daily lives," adding, "The Galaxy S26 series is designed so that anyone can use AI easily and intuitively, based on powerful hardware."

The Galaxy S26 series adds a new AI feature called "Now Nudge" and, in addition to the existing AI agent Gemini, now also supports Perplexity AI. Now Nudge provides personalized, tailored suggestions to users. For example, if a friend asks for recent travel photos via a messenger app, Galaxy AI will display a rounded-corner nudge pop-up icon, allowing users to instantly find the relevant photos and share them with ease. Samsung explained that this reduces the hassle of switching between multiple apps to search for information.
Users now have a wider choice of AI agents. In addition to the existing Bixby and Gemini, Perplexity AI is also supported, and users can summon their preferred AI agent by pressing the side button or using voice commands.
The feature that drew the most attention was the "Privacy Display" on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Previously, users had to attach a separate privacy screen protector to block others from viewing their screens, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra builds this function directly into the display itself. It is the first smartphone on the market to offer this feature natively.

Prices have been raised slightly. Based on the 256GB models, the S26 is priced at 1,254,000 won, the S26+ at 1,452,000 won, and the S26 Ultra at 1,797,400 won. This represents an increase of 99,000 won compared with the previous Galaxy S25 series. While the S25 maintained the same prices as the earlier lineup, Samsung explained that a minimal increase was inevitable this time due to the recent rise in semiconductor prices.
Starting March 11, Samsung Electronics will roll out the devices sequentially in more than 120 countries worldwide, including South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of India, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In South Korea, pre-orders will run for seven days from the 27th to March 5. The phones will be available in four colors: Cobalt Violet, White, Black, and Sky Blue. Two exclusive colors, Pink Gold and Silver Shadow, will also be released and can be purchased only through Samsung.com and Samsung Gangnam.
pride@fnnews.com Reporter Lee Byung-chul Reporter