Samsung has used this Galaxy S26 Ultra strategy before, a…

Galaxy AI shouldn’t headline a smartphone unless it works

If you were experiencing a little déjà vu watching Galaxy Unpacked, you weren’t alone. For the second straight year, Samsung led the sales pitch for the Galaxy S series by highlighting Galaxy AI. I gave Samsung the benefit of the doubt last year, willing to overlook the lack of significant hardware upgrades if the user experience was fundamentally changed by AI — it wasn’t. Samsung’s taking another swing with the Galaxy S26 series, introducing a new slate of Galaxy AI features and a change in strategy that’s straight from Google’s AI playbook.

I don’t hate the shift in focus, but Galaxy AI has to earn back my trust one successful prompt at a time. Initially, I was excited about Now Brief on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It was closer to the AI reality I was looking for, and the idea of a proactive, generative assistant helping me through the day has appeal. Unfortunately, that’s not what we got. Now Brief spent most of its first year telling me the weather and serving me an unrelated news story.

I even spent time setting up and reading articles in Samsung News, hoping the two would talk to each other and at least serve me tech news, rather than the random, depressing stories I was being bombarded with. While you do still have to give final approval for any orders, allowing you to double-check before submitting, it takes the training wheels off of AI, and I don’t know if it’s ready. Samsung added features and made improvements through updates, but they all felt like the burden was on me to set them up and integrate them into my day.

I’ll pass. It’s why I was genuinely excited by Google’s approach to Gemini on the Pixel 10. AI was set up as a support system, gently nudging me when something relevant popped up. Samsung mentioned AI as infrastructure several times during Galaxy Unpacked. It wants agentic AI agents to be the backbone of One UI going forward. I don’t have a problem with that, and if the company has genuinely made strides to make Galaxy AI more helpful in context, I’m open to giving it another chance.

Now Nudge is Samsung’s version of Magic Cue, pulling up suggestions for information during conversations. It’s a feature I’m still excited about on Pixel 10 devices, even if the system does need some tweaking. If Samsung can nail the experience, it’ll make a positive impact. Agentic AI also took center stage during Unpacked. I don’t know how comfortable I am with AI reading my text messages and readying a pizza order in the background, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Still, if the technology works well and keeps mistakes to a minimum, I can see buyers being excited. While you do still have to give final approval for any orders, allowing you to double-check before submitting, it takes the training wheels off of AI, and I don’t know if it’s ready. We’re dealing with your money now. That’s significantly higher stakes than Gemini Live not being able to tell me who the NBA MVP was in 1996 (Michael Jordan).

I once had Gemini confuse basketball player Ja Morant with former British Prime Minister John Major, not exactly what I was expecting. However, instead of just getting a laugh at the bar, agentic AI mistakes could involve your credit card, and I could easily see not paying attention and placing an incorrect order. Yes, the Galaxy S26 Ultra includes a wider main camera sensor, but it’s still not the impressive 1-inch sensors we see from brands like Xiaomi and Vivo.

It sticks with 12GB of RAM again (unless you shell out $1,800), while other premium flagships ship with 16 and even 24GB of RAM. Samsung has cast its lot with AI, hoping a refreshed user experience is enough to draw in buyers. It’s true that specs, while impressive, aren’t enough on their own to build brand loyalty. If One UI offers something no other phone can, Samsung can keep a loyal following without getting involved in a yearly arms race.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t proven it can do that just yet, and it’ll need to convince customers the Galaxy S26 Ultra is worth $1,300 without a killer spec sheet. I make a point of keeping an open mind, reviewing only the product in front of me. Sure, you mention past sins and always have that information available for context, but you have to treat products as a clean slate. I’m going to give the new and improved Galaxy AI a full run when my Galaxy S26 Ultra comes in for testing.

However, if Galaxy AI fails to live up to its lofty billing, it’ll stop being the future and start being a crutch for Samsung.

Summary

This report covers the latest developments in samsung. The information presented highlights key changes and updates that are relevant to those following this topic.

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