Hands-On with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra in Indonesia, Priced at IDR 32 Million

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Samsung has officially launched its flagship Galaxy S26 series globally and pre-orders are now available in Indonesia, starting today, February 26, 2026, and running until March 17, 2026.

For those looking to show off their new phone during Eid, don’t worry, as product pick-up will be available from early March 2026. So, what’s new about the most premium variant, the Galaxy S26 Ultra?

CNBC Indonesia had the opportunity to try out the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Our first impression is that this premium variant largely maintains the same design language as its predecessor.

However, when placed side-by-side, minor changes are immediately visible in the main camera panel. Previously, each camera seemed more spaced apart, but now they appear more integrated within a single curved unit.

In addition, the sides appear more curved. When the S Pen is pulled out, its ‘head’ is no longer flat, but slightly angled to follow the body. It looks more ‘aesthetic’ and modern.

The screen size is still the same as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, at 6.9 inches, with a flagship Dynamic AMOLED 2X type with QHD+ resolution and an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120Hz. However, there are some changes that seem simple but are important in today’s digital age, where ‘fraud’ is rampant.

Privacy Protection Features

This time, Samsung seems to be seriously prioritizing privacy protection for users. From a hardware perspective, the Galaxy S26 series features a 2-pattern (wide/narrow) screen that enables the ‘Privacy Display’ feature.

When activated from the settings, Privacy Display will turn off the wide pattern, so the screen can only be viewed from the front. This feature is more or less similar to an anti-spy screen protector to avoid ‘stalkers’ in public places such as public transportation.

Privacy Display can also be customized in three modes. Users can completely ‘turn off’ the screen when viewed from the left-right and top-bottom, or set access for specific applications to maintain privacy. It can also be set to only ‘turn off’ the screen when pop-up notifications appear.

Not only Privacy Display, other features that protect user security are introduced through ‘Call Screening’ and ‘Scam Detection’. By utilizing Galaxy AI, unknown numbers that call will first be ‘interviewed’ by the AI assistant regarding their identity and purpose of contacting the user.

The answers from the unknown number will be displayed on the user’s screen before deciding whether to answer or ignore the call. Galaxy AI will also detect potential fraud from the number and provide a warning to the user.

This Scam Detection feature at least helps users avoid the rampant cybercrime that is occurring.

Camera ‘Same’ but Upgraded

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra still maintains a configuration of 4 main cameras on the back. Each has a resolution of 200MP (wide), 50MP (ultrawide), 50MP (telephoto), and 10MP (telephoto). Meanwhile, the front camera relies on a 12MP sensor for taking selfies and making video calls.

Although it seems like there are no changes from the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung has actually introduced improvements in terms of aperture, which has increased significantly for the main (wide) and telephoto cameras.

The main camera now uses an aperture of f/1.4, an increase of 47% from the f/17 aperture on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Then the aperture of the telephoto camera has also increased by 37%. The larger the aperture to capture light, the better its ‘Nightography’ capabilities for taking photos and recording videos in various conditions.

The latest camera feature that is impressive is ‘Horizontal Lock’. This feature can be said to be an further improvement of the ‘Super Steady’ stabilization system. Not only does it reduce shaking when taking videos, but Horizontal Lock will lock the object in the desired frame orientation, even when recorded in ‘crooked’ conditions.

In our opinion, this feature will be functional for recording dynamic videos while running or hiking. Even, as simple as recording daily vlogs, you don’t have to worry about the results being crooked. Users no longer need to buy additional ‘gimbal’ tools.

Galaxy AI is More Practical

Since it was first introduced in the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung has continuously updated the Galaxy AI features from year to year. In the Galaxy S26 series, all the previous Galaxy AI features are still available, and have even been tweaked further and added with some new features.

For example, ‘Circle to Search’ is now more contextual in recognizing each object in an image to be searched further. ‘Photo Assist’ is also smarter in recognizing objects and ‘filling’ in missing parts in certain visual content with more natural results.

There is also a new feature called ‘Creative Studio’ which is an improvement from ‘Drawing Assist’. Users can create certain visual content, such as Eid greeting cards or contextual stickers, using only text ‘prompts’.

Another feature worth mentioning is ‘Now Nudge’. This feature can be said to be a smart assistant that analyzes screen activity to provide relevant recommendations.

For example, if a user receives a WhatsApp message from a friend who suddenly wants to be sent a photo of a vacation together from a few months ago. There is no need to search for those photos manually.

Because, Now Nudge, which is integrated in the Samsung keyboard, will immediately analyze the keywords from the friend’s chat and provide recommendations for the photos in question in the phone’s gallery.

This feature also functions as a reminder for certain schedules, because it is directly connected to the calendar and location applications.

Galaxy AI also makes the image scanning process easier. There is no need to take documents from the top side, because the scanning will correct the crooked sides and provide scan results that are similar to a real scanner.

The screenshot experience is also improved, because Galaxy AI will provide labels.