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Android Central
Android Central
Technology
Harish Jonnalagadda

Four phones you should buy instead of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung Vivo Xiaomi Apoorva Bhardwaj Google Android Central Oppo Mediatek Qualcomm
Vivo X300 Pro, Find X9 Pro, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, and Pixel 10 Pro XL.

I get it; you're a long-time Samsung fan, and you've been eagerly waiting for the brand to deliver decent upgrades with the Galaxy S26 Ultra this year. Maybe you wanted to see newer camera sensors, a sleeker design, a bigger battery that uses silicon-carbon tech, or even something as routine as Qi 2 magnets integrated into the device.

However, Samsung once again chose to play it safe, delivering a phone that barely qualifies as an iterative upgrade. Sure, there are subtle design changes and the usual hardware tweaks, but I'd argue that the S26 Ultra isn't that different to the Galaxy S23 Ultra when it comes to the fundamentals.

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