Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S24 Ultra

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.9-inch Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on February 25, 2026, against the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy) and came out 2 years and 2 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
  • 68% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3939K versus 2341K)
  • Delivers 92% higher peak brightness (2776 against 1445 nits)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Shows 9% longer battery life (28:50 vs 26:30 hours)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • The phone is 2 years and 2 months newer
  • Supports higher wattage charging (60W versus 45W)
  • 60% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3624 and 2259 points
  • Weighs 18 grams less

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and S24 Ultra crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 63% Yes
Yes, we think most users will notice the upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra makes sense and should feel noticeably better in daily use.
Main improvements: gaming, performance, and camera.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.9 inches 6.8 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3120 pixels 1440 x 3088 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 500 ppi 501 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1500 nits 2600 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 2600 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz 240 Hz
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Armor 2 Gorilla Glass Armor
Screen-to-body ratio 91.4% 88.5%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space - 99.5%
PWM - 480 Hz
Response time - 1 ms
Contrast - ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
2776 nits
1445 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 163.6 mm (6.44 inches) 162.3 mm (6.39 inches)
Width 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) 79 mm (3.11 inches)
Thickness 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) 8.6 mm (0.34 inches)
Weight 214 g (7.55 oz) 232 g (8.18 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Silver, Blue, Pink, Purple Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy)
Max clock 4740 MHz 3390 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 8 (1 + 3 + 2 + 2)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
- 2 cores at 2.27 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 2 cores at 2.96 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 3 cores at 3.15 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X4
L3 cache 12 MB 12 MB
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 840 Adreno 750
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 1300 MHz 903-1000 MHz
FLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS ~2774 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 28391 15386
Single-core score 3624 2259
Multi-core score 11049 7330
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
3939244
CPU 1168602 717970
GPU 1520337 790073
Memory 448779 341284
UX 801526 492067
Total score 3939244 2341394
Samples [32 tests] [42 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 67% 71%
Graphics test 20 FPS 11 FPS
Graphics score 2737 1527
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 63%
Graphics test 46 FPS 29 FPS
Section 1 58 FPS 36 FPS
Section 2 42 FPS 29 FPS
Section 3 37 FPS 23 FPS
Graphics score 11990 7748
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 59%
Graphics test 42 FPS 27 FPS
Graphics score 7123 4531
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 23390 18499
Video editing 8217 8001
Photo editing 37389 35916
Data manipulation 18322 15552
Writing score 32854 22696
AnTuTu 11 Ranking List (32nd and 189th place)

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-23 (Raze)AnTuTu 123920421
📘 2026-09-19 (Niko)AnTuTu 123439980
📘 2026-09-18 (KEKRiLL)AnTuTu 124208433
📘 2026-09-14 -> Mi7haAnTuTu 124485552
📘 2026-09-05 (Pavel)AnTuTu 113959848
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-29 (Ratiii)Geekbench 7 CPU1995 / 6875
📘 2026-09-29 (gunissus)AnTuTu 122654412
📘 2026-09-24 (Denislav Antimov)AnTuTu 122573019
📘 2026-09-23 (DEMON77)AnTuTu 122536327
📘 2026-09-22 (Blackz)AnTuTu 112368229

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 5300 MHz 4200 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 256 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 4.0
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 16 Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM One UI 8.5 One UI 8.0
OS size 33.2 GB 28 GB
OS updates 7 years 7 years
Security updates 7 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 60 W 45 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (25 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes Yes
Fast charging Yes (84% in 30 min) Yes (69% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:43 hr 1:05 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:12 hr 10:18 hr
Watching video 21:39 hr 18:00 hr
Gaming 06:42 hr 05:51 hr
Standby 130 hr 122 hr
General battery life
28:50 hr
26:30 hr
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (67th and 122nd place)

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 200 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 16320 x 12240
Zoom Optical, 5x Optical, 5x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 30FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 240FPS Up to 240FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 50 MP
1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 50 MP
3) Telephoto: 12 MP
4) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 200 MP
Aperture f/1.4 f/1.7
Focal length 23 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KHP2 Samsung ISOCELL HP2
Sensor size 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch)
Pixel size 0.6 micron 0.6 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Laser autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/2.9 f/3.4
Focal length 111 mm 111 mm
Sensor Sony IMX854 Sony IMX854
Sensor size 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch) 1/2.52" (≈ 0.4 inch)
Pixel size 0.7 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.9 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN3 Sony IMX564
Sensor size 1/2.5" (≈ 0.4 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 0.7 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 165 70
Preview - 82
Zoom 141 145
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4000 x 3000
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 23 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5K3LU Samsung S5K3LU
Sensor size 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/3.2" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 6.0 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes, DP 1.2
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* - 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2026 January 2024
Release date March 2026 January 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $1299 $1299
Successor - - Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
SAR (head) 1.28 W/kg 1.06 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.35 W/kg 1.3 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S24 Ultra:
    - There is a model with two physical SIM cards and no eSIM, and another with one physical SIM card and eSIM support.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
190 (29.3%)
458 (70.7%)
Total votes: 648

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
jrh0 April 24, 2026 at 11:33 PM
I miss the S-view case. So easy to turn off screen - just flip closed. Hardly ever need to press on/off switch. And always-on display actually always stays on.
+2 Reply
Avatar
ComputerNerd February 26, 2026 at 08:51 PM
The S26 Ultra is the better phone. It has a far better CPU, battery life, better night photography, and privacy screen feature. It seems like this phone appeals to younger adults between 21-25 years old and living in major cities. City examples: New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, ...etc. The S24 Ultra is like the dad phone. It still has the Bluetooth control with the S pen, durable Titanium build strength, and cost far less ($750 USD on Amazon) for 512 GB of storage. Same Wi-Fi7, same 4k 120hz video recording option, and the same main camera 200 MP for daytime still photos.
+24 Reply