Galaxy S26: Samsung’s Fadi Abu Shamat on how it aims to redefine privacy, agentic AI, photography

Samsung arrives at the Galaxy S26 launch with unusual momentum in this region. The company recently rolled out the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold to the UAE, one of just five markets globally selected for the debut of its most ambitious foldable yet. Fadi Abu Shamat, VP and head of the Mobile eXperience Division at Samsung Gulf Electronics, now discloses that three consecutive batches sold out within an hour each. For a device at that price point, in a category that remains genuinely niche, it was a signal about where the Gulf consumer sits on the early-adopter spectrum.

The S26 is a different kind of statement. Where the Tri-Fold was about form, the S26 is about behaviour, specifically, Samsung’s argument that the smartphone era is giving way to what it calls the agentic AI device, a phone that reads context and acts on it without being prompted. “Every year we start the year by raising the bar,” Shamat says, “and then the rest of the year literally everyone just tries to measure up.”

For starters, the S26 Ultra ships with the mobile industry’s first built-in Privacy Display, a redesigned camera system with wider apertures on the Ultra, and an AI framework running on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

The Privacy Display is the S26 Ultra’s most technically distinct feature and the most immediately testable. The technology is not a software overlay or an accessory; it is embedded in the display panel itself, controlling how pixels disperse light at the hardware level. When active, it preserves full brightness and colour accuracy for the primary user while blocking side-angle visibility.

That distinction from existing solutions is meaningful. Stick-on privacy films work by degrading the viewing cone for everyone, including the person holding the phone. Samsung’s implementation does not carry that tradeoff. The user experience is unchanged; only the side view is restricted.

Control is granular. Shamat describes the options as follows: you can run it as always-on across every application, or configure it to activate only in selected apps, so browsing stays open but WhatsApp triggers the privacy lock automatically the moment the icon is pressed. You can also restrict it to the notification bar only, so that when your phone is sitting on a table during a meeting, and a message arrives, only the top strip of the screen is masked. The feature ships on the Ultra exclusively. Scaling it to the broader S-series will depend on display production capacity, built-in privacy glass remains expensive to manufacture at volume.

Camera: Hardware inputs, AI processing

The camera upgrade on the S26 Ultra follows a logic Samsung has applied consistently across recent generations: improve what the sensor captures, then let AI operate on better source material. On the Ultra specifically, wider apertures across the camera system allow more light to reach the sensor. Shamat puts a figure on it: 47 per cent more light absorbed than the S25 generation.

The engineering principle holds regardless of the precise percentage

More light at capture means less computational noise reduction is required in processing, which matters most in low-light stills and video. As Shamat puts it, night shooting is fundamentally a light-deficit problem: less light means more grain, particularly in video, and the NPU working in real time to eliminate that noise is the S26’s answer — visible, he says, even in the darkest test conditions available at launch.

On the software side, AI ISP improvements reach the front camera for the first time, targeting skin tone accuracy in mixed lighting. The S26 Ultra also introduces APV codec support, a professional-grade standard designed to maintain visually lossless quality through repeated editing,  aimed at creators working directly from the device.

The horizontal stabilisation lock in video, which adds a fixed horizontal axis option for smoother footage on uneven terrain, has broader appeal beyond that audience.

Agentic AI: The gap between demo and daily use

The S26’s most consequential and least provable claim is the agentic AI framework. Samsung introduced Galaxy AI with the S24, iterated on it with the S25, and is now positioning the S26 as the point at which AI becomes proactive rather than reactive. The feature doing the most work here is NowNudge, a contextual suggestion layer that surfaces relevant actions during natural use, without the user initiating a search or opening an application.

Shamat walks through three scenarios

The first: you are in conversation and mention meeting someone next Tuesday. The phone, understanding context, has already identified a 3pm conflict in your calendar and surfaces a NowNudge suggesting 4pm instead, tap once to inject the text. The second: you mention a recent family trip to Cairo. A friend asks to see photos. The phone surfaces a curated set of images geotagged in Egypt from the relevant dates, again via NowNudge, without you opening the gallery. The third: you have a 4pm meeting in downtown Dubai and you are running late. The phone identifies the situation from the calendar and location context, and offers to book a taxi through your preferred service — in the background, one confirmation tap required.

The appeal of the framework is clear. As Shamat describes it, the conventional interaction loop, home screen, search, locate the app, open it, complete the action, disappears entirely. “Agentic AI is carrying all that burden in the background on my behalf,” he says. “I don’t have to care about which app, I want the functionality, I want the service.” He goes further: the concept of app stores, in his view, is on its way out, replaced by a layer that routes requests to whatever service is most appropriate without the user needing to know which one.

That is a significant claim, and the honest caveat is that controlled launch demonstrations are the least reliable environment in which to assess it. Whether NowNudge performs consistently across ambient conversations, multiple languages, overlapping calendar entries and real-world context noise is a question that will only be answered over time. Samsung’s on-device processing model — AI runs locally by default, no cloud dependency unless the user opts in — addresses privacy but also places a ceiling on model capability relative to cloud-based alternatives. The integration of Gemini and Perplexity as optional agents alongside Bixby suggests Samsung is keeping its architecture open on which layer will ultimately carry the most weight.

Battery and thermal management

The S26 Ultra supports 60W wired charging, reaching 75 per cent from empty in 30 minutes. Shamat cites a 21 per cent improvement in heat dissipation over the previous generation; like the camera light figure, this comes from the interview rather than official specifications.

The thermal question has specific relevance in this market

A device running persistent AI workloads at 45°C ambient temperatures is under different stress than the same hardware in a temperate climate. Samsung’s redesigned Vapor Chamber positions thermal interface material along the sides of the processor, distributing heat across a larger surface area. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers a 39 per cent NPU improvement and up to 19 per cent CPU gain over the prior generation, meaning AI processes that previously required visible processing time or cloud round-trips can now run continuously in the background without measurable impact on responsiveness.

Ecosystem and what follows

The S26 launches alongside the Galaxy Buds 4 series.

The Buds 4 Pro introduce a pressure-sensitive stem that distinguishes between squeeze intensities to trigger different functions, a larger driver for improved bass, and head gesture controls for call management. Paired with the S26, AI features, including live translation, run on-device with no cloud processing by default.

For the remainder of 2026, Shamat signals new form factors in the second half without specifics.

The Ultra runs from 12GB/256GB to 16GB/1TB

Colours across the range: Cobalt Violet, White, Black, Sky Blue, with Pink Gold and Silver Shadow exclusive to Samsung.com.

Samsung Galaxy S26: Availability and offers

The Galaxy S26 Series is available for pre-order in the UAE until March 10, 2026, via Samsung.com/ae, Samsung stores, and select retail partners, and is available in four colours; Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, and White.

Pre-order offers on Galaxy S26 Series include:

• Memory upgrade: 512GB for the price of 256GB and 1TB for the price 512GB
• Samsung Members benefits: including a 1-year Samsung Entertainer membership, Amazon Prime (12 months), OSN+ (4 months), Anghami Plus (3 months), and Careem Plus (6 months)
• Trade-in: Up to Dhs2,599 saved with trade-in
• Samsung Care+: Optional coverage for added peace of mind, backed by genuine Samsung parts