New phone, who dis?

04 Nov, 2026

I talked last week about buying a new phone, and I pulled the trigger Saturday afternoon. Once the order was confirmed, the order confirmation advised me the expected arrival date would be Thursday November 5. That's OK, I can wait, I have a perfectly serviceable phone that allows me to log into my work applications.

But it arrived yesterday! That was a nice surprise. As a bonus, a case I ordered from Amazon arrived yesterday as well, around the same time. So I've got everything I need so far¹.

I bought the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Initially I wanted a smaller phone, at times finding it difficult to use my S21+. When my wife and I were browsing the Apple Store (she was upgrading her watch), I liked the form factor of the "small" iPhone (I believe the base and Pro models are the same, while the Pro Max is about the same size as Samsung's Plus models).

I wasn't sure, so we looked around and she reminded me that I use my phone to control my drone; a bigger screen would be a plus, with the trade-off being the phone is large when I use it. She ended up pushing me to get the Ultra model, so here are my first impressions!

• It's big. But it's only marginally bigger than my S21+! But you can feel the size difference; the S21+ is also thin, and has a less pronounced camera bump. The S26 Ultra is a tad thicker, and the camera bump is massive.
  • I was hoping a case would negate the camera bump, as my S21+ cases do, but sadly that's not the case. I'd have to get an even bigger case to do that, which would impact my ability to use my drone controller.
• The screen is bright and looks amazing.
• Every action on the device is smoother and faster than my older phone, which seemed taxed with OneUI 8.
• The S-Pen is very thin and awkward to write with. The result is handwriting that doesn't look exactly like my paper handwriting, and not as good as Apple's pen on my iPad.
  • However, I used it for some photo editing as a test this morning, and it's very helpful in that regard.
• The fingerprint scanner is ultra (pardon the pun) fast. I barely have to put my thumb on the screen. Much better than the old phone.
• Some of my options in Modes & Routines seem to be missing; for example I was able to change my watch face depending on location or time of day, but I can't find that option (yet). Edit: I just found it. Ha!
• It doesn't fit in my car's wireless charging pocket. I tried various positions. Oh well!

I think that's it so far. I'm less than 24 hours into owning the phone so it's tough to give a full review. But for now, I'm really impressed, and feel like I made a good decision.

Edited to add a couple of things at the end of the list.

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