3 Minutes
Samsung has quietly rewritten the rulebook for its Ultra phones. At a razor-thin 7.9 millimeters, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is officially the slimmest "Ultra" the company has ever made — and it still holds the S Pen inside that narrow frame.
The weight loss is just as impressive. At 214 grams, the S26 Ultra is the lightest Galaxy S "Ultra" to date. Not the absolute lightest among every Ultra-class device ever produced by Samsung — the Note 20 Ultra sits at 208 grams — but within the S-series lineage this represents a meaningful drop from models that routinely exceeded 220 grams.
How did Samsung pull this off? They stopped chasing exotic metals. The new model swaps last year’s titanium for aluminum. It’s a deliberate, practical choice: aluminum trims grams and cost without demanding the premium price and manufacturing complexity of titanium.
Packing an S Pen into a phone under eight millimeters is an engineering feat. Designers had to rethink battery placement, internal bracing and antenna routing to keep the stylus bay without expanding the profile. The result is a phone that feels lighter in the hand and less like a slab of gadgetry.
For context, here’s how the S26 Ultra stacks up against recent Ultra models:
- Galaxy S20 Ultra — 222 g, 8.8 mm
- Galaxy Note 20 Ultra — 208 g, 8.1 mm
- Galaxy S21 Ultra — 227/229 g, 8.9 mm
- Galaxy S22 Ultra — 228/229 g, 8.9 mm
- Galaxy S23 Ultra — 234 g, 8.9 mm
- Galaxy S24 Ultra — 232 g, 8.6 mm
- Galaxy S25 Ultra — 232/233 g, 8.2 mm
- Galaxy S26 Ultra — 214 g, 7.9 mm
The short takeaway: Samsung has delivered the thinnest and lightest Galaxy S "Ultra" yet, while preserving the S Pen experience.
This shift feels like Samsung recalibrating priorities — comfort and everyday usability over material showmanship. For anyone who spends hours holding a phone, shaving millimeters and grams changes the daily experience more than spec sheets suggest.
Expect deep-dive reviews to soon evaluate battery endurance, camera performance and durability. For now, the S26 Ultra makes a clear statement: refinement can be as significant as raw specs, and sometimes letting go of the flashiest materials delivers the most practical wins.
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