15 New Features on Galaxy S26 Ultra that iPhones Wish They Had!

This is the new Galaxy S26, and after seeing all the new features it comes with, I'm not gonna lie, it might actually make you want to toss your iPhone inside a drawer or something. In this video, I'll go over 15 new software features that are exclusive to the Galaxy S26, meaning no other phones have them, and hey, if you decide to make the switch, I'll leave an affiliate link down below to pre-order one. It really helps support the channel, and you still get the phone you want. Win-win. So first up, this one is wild, it really caught my eye. The S26 Ultra now lets you record fully rotatable 360 degree videos, and it'll fix them afterward automatically, meaning all you have to do is turn on super steady video mode, switch over to horizontal lock, and you can literally spin the phone around however you want. You can flip it, tilt it, and when you stop recording, it automatically strains the horizon. So when you watch the video back, it looks like you never even moved the phone at all. Kind of blows your mind, right? And yeah, iPhones can't do that, or pretty much any other phone out there can't. From there, Samsung showed off this new feature called automation, and this is where things start to feel really futuristic. You can basically tell your phone to do something, and it'll just do it for you. Like, say you need to order an Uber to the airport. You can just tell it to do that in the phone within Gemini, and it'll literally take over the phone and open Uber, start plugging in the destination and search for rides all in the background while you're doing something else. Then when it's done, it'll notify you so that way you can confirm what ride you want. Isn't that pretty crazy? Now currently, Samsung's just testing it with Uber on the S26, but they have hinted that maybe in the future, they're going to add more apps like food delivery services. We'll see. My only concern though would obviously be the privacy aspect. It might feel a little invasive to some, but since it's optional, I'd personally use it, especially since I know it's going to save me a ton of time. And then there's the small little change that's actually super useful. On the home screen, there's now a new little button called Finder. You tap it, and now you get this fully upgraded universal search engine that has AI built right in. It's way more context aware than before too. So let's say you just landed somewhere and you need to get to your hotel. You can literally just type hotel, and it'll pull up your reservation instantly with all the info for it. No digging through emails, no extra details needed to type in. It just knows. iPhones on the other hand, I'll be fair, it also has a great search functionality, but it's not at this level with Samsung. Now my fourth favorite new feature on the S26 is called NowNudge, and this one is low-key one of the smartest upgrades on the phone. It lives in the keyboard, and basically, it pays attention to what you're talking about within a messaging conversation, and then it pulls up helpful information right when you need it. Like say that you went on a trip with a friend, and later they text you asking for those pics that you took. Boom, the keyboard will pop up a shortcut to share those photos instantly. Or let's say a friend wants to hang out on a specific day. NowNudge will check your calendar and let you know if you're free by showing you your events right on the keyboard. It's really those little things that save you from needing to dig through emails or jumping between apps. Again, iPhones don't have anything like this. The only other phones that do are the latest Pixel devices with MagicQ. Now the feature that we've all been waiting for because of the leaks is the new privacy display. You know those cheap $15 privacy screen protectors you stick on your phone? Yeah, Samsung just built that right into the S26 Ultra screen, like down to the Pixel level. It blocks the viewing angles from the sides, so if you're on a plane or in an elevator, people next to you literally can't see what's on your screen. But here's where it gets wild. You can customize it. You can set it to turn on automatically for certain apps, like your banking apps or messages, or even better, you can hide specific stuff on the screen, like your password or notifications, so only you can see the sensitive bits. It's one of those things you don't realize you need until you're in a crowded place and suddenly you feel way more secure with it. Again, no other phone out there, including the iPhone or any other phone, has this right now. So if this is all making you seriously consider adding the Galaxy S26 to your cart, you're probably going to want a case to go with it. And if you want something heavy duty, I definitely go with Subcase. They're the ones sponsoring this video. My personal favorite is the UB Grip. It's got military grade protection with raised edges around the screen and cameras, so drops from up to 15 feet are not a problem. Plus, it's also got an anti-slip texture that makes the phone feel way more secure in your hand. But what I really like is the adjustable kickstand. You can prop it up in portrait or landscape and just watch content hands-free. And yes, of course, it supports MagSafe too, so you can magnetically snap on chargers and accessories without any issues. And yeah, lots of color options to pick from and different materials as well, including aramid and brown leather. My other go-to is the UB Pro Mag. Same level of durability, but this one has a multi-layer design and even comes with a front shell that already has a built-in screen protector. So your display actually stays scratch-free. Even better, it also includes a belt clip holster, which is super handy for quick access to the phone. And yup, it's also got a kickstand and MagSafe support too. Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of these cases. Personally, I'm leaning more towards the UB Grip, but I'll drop links down below so you can check them all out. Back to those exclusive features found on the S26. One new trick that I like too is that they made editing photos just way easier now. So after you take a shot, you can just tap this little star icon down below within the gallery app, and it'll open up photo assist. And from there, you can literally type out what you want to change. Like here's a photo of a cake that we took and we had it fill in the missing slice, and it did it really well. You can also tell it to remove stuff too, swap out the background, pretty much whatever you can think of. It's super powerful, but also ridiculously easy to use. No more needing to be a Photoshop expert just to make your pictures look good. From there, Bixby is also getting a lot more useful. It understands context way more naturally now, so you can just talk to it like a normal person and it'll get things done faster. Like instead of digging through settings forever, you can just say my eyes feel strained and boom, it'll suggest display tweaks or maybe a blue light filter that you can enable. It basically helps you find features and settings that you didn't even know existed. That's something that a lot of people struggle with that aren't very tech savvy, especially on this beefy software like One UI. Now, on the other hand, you have iPhone, which has Siri, which just kind of feels behind too, especially on the AI aspect. Then we have ocean mode. If you ever tried to take photos underwater, you know everything ends up looking really blue and totally washed out. That's just what water does to light. But this new mode found in the camera app under Expert Raw can actually fix those colors so your photos look more natural and vibrant instead of looking like you dip your phone in a bottle of blue Gatorade. Scuba divers are gonna love this. Then from there, the Galaxy S26 also made it a lot easier to scan documents right when you open the camera app. I mean, you just point the camera at a document and it automatically detects what's in front of you and lets you scan it instantly. And on top of that, it also automatically removes your fingers that are holding the page, any weird shadows or even creases in the paper. It works surprisingly well. Plus, you can combine multiple pages into one clean PDF. And the best part is that it all feels really instant. No more manually adjusting corners or messing around, trying to crop things perfectly. It really just handles it. It's great because I'm tired of relying on the sketchy third-party scanner apps. Then from there, Samsung also talked about how Audio Eraser is gonna work inside third-party apps like YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, all that good stuff, which is awesome. If you're not familiar, Audio Eraser is basically this video editing tool that lets you tweak different audio elements on the fly. Like you can strip out background noise and just isolate voices or turn down the wind, but keep the band playing in the background. Stuff like that. And now it works in most other apps too. You can just swipe down and tap this Audio Eraser quick settings tile. And from there, you can adjust how much background noise you want gone. Pretty wild, but great. And yeah, iPhones still don't have anything like this at all. And then there's this new app Samsung made called Creative Studio. It lets you generate all kinds of stuff, stickers, invitations, greeting cards, profile pictures, even wallpapers. Like here, I was making a sticker, picking a style, and then I just typed in whatever came to my mind at the moment, which was a pencil with a face. And it just made it. Then I took it even further and created a whole sticker set with different emotions for that pencil. Honestly, it's fun to play around with. I also threw in my own photo and made sticker sets with my face that actually looked just like me. It's surprisingly powerful. iPhones have something similar called Playground, which also lets you generate art with prompts and style suggestions. But I'd say Samsung's version just gives you way more control. Next up is autoframing, and this one's a big deal if you shoot a lot of video. Basically what it does is the Ultra uses its 8K sensor to intelligently crop down to 4K while keeping your subject in focus with face tracking. Plus for the first time, the S26 Ultra now also supports Samsung's video codec known as Advanced Professional Video or APV. And with this new codec, you'll have virtually lossless video quality and they still support it at up to 8K resolution. For content creators, this is gonna be huge. The Galaxy S26 also has better call scam detection, meaning in real time, it'll let you know if someone on the other side of the phone is trying to take advantage of you. How it does it is it uses AI to listen in on patterns that sound like scams. And if something feels off, like they're asking for your banking info or passwords, it'll pop up a big red warning sign right in front of you so that way you can take action and maybe just end the call altogether. It's similar to what the Pixels have. Super handy, especially for older folks who just might be more vulnerable to these type of scams. Oh, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra finally got a charging speed bump. Wired charging now supports up to 60 Watts, which means you can go from zero to 75% in around 30 minutes. Sure, there are some phones out there that charge even faster, but when you compare it to the iPhone lineup, the Samsung still has the edge. Even the best and latest iPhone 17 Pro Max still tops out at around 40 Watts. So even in perfect conditions, the iPhone 17 just can't refill as fast. And then wirelessly, the S26 Ultra pushes up to 25 Watts this time around, which is on par with the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I also gotta say, I also really like the new design on the entire S26 lineup. They didn't go crazy changing everything, but they refined it. It's slimmer than ever, actually even thinner than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which I like. And then there's this new camera island that pulls all the lenses together really nicely. The colors too aren't anything super flashy too, but I think they look a lot cleaner than the bright orange on the iPhone 17. Plus they upgraded the cooling system too with a bigger vapor chamber. I'm really excited about that. So I'm sure performance will stay strong for longer and the phone hopefully stays cooler during heavier use. So yeah, those are the 15 new features on the Galaxy S26 that kind of make the iPhone feel like it's playing catch up. It's not hard to see why the S26 Ultra just feels more advanced in the areas that actually matter, like smarter AI, legit next level privacy with that display, a better customization and faster charging. For those curious, the Ultra is actually starting at $1,300. Then you have the S26 Plus coming in at $1,100 and the base model S26 starting at 900 bucks. Again, if you're thinking about pre-ordering one, I'll leave an affiliate link down below so you can grab it and support the channel too. And hey, if you want to keep watching, tap this video right here to check out some insane One UI software features or tap this one to see some new tech gadgets that you're probably going to want immediately. Drop a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video and I'll catch you guys in the next one. Kapow!