I’m a die-hard Pixel fan, and I'm jealous of the Galaxy S26 Ultra

As a longtime Pixel fan — and someone who’s generally been unimpressed by the last few years of Samsung’s Galaxy S phones — I wasn’t expecting much going into this week’s Galaxy S26 launch. All the rumors suggested we were in store for another year of mediocre updates, and, for the most part, those rumors were true.

However, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, I find myself much more interested in it than I expected. I’m not ready to throw away my Pixel just yet, but Samsung made a couple of key changes that have me feeling pretty jealous.

Samsung fixed my biggest hardware complaints

While I’ve always appreciated the high-spec, feature-rich nature of Samsung’s Ultra phones, I’ve never been able to stick with one for more than a couple of weeks. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the biggest is that I’ve always found the Ultras to be extremely uncomfortable — owing to their size, weight, and boxy designs.

With the Galaxy S26 Ultra, it appears that Samsung has completely remedied this.

The S26 Ultra measures 7.9mm thick and weighs just 214 grams — making it the lightest Ultra phone yet. Those numbers might not mean much on their own, but once you start comparing them to other phones, you start to realize how the S26 Ultra really isn’t that bulky this year.

Compared to my Pixel 10 Pro, the S26 Ultra is only 7 grams heavier and is 0.6mm thinner. Mind you, the Pixel 10 Pro has a 6.3-inch display while the S26 Ultra has a much larger 6.9-inch one. A fairer comparison would be the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which is a whopping 18 grams heavier than the S26 Ultra. That’s really, really impressive on Samsung’s part.

As much as I love the Pixel 10 Pro, Google’s smartphones have been on the heavier side since the Pixel 9 series — and Google hasn’t shown any intention of wanting to slim things down. To see Samsung make tangible progress on that front this year is something I can only hope Google copies sooner rather than later.

A proper wired charging upgrade

I feel the same way about the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s charging upgrade. Samsung’s Ultra phones have stuck with 45W wired charging since the Galaxy S22 Ultra, a phone released in 2022. Year after year, the charging rate remained unchanged, and I assumed Samsung would stick with 45W forever.

But with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung finally listened to feedback and increased the maximum charging speed to 60W. It’s not as fast as what you can get from OnePlus phones and some Motorola handsets, but it’s still a significant upgrade.

More importantly, as a Pixel fan, it’s an upgrade I’m still waiting for from Google. 30W charging on my $1,000 Pixel 10 Pro absolutely doesn’t cut it. I don’t expect the Pixel 11 Pro to ship with 80W or 100W charging as we’ve seen from some brands, but 60W seems like a more than reasonable number to achieve.

Google and Samsung have been two of the biggest holdouts when it comes to truly fast wired charging, and now that Samsung has delivered on this front, it’s time for Google to follow suit.

Well done, Samsung

Do these changes mean I’m calling it quits with Pixel? Am I officially going full-on with Team Samsung? Not quite. Unless Samsung reins in its One UI software and turns it into something akin to Google’s Pixel UI — one of the main reasons I stick with Pixel phones — I don’t see myself making the full transition any time soon. But I must admit, the thought is there in the back of my head.

As much as I still love Pixels, seeing what Samsung has achieved with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, I’m itching to use Samsung’s latest far more than I anticipated. Not only are these resolved issues I’ve had with Samsung phones for years, but they’re also things I want Google to address, too. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if or when that will happen.

Well done, Samsung. Well done.