YouTuber claims he bought a Galaxy S26 early: Everything revealed

Samsung's newest flagship may already be out in the wild.

A tech YouTuber known as Sahil Karoul posted a 15-minute unboxing and hands-on video with what appears to be a genuine Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra device. The video was posted on Monday, just a couple of days before the Galaxy S26 lineup's expected unveiling at Galaxy Unpacked on Wednesday afternoon. It should be noted that there is no definitive proof that the phone in the video is the real deal at this point, but it certainly looks believable.

Karoul claimed to have gotten the device ahead of its release date in a Dubai market. In an Instagram Reel, he shows himself paying cash for the device on the street outside a mobile store.

In the videos, you can see the basic design of the phone, which is pretty similar to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, though with a slightly more prominent rear camera bump. The phone in the video comes with an S-Pen, as Ultra models typically do. Perhaps the biggest reveal here is the first real (we think) look at the new Privacy Display feature in action. It makes the phone's display less visible to anyone looking at it from a side angle. The Privacy Display feature can reportedly be turned on and off in the phone's settings and doesn't require a separate screen protector.

Aside from that, it's hard to tell what else is new about the S26 Ultra from a short video that mostly focuses on comparing the phone to other popular smartphones. Karoul does show off some sample photos taken with the device's camera near the end of the video, but as far as I can tell, there's no sign of the unified AI image editor Samsung is hyping up prior to Galaxy Unpacked tomorrow.

All of this will be moot in a little more than 24 hours. Be patient, folks.