
Early Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra leak paints the picture of a thinner picture but minimally upgraded phone
Tipster Ice Universe, a regular leaker of Samsung devices, made a post today (July 28) with a number of specs and details concerning next year's flagship device. Largely it sounds much like this year's Galaxy S25 Ultra with some upgrades.
To start, they claim that the phone will be between 7 and 8 mm thick with a "slightly increased width and height" while weighing less than this year's model. Anything under 8mm would be thinner than the S25 Ultra which measures in at .32-inches or about 8.1mm.
The new handset will have a 6.9-inch display featuring "CoE depolarizer technology and third-generation anti-reflective glass."
They do not provide any megapixel information but it appears the cameras will get a new sensor with an "ultra-large aperture." There will be a 5x telephoto lens and a "new" 3x sensor.
Unfortunately, like with the S25 Ultra, Samsung is sticking with the same 5,000mAh battery, where again it will rely on software optimization to increase battery life. There are reports that Samsung might switch to a silicon-carbon battery for the S26 Ultra, which could lead to bigger, more compact batteries in the future. Ice Universe does say the S26 Ultra will have 60W fast charging, 15W more than the S25.
No surprise here, but the S26 Ultra will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite which Ice Universe says will have a 4.74GHz CPU and a 1300MHz GPU. They claim that Samsung's own Exynos 2600 is "under testing."
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
With Google moving up its Android release schedule this year, the S26 Ultra will likely run Android 16 out of the box with version 8.5 of Samsung's OneUI skin on top.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Tom's Guide
7 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
Email security features are being hijacked to steal Microsoft 365 logins — what you need to know
Hackers are now leveraging this popular email security service in their attacks to send out malicious links with the aim of taking over user accounts. As reported by Bleeping Computer, a threat actor has been abusing the link-wrapping feature included in email security services like Proofpoint and Intermedia in order to redirect users to phishing pages designed to steal user credentials, specifically Microsoft 365 logins. This malware campaign, which ran between June and July of this year, leveraged the link-wrapping feature in some email security services. This feature rewrites the URLs in an email to ones with a trusted domain and then puts them through a scanning server which is intended to block any links that lead to malicious destinations. However, Cloudflare's Email Security team found that this hacker managed to compromise Proofpoint and Intermedia-protected email accounts. From there they then legitimized their malicious URLs which allowed them to use their unauthorized access to distribute 'laundered' links. Researchers have further stated that attackers have also abused the system by 'including multi-tiered redirect abuse with URL shorteners via compromised accounts.' The threat actor behind the campaign has added a layer of obfuscation by first shortening the malicious links then sending them from a protected account which automatically wraps the link. The targets are tricked by receiving fake voicemail notifications or shared Microsoft Teams documents. At the end of the redirect chain is a Microsoft Office 365 phishing page that collects and steals credentials. In one of the Intermedia campaigns that used link-wrapping services to trick victims, a hacker delivered emails that claimed to be a 'Zix' secure message notification. Some of these emails claimed they would allow users to view a secure document while others impersonated a Microsoft Teams communication alerting the user to a newly received message. Instead of doing either of these things though, these fake emails contained a URL wrapped by Intermedia's service which redirected users to a fake page that was actually a phishing site. Meanwhile, users who clicked on the reply button were led to a page that stole their login credentials. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. By disguising malicious websites with these legitimate email protections, the threat actor increased the chances that a potential victim might fall for their trap. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.


Tom's Guide
7 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
Sam Altman just teased GPT-5 with one question — and the answer says it all
GPT-5 is coming and the anticipation of OpenAI's latest and most sophisticated model is building. But it's a recent X post from OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, showcasing the model's sophistication, that is raising eybrows across the AI world. Altman prompted the chatbot by asking "What is the most thought-provoking show about AI?" turns out yes! 3, 2025 From there, the chatbot delivered a breakdown that felt more advanced than what users typically see from GPT-4. That alone led many to believe Altman was quietly previewing GPT-5. He didn't confirm it outright, but the depth of the reply, and the fact that he shared it at all, strongly suggest this was no ordinary demo. That hunch also lines up with reports that OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 as early as mid-August 2025. Altman himself confirmed that GPT-5 has been deeply helpful in his personal workflow. Speaking on comedian Theo Von's podcast 'This Past Weekend,' Altman shared that the model effortlessly handled a tough email he'd been putting off: 'I felt like I was useless… but the AI just did it like that.' Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Despite the excitement, Altman has voiced concerns about the model's power and potential. In the same podcast, Altman candidly compared GPT‑5's development pace to the Manhattan Project and admitted feeling unnerved by the model's power. He also posted on X warning users to "bear with us through some probable hiccups and capacity crunches" as OpenAI prepares to scale its infrastructure for the upcoming release. Altman's TV prompt revealed something deeper. The fluid, context-rich response felt eerily human. It was a reminder of how close these models are getting to understanding cultural nuance, emotional weight and moral gray areas. And if that was GPT-5 in action, it's a preview of an assistant that doesn't just answer, but thinks. It's clear that users can expect a major upgrade in how ChatGPT handles complex tasks, long conversations, creative prompts and real-world decision-making. This aligns with OpenAI's broader push toward more agentic AI; tools that do more than respond to commands, but proactively help users accomplish goals across apps, files and the web. That evolution may explain recent updates to features like Study Mode, ChatGPT Agent and custom GPTs, all of which could soon feel much smarter with a new model under the hood. Sam Altman didn't explicitly say 'GPT-5 is here.' But the prompt he shared, the model's response and his recent comments all suggest OpenAI is nearing its next major leap. And if that was GPT-5 recommending TV shows, crafting emails and drawing philosophical parallels, it's no wonder even Altman sounds a little nervous. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.


Forbes
20 minutes ago
- Forbes
AI Kills SEO As The Whole World Watches
Google is trying to be more like Netflix, not Blockbuster. But is this simple pivoting destroying the web? Or perhaps more accurately, putting traditional publishers in an untenable position? This week, we're seeing fairly robust coverage of additional declines in conventional Google search – you know, the kind where you enter a string of keywords, and look through resulting SERP pages to find what you want. We've been getting notified about this for some time now – how in the mad rush to build AI tools, Google is threatening its own dominant business, the business of keyword search. But now, it seems like the phrase 'Google apocalypse' has been freshly introduced, indicating a critical mass that will change the game for millions of users and businesses. 'Now that AI-generated summaries are being integrated into search results, anyone looking for information has less reason to click through to the websites where that information originates,' wrote Klaudia Jazwinska at the Columbia Journalism Review July 31, including estimates from Pew and other parties. 'For media publishers whose business models rely on referral traffic to bring them advertising revenue, this shift feels nothing short of catastrophic.' Other outlets have picked this up, too. There's even a story from NPR, an institution that is, in its own way, in the hot seat too. All of it is screaming the message that we will not be able to rely on time-tested methods in the new AI age. The Big Picture There are two ways to understand this sea change: you can look at the numbers, famously released by Pew and other parties, or you can try it for yourself. Go to Google, and put in a search phrase. You'll see the AI overview come up at the top, in plain English. If you asked a question, that question gets answered 'above the fold,' to use journalistic parlance. So why would you click into SERPs? Not too long ago, I wrote about another aspect of this – the billion-dollar business of Search Engine Optimization or SEO, and how it is giving way to Generative Engine Optimization or GEO. Basically, since the genAI tools are killing keyword search, they're also making that SEO work less relevant, which is devastating to businesses that have invested in things like keyword research. That brings us to where this change is felt most deeply: the news media. The Last Nail in the Coffin As for newspapers, magazines and community publications, these outlets have been under pressure ever since the days of the early Internet. It started with the mandate to move to a digital payment model, which nobody liked. A newspaper was made to be in print. News offices had trouble figuring out how to maintain revenue with digital subscriptions. Eventually, some of the top publications figured out SEO and related methods. They build the best digital payment systems they could. But blogging and alternative news sources made things tough. Now, AI is writing stories, and newsrooms are cutting staff. Fewer consumers are choosing to invest in local news. And without even the ability to garner click-throughs, it's anybody's guess what kind of skeletal news system will remain. I covered a Ted talk by a fellow named John Chesto who laid out all of this in a revealing way. Combine the existing death of news media with a dramatic change in Internet search architecture, and you have an apocalypse, indeed. The headline I used, AI Lacks Full Capacity to Replace Journalism, doesn't mean that new changes won't kill the institutions. It just means AI isn't quite there yet. Businesses are supposed to be able to pivot, to some extent. But they can't pivot at the speed of light. And no one should expect them too. We're having profound growing pains integrating powerful new technologies. It's not just newsrooms – from your local furniture store, to your neighbor's landscaping business, to a mid-level retailer: over 20-some years, everyone has learned to create an online footprint, one way or another, with Google search. It was already too monopolistic. But this rug pull could have drastic consequences. Stay tuned.