nullSamsung's throwing a lot of AI at the S26 Ultra, but the most interesting change is what they've done with Bixby.
Bixby finally gets smarter
Samsung partnered with Perplexity to make Bixby actually useful for questions that require thinking. Here's how it works:
- Ask Bixby to turn on Bluetooth → Bixby handles it directly
- Ask Bixby about the best restaurants nearby → Perplexity kicks in with real-time search results
The handoff is invisible. You just talk to Bixby like normal, and it figures out which AI brain should answer.
For example, ask about the weather and it might suggest you bring a jacket instead of just reading temperature numbers. That's the Perplexity influence.
Choose your AI
You're not locked into Bixby. The S26 Ultra lets you pick between:
- Bixby (now with Perplexity)
- Google Gemini
- Samsung's own Gauss AI
Use whichever you like best as your default assistant.
The Galaxy AI toolkit
All the existing Galaxy AI features get faster and more accurate:
- Chat Assist for drafting texts and emails
- Live Translate for phone calls in different languages
- Note Assist for summarizing meeting notes
- Photo editing for removing people, objects, generating backgrounds
These work well enough on the S25 Ultra, but Samsung promises noticeable improvements.
No subscription required
Big plus: Samsung isn't charging extra for any of this. Apple requires subscriptions for some AI features. Samsung includes everything with the phone.
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