Galaxy S26 Ultra Might Finally Get The Design You've Always Wanted

A well-known Samsung insider known as UniverseIce on X, claims the Galaxy S26 Ultra will have rounder corners than its predecessor, signaling that Samsung's best non-foldable flagship might get the design change many fans have asked for. The Galaxy Ultra is Samsung's largest flagship smartphone. It's also the only handset to feature a built-in S Pen stylus. While Galaxy S models feature rounder corners, similar to the iPhone and other smartphones, the Ultras have had rectangular corners, or minimal curvatures.

It was the built-in stylus that forced Samsung to deliver this design compromise, which was also seen on Galaxy Note phones. The stylus is placed internally next to one of the sides. As a result, the bottom edge has to be flat (or somewhat flat). To make the handset symmetrical, Samsung went for flat top edges as well.

The four corners of the Galaxy S26 Ultra's body have become rounder.

— PhoneArt (@UniverseIce) August 24, 2025

Those rectangular corners made the Galaxy S24 Ultra uncomfortable to hold. Samsung has fixed the problem to a certain degree with this year's Galaxy S25 Ultra (image above). The phone has rounder corners than its predecessor, but the curvature isn't identical to the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Plus. If UniverseIce's tweet above is accurate, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will feature much rounder corner. Considering that UniverseIce has provided plenty of accurate details about unreleased Samsung products over the years, and that Galaxy phones leak well in advance of Samsung's press events, it's likely the information is correct.

Since the stylus placement on previous Galaxy Ultra models is the reason why these phones are less comfortable to hold, removing the S Pen is the easiest way for Samsung to release a Galaxy S26 Ultra with rounder corners than expected. However, such a move might annoy those Samsung fans who have been using a stylus since the Galaxy Note days.

We've seen several rumors over the summer that said Samsung might make big changes to the Galaxy S26 Ultra's S Pen. In late June, reports said that Samsung is considering removing the S Pen stylus to increase the battery size of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. In such a case, Samsung could very well sell the S Pen as an accessory, but the stylus would have to be carried separately like on previous-generation Galaxy Z Fold models.

A different leak in mid-June said that Samsung was considering removing the Galaxy S26 Ultra's digitizer to make room for Qi2 magnets on the back of the phone that would make wireless charging like the Pixel 10 series possible. The removal of the digitizer would mean that Samsung would drop the S Pen or design a stylus that doesn't need a digitizer layer to work. 

On the other hand, a leak in mid-July said that Samsung wasn't happy with the S Pen performance after removing the digitizer, and that the display layer would stay in place to support S Pen stylus experiences. That rumor made no mention of Samsung removing the stylus. It didn't detail the Galaxy S26 Ultra's design either. All these rumors indicate that Samsung was testing different prototypes ahead of starting production. Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S26 series in early 2026.