A new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra rumor hints at a battery upgrade for the premium flagship phone

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A new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra rumor hints at a battery upgrade for the premium flagship phone News By David Nield published 23 November 2025

It's not a huge jump

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The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (Image credit: Future)

• The S26 Ultra could get a 5,200 mAh capacity battery
• It would be a small increase on the 2025 model
• A previous leak said the battery capacity would stay the same

As we get closer and closer to 2026, we're learning more and more about what we can expect from the Samsung Galaxy S26 series of phones, and the latest rumor in this regard points to a battery capacity upgrade for the most expensive Ultra model.

According to seasoned tipster Momentary Digital (via GSMArena), the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is going to arrive with a battery capacity of 5,200 mAh – that's a modest increase over the 5,000 mAh battery packed into the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

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In fact, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was the sixth Ultra phone in a row to go with the same 5,000 mAh battery capacity, all the way back to the Galaxy S20 Ultra in 2020. The rumored bump isn't huge, but at least it's something.

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There have already been several leaks around the battery spec for the Galaxy S26 series, with the standard model also rumored to be getting a small increase in capacity next year – from 4,000 mAh on the current phone to 4,300 mAh on the next one.

Even better battery life

The Galaxy S25 Ultra, Plus, and standard models (from left to right) (Image credit: Samsung)

What this will actually mean for battery life remains to be seen, but it should in theory mean more time between charges. Of course multiple factors are involved in that, including the efficiency of the screen and other components.

In our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review, we talked about the battery lasting for multiple days between charges, while the official rating from Samsung says you can get 31 hours of video playback from a single battery charge.

Something else we've heard about the Ultra model is that the display bezels are going to get even smaller, which would mean the screen size increases. We might see a display that's almost 7 inches from corner to corner.

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As ever with these rumors though, nothing is confirmed until Samsung makes it official – which should be in the first two or three months of 2026. A previous leak back in August suggested that the Ultra battery capacity would again stick at 5,000 mAh.

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Today's best Galaxy dealsSamsung Galaxy S25 Ultra SG$1,155ViewSee all pricesSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 SG$2,396.49ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices TOPICS Samsung David NieldSocial Links NavigationFreelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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