A Six-Phone Showdown Across the Galaxy S Ultra Line
Samsung refreshes its flagship hardware every year, but spec sheets only tell part of the story. To see how those upgrades translate into real-world speed, YouTube channel PhoneBuff pitted the Galaxy S26 Ultra against five predecessors in a rigorous, automated speed test. The lineup included the Galaxy S21 Ultra, S22 Ultra, S23 Ultra, S24 Ultra, S25 Ultra, and the latest S26 Ultra, all tasked with plowing through a demanding script of everyday and heavy workloads. From app launches to intensive processing runs, the test creates a clear smartphone speed comparison that strips away marketing claims. The result: the Galaxy S26 Ultra topped the chart, finishing its run in 4 minutes and 42 seconds, ahead of the S25 Ultra’s 4 minutes and 52 seconds and well clear of the S21 Ultra’s 6 minutes and 53 seconds, underlining just how far Samsung flagship performance has evolved.
Breaking Down the Numbers: S26 Ultra vs Older Models
Viewed across generations, the Galaxy S26 Ultra speed test results show a steady tightening of performance gaps, with some standout jumps. The oldest phones in the gauntlet, the Galaxy S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra, finished in 6 minutes and 53 seconds and 6 minutes and 56 seconds respectively, highlighting how thermal limits and earlier chip designs held them back despite 12GB of RAM. The S23 Ultra trimmed that to 6 minutes and 28 seconds, while the S24 Ultra made a far more dramatic leap to 5 minutes and 1 second. The S25 Ultra shaved that further to 4 minutes and 52 seconds before the S26 Ultra set the new benchmark at 4 minutes and 42 seconds. Though the top three generations sit relatively close, the S26 Ultra consistently led the pack, especially when the script shifted into heavy-duty processing tasks.
Chipset, RAM, and AI: Why the S26 Ultra Pulls Ahead
On paper, the Galaxy S26 Ultra might not look radically different from recent models—Samsung still caps RAM at 12GB for most Galaxy S Ultra variants. The decisive advantage comes from its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, stronger GPU, and more capable NPU, paired with refined software. These upgrades let the S26 Ultra sustain high performance longer and complete complex tasks faster, particularly AI-heavy workloads where raw compute and on-device acceleration matter most. In PhoneBuff’s testing, the smallest differences appeared among the three most recent Ultras, yet the S26 Ultra still opened a measurable lead whenever the script ramped up the difficulty. Even a 10-second win over the S25 Ultra in a tightly controlled test indicates meaningful efficiency gains, reflecting Samsung’s year-over-year tuning of both hardware and One UI to push its flagship phones closer to desktop-like responsiveness.
Is It Time to Upgrade? What the Speed Test Means for You
For buyers weighing S26 Ultra vs older models, the results provide useful context. If you are on a Galaxy S21 Ultra or S22 Ultra, the jump is substantial: you gain over two minutes in the same workload, plus far better handling of AI tasks and demanding apps. Users of the S23 Ultra will also see a noticeable acceleration, especially moving from its 6 minutes and 28 seconds run to the S26 Ultra’s 4 minutes and 42 seconds. Coming from a S24 Ultra or S25 Ultra, the speed boost is more incremental, but those milliseconds add up for power users who multitask heavily or rely on on-device AI. For anyone who wants every possible performance edge from a Samsung flagship, the S26 Ultra now sets the performance bar for premium Android smartphones and is positioned as the most future-proof choice in the Galaxy S Ultra lineup.