Galaxy S26 Ultra & Galaxy Buds 4 Pro - Time To Upgrade?
I have the brand new Galaxy S26 Ultra and the brand new Galaxy Buds four Pro. And as it happens, I have been using the S25 Ultra as my main phone throughout 2025, and I have been using the Galaxy Buds three Pro a lot throughout 2025. So to make this unboxing video very different from all of those TikTok and Shortform unboxings that you've probably already seen 10,000 of, I'm going to compare these new devices to the 2025 models and highlight some of the things that I think no one's really shown you properly yet, and check this out later.
The Care Package
LaterCase has hooked me up with a little bit of a care package, and I'm assuming there's going to be phone cases in here. First of all, big shout-out to Latercase. Not just for sending this over, but also for the recognition. It means a lot to me. And at this point, I have no idea what's in here. So it is going to be a little bit of a surprise. And if you haven't preordered the Galaxy S26 Ultra yet or bought one, I've got some fantastic news for you guys to stick around for that.
Unboxing the Phone
So first let's get into this box right here. This is the cobalt violet version of the phone. Now, if I wasn't going to go for this colour, the other colour that I would choose would be the silver, because the back of the phone matches the natural metal frame on the device. Anyway, let's see what this one looks like. Now that is a really nice purple. When the light hits it, it looks kind of silver in some light. And you'll notice the camera module right here looks very similar to the Galaxy Edge found. It was released, which was the very thin one. Let's get the peel.
Now, the first thing that I notice about this phone, taken out of the box for the first time, is the difference in weight. So let's find out exactly how much. So right here I have a kitchen scale. Very scientific. Then this put the Galaxy S25 Ultra on here 221g. Now let's put the Galaxy S26 Ultra on here, 214g. That is a seven-gram difference. Now, one of the major changes, in my opinion, this year is the fact that Samsung have rounded the corners even more. So this is the S25 Ultra, and you can see how the battery icon sits kind of in that corner. Now, when you compare that to how the battery icon now sits in the corner, it's a bit closer to the right edge.
And this is just kind of a hot take and a thought. Wouldn't it be cool if Samsung brought back the note line and had the right-angled corners like before with the S-Pen, and then carried on with the ultra line, but without the S-Pen and a bigger battery? I honestly think if they did that, it'd be interesting to see how many people would choose the S-Pen over more battery, and how many people would choose the squared corners as opposed to the rounded corners.
Something Nobody’s Shown You Yet
But anyway, let's move on to the first thing that probably nobody's shown you in their unboxing videos yet. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is limited in the S25 Ultra, and that is kind of true. So this phone right here is the S25 Ultra. I have a digital caliper here and we're going to measure the thickness of this. This is 8.57mm. Now let's take the same measurement with the S26 Ultra. So the measurement there is 8.15. So yes, it is true to say the S26 Ultra is thinner than the S25. But if we're being entirely honest, the S26 Ultra is actually a bit thicker than the S25. And what might blow your mind is that's probably a good thing.
So right here is the maximum depth of the S25 Ultra, and it includes the camera module. And here is the measurement of the S26 for the camera module is 12.42. So technically speaking, the S26 is thicker. But the reason it's thicker is because it has much better lenses in front of the camera sensors. And one of the reasons no one's highlighted this in their unboxing videos is because it's not instantly noticeable, as Samsung has done such a good job of hiding the depth on the new cameras.
And here's how they've done it. So first of all, there's this metallic layer which matches the back of the phone. Then there's a clear layer, which is something we saw on Apple phones not long ago. Then we have the actual camera rings themselves, which have massively shrunk down compared to the old ones. And then you've got the black ring around the enlarged camera glass and camera lenses, and it does look pretty cool in my opinion.
And of course Samsung have changed the metal. It was titanium on this 25 ultra, now is armour aluminium. And there's actually two reasons why this change is kind of an improvement. First of all, signals get through aluminum a bit better than they do titanium. And second of all, it makes the phone lighter, which you already saw at the beginning of this video.
Bigger TIM and Benchmark Test
Here's something else that probably nobody's shown you in an unboxing video inside the Galaxy S26 Ultra: they have increased the size of the Tim. And if you're wondering what the hell is it, Tim, it is the vapour cooling chamber built into the phone, designed to make sure the chipset doesn't cook. And in another attempt to make this unboxing a bit more interesting than the classic take it out of the box unboxing, I want to show you guys how much of a difference the larger Tim makes after a 20 minute extreme benchmark test, so let's start that now.
Unboxing the Galaxy Buds four Pro
And while that's running, let's move on to the unboxing of the Galaxy Buds four Pro. I'll be honest with you guys, I am super excited to check these out. And I'm a little bit sad that they got rid of one of my favorite features on the buds three Pro. I'll explain that when we get to it. Let's pull the tabs and let's get a good look at these. So you got your usual warranty cards and the quick start guide. And here we have the new buds. And you can see straight away the case has completely changed.
Now I have heard that this case can double up as a kickstand for the Galaxy phone. I'll test that theory out. Something else hiding away inside the packaging is, of course, replacement silicone tips. So let's get a look at these. There's no markings for the size, but I'm assuming that's extra large. And that's probably small. So Samsung have completely redesigned these. They've moved away from that slightly wider but flatter design. They've gone for the more square and slightly thicker design. But I do think it's a nice change. They've kept the semi transparent design as well, which is also very very nice. I think at first glance you'll agree that this is an upgrade, but you will notice just stand when I open this case.
The lights no longer exist on the new buds. And that's the thing I'm a little bit sad about, because I did like the lights. You've got to admit, they did look cool. And also you could make them light up if you did lose one of the buds. I can't honestly say that I ever had to do that, but yeah, that's a feature that we don't have anymore. But in times the case, I really do like this. They still got the wireless charging coil inside. It's still semi-translucent. The backs of the buds are now metal and you've got this grille at the top. That's where your ANC mics are. Let's try them on for the first time.
So yeah these are super comfy. They look cool. And the fact that they do have that Stem design means that the voice pick up mic is actually pointed towards your mouth, which is always an advantage over bud style earbuds when it comes to voice pickup. Now, I did want to give you guys my honest first impressions versus the buds three Pro at this point, but unfortunately the benchmarks are still running on the two phones, so I can't test that out just yet.
Unboxing the Cases
So what we'll do instead is unbox the later cases. So I'm a big fan of the branding on these very unique and eye-catching. Looks like we have a cleaning cloth as well as what appears to be a charging cable. And I think this might be a magnetic ring attachment. There are a couple of them in there. This is the lighter case. In black. And this looks really nice. Is unbelievably light. It's crazy how light this is. It feels like you could just break it immediately.
But one of the best qualities of aramid fibre is when it takes an impact. What are the fibers tense up and strengthen up. So it's actually very, very strong on impact. And one of the things that I really like about this case is how it's all one piece. There are no additional bits of plastic or anything fitted. I'm going to have to keep this to one side for the moment, because the benchmarks are still running.
Let's get a look at this. Now this is new. The uncompromising screen protector. I've not seen one of these. I've bought stuff from Latercase in the past, but I never bought one of their screen protectors, so this is completely new territory for me. I wasn't expecting this. And that has gone on there absolutely perfectly. If you're going to keep your phone for a long time, you probably want to keep the screen safe. And this is a good way to do it. Okay, let's get a look at this. This is a new product. The cables. A lot of people don't realize how important the quality of a cable is sometimes, and also how important the speed is of a cable.
I believe these guys here are the fastest, and this cable right here might be one of the nicest braided cables that I've seen to date. You've got this kind of greyish blue colour to it. The little bit of green in there is super nice, and even the connection point itself looks a lot more premium than 99% of the cables that I currently own. And you get this nice little rubberised cable tie, which also feels very premium. This is a nice cable. And last up we've got the cleaning cloth. Very important for the Galaxy phones and for any phone, really. Yes, it's a nice little cleaning cloth, has got a nice little bit of branding on it too, which sets it apart from the rest.
Now, all this left to do is wait for the benchmark to finish. And both of these phones are feeling very warm right now, so that thermal readout should be quite eye-opening. And then once we've done that, I will test the Galaxy Buds four Pro versus the three Pro and give you guys. On his first impressions of the sound differences. And I almost forgot. We've got to try on the lighter case. Anyway. Let's do the readings. First up, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Now the 26 ultra okay. So what we're looking at right here is the Tim inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Most of the heat is accumulating in the top right corner.
That's where the chipset is. The job of the Tim is to spread the heat across the back of the phone, to get rid of it as quickly as possible, and you can see it is spreading down, but it kind of cuts off. And that's probably because that's the end of the Tim inside the device. Now let's compare that to the S26 Ultra. Now, here you'll notice that the bright spot is actually a lot larger. And the heat is moving down in a bigger sort of wave than on the 25 ultra. So that's pretty interesting. It does seem to cut off at the same point as the S26 Ultra, but it does seem like the cooling chamber is a bit wider here on the S26 Ultra.
Sound Test: Buds three Pro vs four Pro
All right, now it's time to do a quick test of the sound quality differences between the Galaxy Buds three Pro and four Pro. Let's do three Pro first. Both phones recognise them, but to connect on the S25, because I have set up these with all the best codecs and all the best settings, I do have an entire video about that. If you guys check it out, look it at the end. Now this track right here isn't just your regular track. This is, in fact, a Flac, a high-res audio file stored on the device itself, not off a streaming service. So this is the highest possible quality. Let's go with this. The three Pro still sound so good.
Honestly, they sound phenomenal. Still, one thing that bothered me a little bit about the design on these was the angle here. It made it a bit hard to pinch for the pinch issues, which is definitely something there's not going to be a problem now with the new design, because you have square, flat sides to them. Okay, now let's do the full Pro with the Galaxy S26 Ultra. I have paired them already, so they pop up straight away on the phone and something is pretty cool. Now, if you go to the settings on the phone, there's an entire section here dedicated to the buds. I am going to do a first things to do guide with these, but there are some important settings to change on day one, which I'll explain in that video. Anyway, let's do the sound test with the same Flac file. No streaming services involved. Way more detailed straight away.
Better thump to the bass two. I think everybody has a kind of barometer in their mind as to what is good. And here was the Galaxy Buds three Pro, and here is the Galaxy four Pro and the slide and pinch gestures. Much easier. Now. There is no doubt that these are way better than the three, but the three are still very, very good. Samsung have definitely leveled up the audio when it comes to these, but now I know there will be some people that will be like, well, Samsung aren't really known for their audio products, but what those people might not know is Samsung owns Harman, one of the largest audio research companies on the planet, and they have a lot of very high end audio brands under that banner, which they don't actually use as part of their marketing, which is quite commendable to be honest.
Trying the Case + The Discount News
last thing to do now is try on the light case and let you guys in on the good news. If you are planning to get a Galaxy device now, that is slick. The camera module is fully protected here, which is important because it does stick out a bit further this time. Something else that I think a lot of you guys will appreciate about this case is how you can still see the accent color of the phone through these little gaps here. There's a little cutout for the S-Pen on that rounded corner and up top as well. You have the purple wax head of the device. Some cases will fully in case the phone, and you won't even know what kind of phone it is. And this one will still allow you to appreciate the original color of the phone, even with the case on.
Yeah, this is a slick case if you're into not modifying the original design of the phone and you want the best possible protection at the same time, this is a great option. It is so nice. And Samsung didn't put the two magnets in this year, but you do have options like this where you can attach a magnet to the back of the device or the back of a later case, and still use your magnetic or G2 charging devices.
All right, now time for that bit of good news. Samsung have hooked up an exclusive WhatGear discount for the viewers of this channel, and this applies to anybody who wants to buy one of the Galaxy S26 devices, the new EarPods, or any of the accessories. So if you are planning to spend some money at the Samsung store, definitely use that link to get there. And that way you'll get that extra discount on top. And don't worry, guys, I'm working on my tips and tricks series of videos for the Galaxy S26 phones. I actually have five in the chamber, so keep an eye out for those if you want to truly master.
