Checking out the 26U at BB with my 23U

[donm527]

Traveling on business I find a BB to get a first hand look and feel of the S26U before deciding if I wanna go ahead and get one and trying to share a couple of pics and maybe a few comments.

Privacy display set at max privacy... It is pretty sick how it works. Straight on view then at an angle.

 

[donm527]

S23 pen with the S26 pen to the right.

S23 pen is maybe a sheet or two pieces of paper wider than the 26? ... But the S23 pen feels so much better in the hand... (thinking of Flossy but nvm)

Nitpicking here. Especially since I never use my pen. But mine has BT functionality

 

[donm527]

I love White and initially thought I'd go back to white since my S22U but seeing the other color chips next to the phone I have to say this is the best color out of all this year.

Has a nice satiny sheen. Reminds me of the satiny metallic green on my current 23U.

The white is bright but flat. Will never compare to the shiny sparkly pearl white on the S22U with the polished frame.

Black is OK a bit of sheen but basic. The light blue does nothing for me but to each their own.

Probably more personal biased but IMO, nothing feels better than the curved sides of the S23U. The curves just make the phone feel so much better in hand and feel thinner.

This squared off style they went to on 24and 25... The softer edges on the 26 make it much better than the 25. But just a boring candybar design.

But I don't hate it and could live with it. Just not as nice as the 23.

 

[PsychDoc]

Damn nice looking phone. Never could work up much love for the boxy, squared-off Note line or the s24/25. So happy they rounded the corners on the S26. Though I recognize this is all subjective, I think this phone nails the shape. Rounded but not too rounded like the iPhones.

 

[donm527]

Definitely wanted to check out the camera take a few pics around the store and determine for myself if Ultra quality. Been watching videos and disappointed to see head to heads vs i17Pro not impressive and wanted to see for myself if the cameras passes for me. Good enough for me I guess. I was very disappointed in my ZF7 cameras even at 1x 3x but I can live with the 26U.

Here I was testing the zoom with my 23 comparing with same shot on the 26 taking a Pic of a slushi box across the floor



I mean.. a pic of a slushi box across the floor... 30x


Can only show a screenshot of the 26 taking same Pic at 30x but turned out just as good.



Was intersting to see though... 30x on the 26 is not as close as 30x on the 23. Kinda more like what 20x would be on the 23?

But one thing I came away from comparing pics and zoom... The 23U 3+ years later still is a good camera and holds its own. I was really disappointed when they dropped the 10x optical on the 23 and went 5x forward and always felt it a downgrade. Definitely confirms my belief though the 23U cameras are better than my ZF7. At least for me.

After playing with the 26U I can say I like it. Something to think about.

Oh, maybe because I didn't set the camera on the 26 to Full screen mode the 30x ended up different?

 

[donm527]

Damn nice looking phone. Never could work up much love for the boxy, squared-off Note line or the s24/25. So happy they rounded the corners on the S26. Though I recognize this is all subjective, I think this phone nails the shape. Rounded but not too rounded like the iPhones.

The softened edges subtle but was much needed over the 24/25 for a more refined look? Looks better. But the shape reminds me of... the iPhone 13...14.... 15.... 16?

 

[donm527]

Oops. This was the same box shown/taken on the 26U. The other one was a slushi box on the shelf above it. Duh . I guess 30x is closer between the two then.

 

[jamezr]

The softened edges subtle but was much needed over the 24/25 for a more refined look? Looks better. But the shape reminds me of... the iPhone 13...14.... 15.... 16?

Looking forward to the softened edges from the S24U and S25U. The shape seems to be similar to iPhones but also the Pixel as well.
No harm there.....not much you can do with slab phones.

 

[Mike Dee]

Definitely wanted to check out the camera take a few pics around the store and determine for myself if Ultra quality. Been watching videos and disappointed to see head to heads vs i17Pro not impressive and wanted to see for myself if the cameras passes for me. Good enough for me I guess. I was very disappointed in my ZF7 cameras even at 1x 3x but I can live with the 26U.

Here I was testing the zoom with my 23 comparing with same shot on the 26 taking a Pic of a slushi box across the floor

View attachment 373467

I mean.. a pic of a slushi box across the floor... 30x
View attachment 373468

Can only show a screenshot of the 26 taking same Pic at 30x but turned out just as good.

View attachment 373469

Was intersting to see though... 30x on the 26 is not as close as 30x on the 23. Kinda more like what 20x would be on the 23?

But one thing I came away from comparing pics and zoom... The 23U 3+ years later still is a good camera and holds its own. I was really disappointed when they dropped the 10x optical on the 23 and went 5x forward and always felt it a downgrade. Definitely confirms my belief though the 23U cameras are better than my ZF7. At least for me.

After playing with the 26U I can say I like it. Something to think about.

Oh, maybe because I didn't set the camera on the 26 to Full screen mode the 30x ended up different?

You might already know this....On dedicated cameras and binoculars the X factor is based on minimum vs maximum magnification so 30X is not always the same.

 

[PsychDoc]

Interesting and balanced review. I particularly appreciated his comments about the audio quality towards the end of the video. This is something rarely addressed in reviews and something that I find important. It seems that Samsung made some significant improvements in the speaker quality which (to me) is a very, very good thing when casually listening to music. He also found no significant screen clarity/detail issues with the privacy display disabled, again, a very good and important thing.