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Would you pay to be first? One tech creator in Dubai did, and the price tag made people blink.
Creator Sahil Karoul posted videos showing what he says is a production-ready Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra he picked up from the city’s main electronics market. The clips don’t feel like a furtive prototype leak; the handset sits confidently next to other flagships and behaves like a finished device.
He paid $3,300 — more than double the expected retail price. That figure isn’t Samsung’s MSRP. Early adopters sometimes pay a premium for that front-row access, and Karoul’s footage is a textbook example: glamour, bragging rights, and a hefty bill.
The side-by-side comparisons include the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Vivo X300, Oppo Find X9 Pro and an iPhone 17 Pro Max, giving a clear sense of size, design and screen presence. Beyond looks, Karoul ran performance tests that are likely to grab headlines: an AnTuTu score of about 3,720,219, Geekbench numbers around 3,648 single-core and 10,898 multi-core, and a 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test best loop of 6,849 with 53.2% stability. Impressive, on paper. But remember: early software can sway results, so treat these figures like a first draft rather than the final review.
One demo stands out more than the benchmarks — Samsung’s Privacy Display in action. Karoul showed how the viewing angle shifts so people beside you can’t read your screen. It’s the kind of feature you usually test in a quiet room, but seeing it demonstrated live makes you appreciate the engineering trade-offs behind privacy-first screens.
Samsung hasn’t confirmed the device in these clips and offered no comment about the early sale. The company is scheduled to reveal official specs and pricing at its next Unpacked event on February 25, 2026, where we’ll get the verified story. Until then, these early hands-on moments will keep the rumor mill spinning and the preorder debates heated.
First looks, flashy benchmarks and a privacy demo — and still more questions than answers. Who wouldn’t be curious to see how the final software shapes the numbers?
Source: gizmochina
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