Every phone has a screen. Very few have two. The Ultra S26 started from a question that kept coming back during testing: how much of the day do you spend unlocking a phone to look at something for three seconds?
The 1.75-inch rear display is the answer we settled on. It is not a second phone, and it is not a notification lamp. It is a working surface sized for the interactions that do not deserve the whole device.
The three-second problem
Checking a message. Skipping a track. Starting a timer. Seeing who is calling. Each takes a moment — but each one also lights up a 6.79-inch panel, wakes the entire interface, and pulls your attention into the phone for far longer than the task requires.
Multiply that by the number of times it happens before lunch and the cost stops being trivial: battery, attention, and the small friction of picking the phone back up after every glance.
What the rear display does
- Notifications — messages, calls and alerts surface on the back without unlocking the main screen.
- Playback — music and podcast controls while the phone lies face down on a desk.
- Camera preview — framing for selfies and group shots taken with the 32MP main camera, which is the better sensor.
- Timers and status — the countdown, the clock, the thing you needed to check once.
In each case the task finishes on the small screen and the large one stays dark. That is the entire design argument, and it is why the rear panel is measured in usefulness per glance rather than in inches.
Made to look like one object
The rear panel sits flush with the body and is finished in the same colour as the chassis, so the phone still reads as a single object rather than a handset with an accessory bolted on. From the front it looks like a normal 6.79-inch phone. From the back it does not look like anything else in its segment.
The main display keeps the 120Hz refresh rate for everything that does deserve your full attention — reading, video, games, the tasks where size and smoothness actually change the experience.
Who it is for
The Ultra S26 suits people who check their phone constantly but do not want to be pulled into it constantly. If most of your unlocks are two-second decisions, the rear display absorbs them. If you spend your evenings watching full-screen video, the 6.79-inch 120Hz panel is the part you will notice — and the rear screen simply stops getting in the way.
Ultra S26 at a glance
| Specification | Ultra S26 |
|---|---|
| Main display | 6.79-inch, 120Hz |
| Secondary display | 1.75-inch, rear panel |
| Memory | 4GB RAM + 20GB virtual RAM |
| Storage | 128GB |
| Rear camera | 32MP |
| Front camera | 13MP |
| Operating system | Android 16 |
| Colours | Black, Blue, Gold, Taupe |
Read next
- Ultra S26 launches in Europe — the launch details.
- Unboxing the Ultra S26 — the hardware in hand.
- Ultra S25: big display, big memory — the previous generation.
Take a closer look at the Ultra S26 · Browse the Ultra Series
