Some screenshots were leaked recently, which were apparently taken on the Galaxy S26 Ultra running One UI 9.5. This is at a time when even the vanilla stable One UI 9 hasn’t been released to the device. We did some more digging, and this is the exact story behind these screenshots.
Well, you can see that they are the screengrabs of the Software Information section and the welcome screen on the Samsung Galaxy S26 that usually shows up at first boot. The source of these images is Fahad Ali Javed, and this is a known veteran in the leak circle who also keeps track of One UI.
A post was made by said leaker on X, by the way, if you are looking for a source. We’ll also embed the post somewhere here for convenience. Anyway, the source is as credible as they come. Samsung may not have said anything about One UI 9.5, but the secret’s spoiled anyway.
We now know that One UI 9.5 is being tested on the latest Samsung Galaxy model series, while they are pushing out the One UI 9 beta update to the device for public testing and feedback. The 9.5 version will only see the light of day at the half-year mark of the actual One UI 9 firmware.
And this is not the first time we’ve seen such a hint. We covered a leak earlier. It was without screenshots, but now we have actual evidence for this theory. It all comes down to this. They are trying to update the software version a bit early this time around.
We believe Samsung will release One UI 9 earlier than the last One UI 8. And as such, the One UI 9.5 would also get expedited to be unveiled sooner than One UI 8.5. Fahad Ali made another post where a screenshot showed the exact firmware for this new test firmware.
You can see the banner behind the Download and Install prompt that clearly says 9. It’s implied by the firmware code that it’s One UI 9.5. It’s a big update of almost 4.5GB. Again, this is a developing story. We are only here as messengers, so take this news with a grain of salt.