The Galaxy S26 Ultra appears to be getting a major spec overhaul, following two generations of Ultra models that only saw minor changes. According to a recent leak, one prototype of the S26 Ultra has a single 200MP periscope telephoto lens. For the upcoming Ultra model, Samsung is reportedly testing different camera setups.
Another prototype of the Galaxy S26 Ultra still features a dual-telephoto setup, but the focal lengths differ. As we have seen recently from some Chinese OEMs, the 3x telephoto has been replaced by a 3.5x telephoto. Moreover, it has a 50MP sensor inside, which is even more interesting. Its sensor measures 1/3.15″ and has a pixel size of 0.56um. The current 10MP sensor measures 1/3.52″ and has 1.12m pixels.
The 50MP sensor has much smaller pixels but will likely use 4-to-1 pixel binning and capture at 12.5MP to compensate. With a higher resolution (over 33MP), the phone can also record 8K images with a 3.5X telephoto lens. Ultimately, Samsung is responsible for enabling the option and fine-tuning the image processing.
The periscope telephoto now has 8X magnification, up from 5X on the S25 Ultra. Due to minimizing the protrusion of the camera module, the new sensor has the same 50MP resolution but is slightly smaller at 1/2.76″ (down from 1/2.52″). Smaller cameras can counteract the effects of a larger lens and a longer zoom range, so they maintain their protrusion somewhat despite a larger lens.
Its ultrawide is the same as the S25 Ultra, but it has a variable aperture mechanism that allows it to adjust aperture from F/1.4 to F/4.0. Although the company has yet to finalize some of the above specifications, it will likely experiment with different specifications. As the launch approaches, we should get more information.
