Samsung’s focus when designing the Galaxy S26 Ultra was mostly on the screen, but the company made some upgrades to the camera – the 200MP main and 50MP 5x telephoto modules have wider apertures than their counterparts on the S25 Ultra (main: f/1.7 to f/1.4, tele: f/3.4 to f/2.9). The Horizon Lock mode for video is also interesting.
We have a full review of the upcoming S26 Ultra for you to check out right now. We wanted to share an interesting finding first – Samsung switched to a different type of lens for the 5x module.
The S25 Ultra features a periscope lens, which uses a prism to bend light 90°. This is quite common especially at focal lengths in this range (111mm). However, the new S26 Ultra uses a traditional lens design, such that the lens elements and sensors are parallel to the phone.
There is a downside to this change – the minimum focus distance of the Galaxy S26 Ultra 5x camera is 52 cm. This is twice the distance of the S25 Ultra 5x lens, which can focus at 26 cm:
Measuring the minimum focus distance of the 5x cameras of the S26 Ultra and S25 Ultra
Now, we like to use the telephoto lens for close-up shots, so this is a real downer in our eyes. If you use a telephoto camera only for distant subjects, you won’t care about different lens types. In fact, it may be an upgrade.
Two different lens assemblies create different Bokeh – the “shape” of lights in the background that are out of focus. Here, we focused the camera on the plant in the foreground and blurred out the light coming from the cars and buildings in the background.
Different types of lenses create different Bokeh
Traditional lenses create a round Bokeh shape – or rather, they are round in the center and begin to resemble a cat’s iris as they reach the edge of the image. Periscopes, meanwhile, tend to be rectangular shapes, which are less aesthetically pleasing.
Here are full resolution shots if you want to take a closer look:
Bokeh Test: Galaxy S26 Ultra • Galaxy S25 Ultra
In theory, the wider aperture of the new 5x camera (f/2.9 vs f/3.4) should be able to take better photos in low light – it lets in more light. But we’ll leave the image quality comparison for the review.
We checked Samsung’s official site and found that there’s no mention of a periscope in the Galaxy S26 Ultra page (but there is in the S25 Ultra page). In fact, Samsung doesn’t say much about the camera, except that it’s better in low light conditions. We have a theory as to why Samsung swapped the lens types and it’s not because of the wider aperture, but we’ll save that for a review.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 5G
| 256GB 12GB RAM | ₹ 139,999 |
$1,299.99 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | ₹ 139,999 |
$1,299.99 |
| Show all prices | ||
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
| 256GB 12GB RAM | ₹109,850 |
$666.76 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | ₹ 141,999 |
$767.06 |
| Show all prices | ||