Even before the Galaxy S26 Ultra was formally announced, Samsung was teasing the impressive camera capabilities of its new phones — including a clip showing the zooming performance. I was genuinely just as impressed as everyone who watched the clip, but then again, Samsung has owned the zooming game for a long time now.
However, things changed in a dramatic way last fall when the Pixel 10 Pro XL showed off the AI-assisted enhancements of its new Pro Res Zoom feature. It activates when the zoom level exceeds 30x, which basically applies upscaling sorcery to draw more detail and definition from the shot — and the results I captured surprised me in both good and bad ways.
