Samsung's 2026 flagship is a camera upgrade and downgrade on paper, with faster lenses but a smaller 3x sensor and a few other less obvious drawbacks compared to the S25 Ultra. Alongside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro, though, it's still a powerful player packing impressive specs and plenty of shooting modes. Set against the best from Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, though, the camera struggles to stand out. But can features like Privacy Display and the new AirDrop support help it shine? Actually, yes.
Starting with the camera, the most notable changes in the S26 Ultra’s specs are an aperture upgrade for the primary 200MP camera, which now has a faster f/1.4 lens (down from f/1.7), and the 5x periscope telephoto. There’s also an on-paper downgrade: the 3x bridge camera between the primary and periscope has a smaller, albeit newer, sensor, and both the primary and 5x cameras don't focus as near as the S25 Ultra, so it's generally much weaker for macro photography.
