While the S25 Ultra was a minor update with a new chipset and software improvements, the Galaxy S26 Ultra might have major hardware changes next year. Samsung has been using a dual telephoto lens system on its Galaxy S devices for the past couple of years — the Galaxy S21 Ultra was the first S series device to introduce it. Now, a new leak suggests that Samsung might completely change the current implementation of its telephoto cameras, ditching the dual telephoto lens system.
Samsung may remove 3X telephoto camera on the Galaxy S26 Ultra
Currently, Samsung uses a 10MP camera at 3X and a 50MP camera at 5X. According to an X user @Vhsss_God, Samsung might remove the 10MP 3X camera completely on the Galaxy S26 Ultra in favor of a better and larger periscope long-range zoom camera. Owing to the saved space, they can improve the zoom performance. While this looks like a step down on paper, not everything is about hardware. Samsung’s processing may polish the results enough to get better results at 3X from the main camera than a weak 10MP 3X camera.
The user also shared about the triple rear camera setup on the S26 Ultra. The camera module could include a 200MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 200MP periscope telephoto camera. This is a very similar setup to Vivo’s X200 Pro and X100 Ultra.
Apart from the camera, the user also talks about the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s battery and S Pen. Samsung might use Silicon Carbon batteries or Stacked batteries on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This will bring the capacity to 5500mAh, which is a step up from the current 5000mAh on the S25 Ultra. There are currently no reports of faster charging. The company might also bring back the Bluetooth functionality for the S Pen. It was very useful to snap photos without touching the screen, and many users miss it on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
For the first time in a while, Samsung’s Ultra model looks very enticing with several hardware upgrades. Exceeding 5000mAh after a long time is also a welcome change. As usual, the company should launch it around January 2026. It’s worth noting that this leak only references a prototype unit of Galaxy S26 Ultra. Not all prototypes make it to mass production. Samsung is free to change the specifications of the final model before they produce it.
