- The rumored Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could get a variable aperture feature on its main camera
- Such a feature was last seen on the Galaxy S9 and can be found on Xiaomi 14 Ultra
- It can be a real benefit for the next Ultra Galaxy phone considering the size of the main camera sensor it could use
Instead of looking at what Apple is doing, Samsung could pick up inspiration from them like Huawei and Xiaomi and offer a variable aperture on the main camera of the rumored Galaxy S26 Ultra.
This tip stems from reasonably reliable tipster Ice Universe, who, when posting on the Chinese social media site Weibo, claimed that the ability to switch physically between openings will return to the main camera of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Such a feature was last seen on the Galaxy S9, which could switch between F/1.5 and F/2.4 to adjust the lens opening depending on light conditions.
The idea that was that the wider aperture (F/1/5) was used to let more light hit the camera sensor when the lighting conditions were darker at the expense of sharper photos with a deeper depth of field, while the higher (and smaller) aperture was used under brighter conditions where there was plenty of light that hit the sensor and allowed to share photos with a larger depth of the field.
This was a nice feature, but on phones with smaller sensors it was undoubtedly a small moot, as there is generally a fairly large depth of field on smartphones considering how small the main camera’s sensor is compared to the size of the lens and its wide focal length.
A potentially exciting upgrade
Nevertheless, it would be a way to upgrade the 200-Megapixel head camera found on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. And given the recent Ultra models in the Galaxy S series has larger sensors than a lot of older Galaxy phones, greater aperture control could be more noticeable.
It would also give the camera another physical feature to help shape the photos it produces and mean that the next generation’s ultra may not be so dependent on algorithmic image processing.
The ICE universe did not notice the aperture that the Galaxy S26 Ultra could use, and such a feature would not be unique to the phone as the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has several variable openings on its main camera, and the Huawei Mate 50 Pro also has a main camera with a variable aperture of F/1.4 and F/4. In our Xiaomi 14 Ultra Review, Tester Paul Hatton grew lyrically about the quality of the phone’s camera and its openings, making it appear that a feature that Samsung would be smart to copy.
Flipside is that such a function could be more a way to market the phone than to give any transformative results, especially since Samsung is already making one of the best camera phones around.
Time will show if this rumor bears any fruit, but it is one that got my attention and could spray a little more creativity in a series of Samsung phones that, in my opinion, have become excessively iterative.
