Galaxy S26 Ultra leak teases a surprising, and massive, camera upgrade

Galaxy S26 Ultra’s main camera leaks

A new leak by tipster Fixed Focus Digital on Weibo is now claiming that Samsung’s upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, will sport a 1/1.1-inch 200MP Sony camera sensor. Reportedly, this new sensor would be for the main camera. 

The tipster doesn’t give any other details about the flagship’s other cameras. However, this new 200MP sensor, if it indeed makes it into the Galaxy S26 Ultra, would be a pretty big deal. 

What’s up with this new 200MP sensor rumored for the S26 Ultra?

The report, if true, indicates a pretty big upgrade for the Galaxy S26 Ultra in the camera department. First of all, the claim is that we’re talking about a 1/1.1-inch 200MP camera sensor. This is quite larger than the current 200MP sensor (1/1.3-inch) which is on the Galaxy S25 Ultra and previous Ultra models by the company. It’s worth noting that this rumored sensor is just slightly smaller than the one-inch camera sensors seen on some rival Android phones, including the Oppo Find X8 Ultra or the Xiaomi 13 Pro. 

The Galaxy S25 Ultra. | Image Credit – PhoneArena

The larger sensor means there would be an increased light intake, which, understandably, improves picture quality compared to what the Galaxy S25 Ultra currently has. 

If the rumor pans out, it would be expected that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will provide better low-light photos and higher-quality cropped zoom images. All in all, the full-resolution 200MP pictures from this sensor could also be dramatically better than the current S25 Ultra’s 200MP photos. 

Can this really happen? 

Of course, all of this is still leaks and rumors, and we’re obviously quite far away from the release date of the Galaxy S26 Ultra to know for sure. However, there’s one curious thing worth mentioning here. 

So far, Samsung has always used in-house 200MP cameras for its Ultra models. That is because Sony has not released a sensor with 200MP for smartphones just yet. Rumors claimed back in March that Sony may be working on such a sensor, and these rumors indicated the sensor may be larger than Samsung’s. 

That’s a pretty big deal, though. If this new rumor is right, Sony may enter the ultra-high-resolution smartphone sensor market with its new camera that Samsung may introduce with the S26 Ultra. That would be big both for Sony and for Samsung. 

But there’s another thing. Samsung has recently been quite conservative, if I may say so, with hardware upgrades, especially for the Galaxy S series. We all remember the disappointment many Samsung fans felt with the January Unpacked, when we saw that there was little new with the Galaxy S25 series. 

Either Samsung has heard us and decided it will stack up the upgrades next year, or the rumor may be false. The thing is, the Galaxy S26 Ultra has already been rumored to come with a 200MP camera, but none of these earlier leaks claimed it would be a larger sensor or a Sony one. So for now, let’s take this information with a grain of salt.

Personally, though, I think it’s possible to happen. After all, Samsung’s given us plenty of upgrades with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 even though we believed (at one point) that not a lot of upgrades were coming. Maybe finally Samsung is playing seriously again, and is about to hit us with a nice surprise with the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra. 

The phone is set to be unveiled at the beginning of next year. Let’s wait and see!