Smartphone cameras don’t really undergo sweeping changes year over year anymore. Big players like Samsung, Apple, and Google have all found formulas that work, and annual hardware upgrades have become marginal, if a new generation gets hardware upgrades at all. Today, though, prolific leaker Ice Universe says he’s confirmed a relatively major upgrade coming to next year’s Galaxy S26 Ultra.
In July, Ice Universe tweeted that the Galaxy S26 Ultra would use Samsung’s own ISOCELL HP2 sensor in its primary camera, the same 200-megapixel model it’s relied on since the S23 Ultra in 2023, but that the S26 Ultra’s primary camera would feature a “large aperture.” Today, Ice elaborated that the camera will come with an f/1.4 aperture.
Ice didn’t cite a specific source for this information, but he generally doesn’t. Given his track record with Samsung leaks in the past, we can assume this one will be accurate.
A bigger aperture means better photos
A camera’s aperture is the opening light passes through to reach the sensor. The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s primary camera has an f/1.7 aperture over the HP2 sensor.
It’s a little different for smartphone cameras, but principally, a camera’s f-number is an equation where f stands in for the camera’s focal length. That means that the lower the denominator, the larger the aperture is.
With a larger f/1.4 aperture over that same sensor, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will be able to gather more light, which should make for better low-light imaging. A larger aperture also creates a shallower depth of field, making out-of-focus areas in the background and foreground look more blurry.
It may not seem like a revolutionary upgrade, but given how slowly flagship phone cameras evolve these days, we’ll take it. Here’s hoping it’s a real step forward for Samsung; we’ve found its cameras perform worse in low light than the competition has in recent years.
If history is any indication, the Galaxy S26 series should be unveiled at an Unpacked event early next year.
Thanks: Moshe
