Starting with the iPhone 15 in 2023, Apple switched to capturing photos at 24MP by default. The higher resolution delivers noticeably better sharpness and finer detail over regular 12MP shots. Samsung may finally follow suit with the Galaxy S26, with a new leak shedding light on how its 24MP camera mode will work.
Unlike recent iPhones, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will seemingly not take 24MP photos by default. Instead, you’ll apparently have to dig into the Advanced resolution option in Camera Assistant to enable the feature.
After that, the Galaxy S26 will save photos in 24MP resolution in both photo and portrait modes. It is already possible to take 24MP photos on the Galaxy S25 through Samsung’s Expert RAW app. But leaker @UniverseIce claims that the 24MP photos taken through the stock Galaxy camera app will be different.
Samsung will apparently tune it for daily use, striking a better balance between detail retention and image size over maximum details.
Still, the leaker says that the overall image quality will be “very fine and clean.” Plus, it will avoid the issues associated with Expert RAW’s 24MP mode: over-sharpened details and purple fringing.
Despite the more powerful ISP on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will supposedly take around 3 seconds to process 24MP images after they are clicked. While some may find this annoying, the leaker believes this will be worth the trade-off as the results are “clearly better than 12MP.”
24MP mode not coming to the Galaxy S25
With the Galaxy S26 lineup not due to hit shelves until early March, Samsung still has time to further optimize image quality.
It is also unclear whether the company will enable the ability to capture 24MP photos across all rear cameras on the Galaxy S26 or limit it to the primary shooter. And while not mentioned, the Galaxy S26 may fall back to 12MP resolution during low-light and other challenging situations.
Unfortunately, while the Galaxy S26 will largely use the same camera hardware as the Galaxy S25, Samsung will apparently not bring this 24MP mode to its 2025 flagship. That’s despite the Galaxy S25 and its Ultra sibling sporting a 50MP and 200MP primary camera, respectively.
