A new rumor out of Samsung's South Korean homeland suggests the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra could have an enlarged camera island. If true, this would mark the first significant change to an Ultra's camera array since the S21 Ultra adopted the now-iconic layout of three individual camera modules arranged in a vertical stack, flanked to the right by two smaller lenses and the LED flash.
The report suggests that the move to a large camera island is being done out of necessity, not merely as a styling tweak. This is said to be due to "the performance upgrade of the main camera and telephoto camera" dictating greater space between modules. This would also tally with a previous suggestion that Samsung may move to a new 200MP, 1/1.1-inch Sony image sensor for the S26 Ultra's primary camera.
It may actually be inevitable that Samsung could be adopting a more sizable camera island for its flagship handset. We've long seen the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Honor all sporting large, centrally-positioned camera islands for their top-tier phones, which consume most of the top half of the phone's rear panel. This layout is fast becoming what's expected from a flagship design, and we've also had rumors that even Apple could be enlarging the camera island for the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.
