The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is said to make some changes to the cameras and be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.
The design reportedly won't change much and there are no details on any battery changes yet.
Samsung has only recently announced its impressive new foldables in the ultra-skinny Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the equally slim Z Flip 7. But even with those phones now out of the way, we weren't expecting to start hearing about the Galaxy S26 Ultra quite this soon.
Samsung isn't expected to announce the Galaxy S26 until January 2026, but there's just been a huge leak online thanks to reliable leaker PandaFlashPro. And as reported by Android Headlines, it looks like there are going to be sweeping changes for the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
First of all, the new Samsung flagship is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 – due to be revealed by Qualcomm in September 2025 – and all models will have 16GB RAM.
There will be a larger vapour chamber to support cooling of the new hardware, said to be 1.2x bigger than the previous outing.
The display will likely stay the same, offering a 6.9-inch panel, albeit with slimmer bezels. And there's been some debate about the S Pen, but it's reported that the digitiser will remain, so the S Pen will be supported.
It's thought that the S Pen will be removed from the phone though, giving that space over to something else.
The design of the phone isn't expected to change drastically, but it's said that the camera rings on the rear will be removed. I personally liked the look of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but some others think they look like cheap stick-on accessories, which they essentially are.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra cameras
Moving to the camera – one of the things that separates this phone from the Galaxy S26 Plus – and the 200-megapixel main cam will remain with an ISOCELL HP2 sensor, but there will be a new lens.
There will be a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 50-megapixel telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. The 3x telephoto could move to a new 12-megapixel sensor, upgrading from the 10-megapixel camera on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
A laser autofocus sensor is reportedly added to speed up focusing, while there's sure to be plenty of talk about new powers from the ProVisual Engine driving the cameras.
It's said that there will be a new selfie camera, but currently there aren't any solid details about it. It was previously reported that there could be an under-display cam, although that might be a strange move, considering Samsung just ditched that tech on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
It was also suggested back in 2024 that Samsung was looking to implement a rival offering to Apple's Face ID, using a system called Polar ID. We guess we have around six months to wait to find out for sure.
