The smart glasses space is getting crowded fast. Less than six weeks after Snap unveiled its AR Specs, Samsung took to the stage at the Galaxy Unpacked event in London to show off its own entry in the category: two new designs of what it's calling "intelligent eyewear", developed in collaboration with fashion eyewear brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. No price, no firm release date, but a clearer picture of what Samsung's answer to the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses is going to look like.

They run Android XR, Google's operating system for extended reality devices, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chipset. AI assistance comes via Google's Gemini, which can see what you're seeing through the built-in camera and respond to voice commands or touch controls on the temples. You can take photos, record first-person video, get real-time translations, and pull up navigation based on your surroundings. Impressive stuff.

But what's most striking, for anyone who's followed this category, is how normal they look. Both designs could pass for upscale fashion frames at a glance, give or take some thicker temples and a small LED indicator on the front.

That's not a small achievement: the history of smart glasses is littered with products that announced themselves from across the room. But it raises a question the industry hasn't fully answered: if nobody can tell you're wearing a camera, is that a design triumph or a privacy problem waiting to happen?

Is it creepy?

Smart glasses with cameras have had a rough time of it lately. The UK's data privacy watchdog, the ICO, wrote to Meta earlier this year after reports that content moderators had been shown footage filmed with Ray-Ban Meta glasses without subjects' knowledge. Harvard students made headlines by demonstrating how smart glasses could be used to identify strangers in real time. The category has a trust problem, and making the glasses look more like ordinary eyewear doesn't obviously help.

Samsung's response, like Snap's, is an LED indicator that lights up when recording. It's the industry's current best answer, and it's better than nothing. Whether a small light on the frame is sufficient disclosure when you're standing next to someone on the Tube is a question regulators in the UK and Europe are likely to be asking as these products arrive.

Battery breakthrough

Privacy issues aside, what about the specs? Well, battery life is one area where Samsung has a clear edge over Snap: nine hours on a single charge, with the carrying case providing up to seven additional full charges, giving a theoretical total of 72 hours. The trade-off is that these are audio-first glasses with a camera rather than a full AR display device, so the two products are aimed at different ends of the market.

The two designs are distinct in character. The Gentle Monster edition has a cat-eye oval silhouette in slim black, fashion-forward and recognisably on-brand. The Warby Parker design is softer, a subtly upswept brow in brown that sits closer to the Ray-Ban Meta aesthetic, and probably the more wearable of the two for everyday use. Frustratingly, though, Samsung hasn't published camera specifications yet.

Both designs are expected to launch this fall, alongside Snap's Specs and, reportedly, Google's own smart glasses. Whether Samsung can match Meta on price will be crucial. But perhaps the harder question is whether the public is ready for a world where the person opposite them on the bus might be filming – and you'd never know it from looking.

Check out our guide to the best camera glasses you can buy right now

Samsung's latest foldable phones have arrived, and this year, the brand has changed up the formula. Rather than just the usual flip and fold formats, there's a new phone in the mix, with a wider, more squat cover display, around the same size as a passport.

It's a similar form factor to Huawei's China-only Pura X device, and rumours say Apple's long-awaited foldable will adopt this form factor, too. Alongside the new wider foldable, the classic Flip and Fold models get a refresh for 2026 as well, and Samsung reckons there's a distinct market for each design. I got an early hands-on look at the devices, so let's take a closer look at each model.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

Rumours were calling it the Fold 8 Wide, but Samsung has kept things simple; the new model is called the Z Fold 8, while the taller book-style foldable that we know so well is now called the Ultra.

As this naming suggests, the Fold 8 isn't quite as high-end as its Ultra counterpart. It still gets the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, so it's plenty powerful, but it has one less camera and not as many megapixels.

This model has a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP ultrawide, but no telephoto. You still get dual 10MP selfie cameras, but as with all foldables, it's easy to use the cover screen to take higher-quality selfies with the rear cameras. As a photographer, the lack of a telephoto stings. So while the new form factor is very appealing, the camera compromise makes it a harder sell.

The main new features in the camera department are software-based. You now get a mode that Samsung calls FanCam, which can automatically track a subject in a wide frame and crop a new video in an aspect ratio of your choosing. There's also a new dual video recording mode that can output video from the front and rear cameras at the same time, in a variety of different layouts.

If you're more into consuming content than creating it, though, this new shape has a lot of merit. The folding screen is 4:3, rather than the usual almost-square aspect ratio, which means the black bars are a lot smaller when you're watching 16:9 videos.

The outer screen, meanwhile, is 10:16 (or 16:10 when held horizontally) - the same aspect ratio as most laptop screens. It's wider than normal, which takes a bit of getting used to, but I'm quite fond of it. Surprisingly, the cover screen is really good for watching vertical content like TikToks, Shorts, and Reels. The UI scales well and moves the clutter to the sides of the video, rather than on top of it.

The Z Fold 8, despite being smaller, packs a 4800 mAh battery, outdoing the full-size Fold 7. The charging speed has also dramatically increased, now supporting 45W speeds with a wire. Samsung says you can expect to go from zero to 63% charged in just 30 minutes. Wireless charging is faster, too, at up to 20W.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is available in Lavender, Cream, and Graphite colourways, with a Pistachio option available exclusively on Samsung's online store. It starts at $1,899.99 / £1699 / AU$2,699 with 256GB storage, $2,099.99 / £1,869 / AU$2,999 with 512GB, and $2,499.99 / £2,119 / AU$3,599 with 1TB of space, which is cheaper than the Z Fold 7 was, but it's also not quite as high-end.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is the classic book-style foldable that we're all used to. It's the priciest of the lineup, starting at a cool $2,099.99 / £1899 / AU$2,999 with 256GB of storage, $2,299.99 / £2,069 / AU$3,299 with 512GB, and a whopping $2,699.99 / £2,319 / AU$3,899 if you fancy 1TB of storage, which starts at £100 more than last year's equivalent base model (RAM shortage induced, no doubt).

On the surface, it looks quite similar to last year's model, but subtle changes to the design make a big impact. It's now even slimmer, and it's likely the slimmest foldable on the market right now. It's also significantly easier to open and close, thanks to the reengineering of the hinge, bezel, and magnets. It's an invisible change that's immediately noticeable when you have the phone in your hands.

What's easier to see, though, is the improvement to the crease. Samsung has almost completely eliminated it by using a flexible titanium film and titanium supporting plates under the OLED panel. It's an excellent improvement, and viewed head-on, you can barely see the crease at all. The screen also now opens completely flat, rather than sitting at a very slight V-shape. Again, it's a subtle change, but it's one you'll notice in use. If I'm honest, I think Oppo's Find N6 folding screen is still flatter, but that's not available in most regions, and Samsung has leapfrogged the rest of the competition.

Of course, it also gets the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy treatment, a larger 5000 mAh battery (matching the S26 Ultra), 45W wired fast-charging, and 20W wireless charging.

When it comes to the cameras, it's only the ultrawide that gets an upgrade. You still get a similar 200MP main camera to the S26 Ultra, the same 10MP 3x telephoto, but the ultrawide makes the jump from 12MP to 50MP, which is a very welcome change.

On the software front, though, things are a little more exciting. The Z Fold 8 Ultra benefits from the same near-lossless APV codec that was introduced with the S26 Ultra. It can also shoot at 8K on the main and ultrawide cameras, and there are 4 new CineLUT styles for your Log footage. HDR is now supported for 200MP stills, and you get the same dual video recording options and FanCam modes here, too.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra will be available in Cream, Graphite, and Violet finishes, with a Green version exclusive to Samsung's website.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

The Z Flip 8 received a little less love than the other two models. It's 13.1% slimmer, 3.9% lighter, and the crease is improved, but otherwise, it looks a lot like the model that it replaces – and has the same camera hardware, too.

As you'd expect, you get the newest Snapdragon SoC, but as far as I'm aware, the battery capacity and charging speeds remain unchanged. So what does the Z Flip 8 bring to the table?

Well, much of Samsung's presentation focused on what you could do with the cover screen. It now supports Now Brief, and you can access AI automations directly from the cover. FlexWindow home has been redesigned, and there are new custom cards that can be added, too.

Samsung claims these changes are designed to make AI experiences more seamless and easy to access. It also said the Flip 8 is the brand's most AI-native phone to date. The skeptic in me thinks they just didn't have a lot else to talk about, but hey, maybe I'll be more convinced after spending quality time with it.

There are also some new software features for the cameras. Horizontal Lock video stabilisation is now available in FlexCam mode (the half-folded camcorder-style shooting), and the phone uses Samsung's ProVisual engine to improve night photography. It also benefits from the new FanCam and dual video recording options, like the other phones in the lineup.

The Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 / £1149 / AU$1,949 for the 256GB version, and $1,399.99 / £1,319 / AU$2,249 for the 512GB model, which is again £100 higher than last year. It's available in Cream, Graphite, and Pink as standard, with Mint available on Samsung's website.

What you need to know

The new Galaxy Z phones are available to pre-order from today in most regions globally. Units are expected to be on shelves and with customers from August 7.

Prices are higher across the board, but the Z Fold 8 complicates things a little. It's cheaper than last year's Z Fold 7, but it has one less camera. The new shape will be great for some people's needs, but not as good for others. For instance, the traditional book-style shape allows for two apps to display properly side-by-side, while the new shape is better for content consumption.

• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (US 🇺🇸)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (US 🇺🇸)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (US 🇺🇸)

• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (UK 🇬🇧)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (UK 🇬🇧)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (UK 🇬🇧)

• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (AU 🇦🇺)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (AU 🇦🇺)
• Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 (AU 🇦🇺)

At this stage, I've only had a quick go with these devices at a preview event, so I'm still formulating my opinions. Stay tuned for full reviews; we'll soon find out how these devices compare to the best foldables on the market.

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Check out more of the best flip and folding phones in our guide, or for the ultimate in phone photography, check out the best camera phones you can buy right now.

Samsung’s next Galaxy Fold and Flip phones look set to receive a new generation of foldable screen with reduced crease visibility and "a more refined foldable experience". Called Flex Titanium, the technology integrates two titanium-based components — a titanium-alloy film and a titanium plate — which are said to work together to balance slimness, flexibility, and strength within the foldable display structure.

Titanium is known for its excellent strength to lightness ratio. It's been used in demanding applications like satellite antennas and the wheels of a Mars rover. It also provides an ideal basis for Samsung's new display structure, as it ensures the screen will withstand external shock and be flexible enough to endure repeated folding, while also being thin enough to be practical for a foldable device.

The drawback to using titanium in a folding application is the material's stiffness - it doesn't want to bend! To solve this rather fundamental issue, Samsung has integrated titanium in two key components: a titanium-alloy film and a titanium plate. The titanium-alloy film supports the display from within, sitting below the OLED panel. Compared with a conventional polymer film, titanium provides 20 times greater mechanical stiffness. It's also thin - really thin - measuring roughly one-third the thickness of an average human hair, enabling a slimmer-overall display panel.

Below the titanium-alloy film sits a robust titanium plate; a flexible structure that provides stable support underneath the display when unfolded, while retaining the flexibility needed to accommodate repeated folding. The new tech is said to display deliver ultra-vivid display resolution with reduced power consumption, thereby delivering a dramatic boost in overall power efficiency.

Flex Titanium technology will debut with Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy foldable devices: the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8, which will be revealed at the next Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, 9am EDT.

There seems to be two constants in the tech world at the moment: anything requiring NAND flash (memory cards, SSDs, etc.) is getting more expensive, and Samsung seems to be doing its very best not to give us significant camera hardware upgrades in each new Galaxy S-series generation.

There has been precious little camera hardware innovation in recent S Ultra phones. I've recently written a lengthy critique of this, suggesting that it may not be unreasonable to propose that if Samsung's flagship phones continue to stagnate, it could potentially lead to the downfall of high-end Samsung camera phones. Well, now rumors are claiming that the base Galaxy S27, due early next year, may also not get any significant camera upgrades.

In a tip from Lanzuk on Naver Blog, it's claimed that the vanilla S27 is unlikely to receive camera or display upgrades due to there being no notable development activity in the component supply chain. Component cost increases could also be a factor here, as phones also rely on NAND flash, which as we know is now considerably more costly than around a year ago. In order to bring the S27 in at an acceptable price point, it's possible screen and hardware upgrades have been omitted in order to compensate for the increased cost of flash memory.

If we do get the same camera set-up as in the current S26, then expect a 50 MP 1/1.56" primary camera fronted by a 24mm f/1.8 lens, teamed with a 10 MP 1/3.94" telephoto module giving 3x optical zoom, and a 12 MP 1/2.55" 13mm-equivalent ultrawide camera.

Obviously please take this very early speculation with a generous helping of salt. We don't expect to see the Galaxy S27 launch until February or March next year, so there's still plenty of time for Samsung to change course on this, and I for one hope it does, although I won't be betting on it.

Think about the last great photograph you took. It might be a landscape you stood in for 20 minutes waiting for the light, a street scene that captured a split second of urban choreography, or a portrait where everything (expression, light, background) just clicked into place. 

Now imagine being able to step inside it: to move your head and sense the depth that was there when you pressed the shutter. To experience the image not as a flat rectangle on a screen, but as something you can look around inside.

That's the promise of one of the Samsung Galaxy XR's less-trumpeted features. The mixed-reality headset, which has been available in the US since October for $1,799.99, and launches in the UK on July 8 at £1,699, can automatically convert your existing photos and videos into 3D, using AI to work out depth information from flat source material. 

Samsung is careful not to over-promise on quality: results vary depending on the subject and how the original was shot. But the idea raises questions about photography that go beyond whether any headset is worth the asking price.

The Galaxy XR is primarily aimed at entertainment and productivity, with dual 4K Micro-OLED panels delivering 27 million pixels in view and a 109-degree horizontal field of view. Reviewers have broadly agreed it's a genuine rival to the Apple Vision Pro. But personally, it's what it does with photographs that I think is worth thinking about most.

What it can do

Converting a 2D image into a 3D space isn't new, of course. Photogrammetry software has done it for years, using multiple overlapping shots from different angles.

What the Galaxy XR attempts, though, is different, because it's working from a single image and using AI to estimate depth where none was explicitly captured. For images that already have strong spatial qualities, clear foreground-background separation, distinct planes of focus, a real sense of depth, the effect could be impressive.

This raises an interesting question for photographers. If you know your images might be viewed this way, does it change how you shoot? Do you think more deliberately about depth when composing, or reach for lenses and apertures that give a stronger sense of space? 

It's a similar shift to what happened when photographers started shooting for social media and had to think about how their images would read as small squares on a phone screen. How you expect an image to be seen tends to shape how you make it.

Adapting your archive

There's another angle worth considering. Most photographers who've been shooting for any length of time have built up a substantial archive: years of RAW files, thousands of images sitting in Lightroom or on external drives. The Galaxy XR's conversion feature, at least in principle, makes that entire archive a candidate for a new kind of viewing experience.

Your travel photography from a decade ago, your portrait work, your landscape series... All of it is potentially viewable, in a form that brings back something of the depth and atmosphere of the original scene.

That's still somewhat speculative: how well AI-inferred 3D actually works on older, single-image sources is an open question. But the potential is clear. As the AI improves and the hardware gets lighter and cheaper, the gap between a photograph and a fully immersive record of a moment gets smaller.

Where it's all heading

The Galaxy XR is best understood as an early step rather than the finished article. Samsung has already announced AI smart glasses developed with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, which points toward a future where these experiences move off a bulky headset and into something you can wear all day. 

The hardware will, in all likelihood, get lighter and cheaper before we know it. Samsung has already announced AI smart glasses with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. It's also been out in force at Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California this week, showcasing display panels designed for glasses-style AR that would make current headset screens look dim. 

All of which means that in future, the gap between a photograph and a fully immersive record of a moment will get smaller. And the craft of making images that work in three dimensions could start to matter in ways it never has before.

An excellent article by PetaPixel highlights how Samsung produces some of the world's most advanced image sensors, yet opts to equip its latest phones like the S26 Ultra with ageing sensor hardware. Not only that, it's also happy to provide rival phone manufacturers with newer sensors than it uses in its own products, thereby giving the competition a hardware advantage. It seems like a baffling business decision - to voluntarily hamstring your own products while simultaneously supplying your rivals with more modern tech - but this is exactly the position Samsung has chosen.

PetaPixel's interview with a Samsung Senior Executive reveals several reasons for the brand's reluctance to use its own cutting-edge image sensors in its flagship phones, but none are particularly convincing. The gist is that Samsung has stuck with the same 200 megapixel ISOCELL HP2 sensor since the S23 Ultra as it is tried and tested hardware that provides a stable, known baseline for Samsung to develop its AI image enhancement. According to Samsung, the physical sensor is only one piece in a much bigger picture: “What ultimately matters are the results. Our approach is focused on delivering consistent, high-quality performance for real-world use cases, and we’re confident our customers will be very happy.”

There is something to be said for this approach. In conventional cameras the image sensor is a major component that has a huge influence on image quality, but equipping a new camera phone with the latest and greatest image sensor isn't quite so important. This is due to a phone's immensely powerful image processing, which has the power to turn an old or mediocre sensor into an imaging powerhouse. Google proved this in past generations of Pixel phones: the Pixel 2, 3, 4 and 5 all used the same 1/2.55" 12.2MP sensor, yet image quality consistently improved with each phone generation, mostly thanks to better processing. Samsung has also followed this model, leaning heavily on AI to boost the image quality of the last few generations of S Ultra phones. There can be no doubt that this approach has yielded positive results, even in spite of Samsung's negligible improvements to camera hardware over the same time period. But the question is: is Samsung doing enough? The S26 Ultra is undoubtedly an excellent camera phone, but the competition is fierce, and like Samsung, they're bringing AI and advanced image processing to the fight. What’s more, those rivals are also embracing cutting-edge camera hardware.

It could be argued that Samsung phones don't need to be at the forefront of camera hardware any more. After all, iPhones rarely blaze a trail in this respect, and that doesn't seem to hurt sales. Google also follows a similarly conservative approach with Pixel camera hardware, again with positive results. However, Samsung isn't in quite such a privileged position as those brands. Apple's carefully curated iOS ecosystem and its steadfastly loyal consumers place the iPhone outside of Samsung's - or indeed any Android phone brand's - competitive reach. Pixel isn't quite so untouchable, but Google has managed to carve a slightly Apple-esque niche, positioning Pixel as the 'pure Android' experience. Granted, there will also be a large number of users loyal to Samsung's One UI interface, but I'd wager there's a greater percentage of Samsung users who'd be willing to jump ship to an alternative Android phone brand than there are iPhone or Pixel users ready to defect.

And when you consider the quality of phones which are ready to tempt Samsung users away from the brand, things start to look decidedly shaky for the Korean giant. I've recently been using the new Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which in 12GB/512GB guise costs the same as the equivalent Galaxy S26 Ultra. But when it comes to camera hardware, it’s clear which phone is superior. Sure, both have a 200MP sensor for their primary cameras, but where Samsung is still using its dated ISOCELL HP2 chip, Oppo has implemented a bang-up-to-date Sony LYT-901 sensor, which is also usefully larger in size. The Find X9 Ultra also packs a bigger sensor for its ultrawide module, but its telephoto hardware where Oppo really blows Samsung into the weeds. Where the S26 Ultra has to make do with a tiny 1/3.94" 10MP sensor for its 3x telephoto camera, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a huge 200MP, 1/1.28" chip behind its 3x lens. For context, that's physically larger than the sensor in the S26 Ultra's main camera. Both phones use a 50MP sensor for their long-range telephoto modules, and here the S26 Ultra's sensor is marginally larger than Oppo's. However, that's only because Samsung's optical zoom tops out at just 5x, whereas the Find X9 Ultra can achieve a 10x, 230mm-equivalent reach.

Then there's Oppo's close collaboration with Hasselblad, which results in Hasselblad Master Mode: a whole suite of film-style pre-sets, extensive manual control options, and a more natural photo aesthetic that convincingly emulates the image quality from the brand's medium format cameras.

What's more, it's not just the internal camera hardware where brands like Oppo are showing a clean pair of heels to Samsung. Where you could be forgiven for mistaking the S26 Ultra for one of Samsung's mainstream A-series phones, the Find X9 Ultra is a bespoke design that adopts numerous Hasselblad design cues and consequently looks like nothing else on the market - it feels like a truly special device in the hand. And if you want to stand out from the crowd even more, there's the Find X9 Ultra Hasselblad Earth Explorer Kit. This includes a Hasselblad-inspired case and grip with integrated 2-stage camera shutter button and a physical zoom rocker. The case can then be fitted with a gorgeous Hasselblad telephoto lens to give 300mm of optical zoom, increasing to 690mm when using a combination of optical zoom and on-sensor cropping.

Obviously the S26 Ultra does still have a lot going for it, but when it comes down to camera hardware and camera innovation, Oppo, along with other Chinese brands like Vivo and Xiaomi, are producing flagship phones with significantly more wow factor than the S26 Ultra offers. Right now this doesn't seem to be hurting Samsung - its decades of global phone dominance, along with the huge power of the wider Samsung empire - means it hardly needs to alter the S Ultra recipe for a new generation to be a sales hit. But seemingly invincible phone brands have been toppled before. Nokia's demise can largely be attributed to the disruptive market influence of the iPhone, along with cornering itself into a reliance on the doomed Symbian OS. Its death wasn't due to the kind of stagnating design innovation that we're seeing from Samsung, but the Nokia case study does at least serve as a warning that even an industry giant can fall. A more pertinent comparison to Samsung's current position is that of HTC. Once a major player in the Android phone sector, with flagships like the HTC One M7 and M8 being widely considered to be the best camera phones of their period, the HTC brand seemed to disappear almost overnight. There were multiple reasons for this, but one major factor was lacklustre design and innovation: HTC appeared to rest on its laurels after the One M8, with subsequent flagships offering little in the way of meaningful improvements. Sound familiar?

Now, I'm not suggesting Samsung is on the brink of collapse due to its last few generations of S Ultra being mildly underwhelming. But there is only so long it can keep recycling the same camera hardware and tired design language when the Chinese brands are innovating in these areas so relentlessly, while also bringing their flagship phones to market for the same or less money than Samsung charges. If Samsung continues to play it safe like this, it’s only a matter of time before customers of its flagship phones are tempted away to more enticing options, at which point the brand may find it very difficult to win them back.

Dua Lipa has made headlines this week for filing suit against Samsung for allegedly using her copyrighted image for commercial purposes without permission. And this isn’t just a small claim, either.

The Albanian-born British singer is seeking an eye-watering $15 million (around £11 million / AU$21 million), as Samsung plastered this image all over the packaging of its televisions.

Lipa’s legal team claims that this influenced sales and “diluted” her brand among fans, some of whom may have bought a Samsung TV after seeing their favorite singer on the box.

I’m hardly feeling sorry for Lipa, who had already amassed an estimated fortune of over $100 million (£74 million / AU$138 million) before the age of 30.

But, as a photographer, I certainly do care about the law of copyright and how vital it is to uphold – especially in a case involving someone as influential as a world-famous pop star.

The way I see it, if Dua Lipa of all people can be crushed in civil court by a large company that apparently not only stole her image, but used it to make profit, then there’s no hope for any of us photographers safeguarding our work.

Especially professional photographers trying to make a living from the craft with AI already “sampling” (*cough* stealing *splutter*) work on a daily basis.

Adding insult to injury from a photographer’s perspective is that Lipa has been fighting this battle since last June.

That's when she found out that her image had been taken – an image which the legal complaint, filed in California, claims adorns the packaging of a “significant portion” of Samsung TVs sold in the US last year.

According to The Guardian’s report, the image in question was taken backstage at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2024. We don’t know who took the image, only that Lipa is the subject and, according to the suit, the rights holder.

But imagine, as a practicing photographer, that it was your image that was used without permission, and that image contributed to generating millions in sales for somebody else. You’d be livid.

Samsung has since denied any "intentional misuse", claiming that the image was supplied by content partner with “explicit assurance” that it had been cleared, noting that it “has actively sought and remains open to a constructive resolution”.

Until solid evidence comes to light that the electronics giant was within legal bounds to not only use the image, but subsequently slap Lipa’s likeness all over a product she never endorsed in the first place, I stand with the singer.

She might not be the person who took the image at the center of this fiasco, but for as long as this case is ongoing, she does represent every photographer who’s ever fought for control over work they created.

Once it’s over, I can then go back to not giving a rat’s ass about celebrities.

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Samsung Electronics – the largest memory chipmaker in the world – is warning that the memory shortage driven by storage-hungry AI will likely continue to worsen into 2027.

The insight comes from Samsung’s quarterly financial results, which have the chipmaker posting an all-time high for quarterly revenue of KRW 133.9 trillion. That’s about $90 billion / £67 billion / AU$126 billion / CA$124 billion at current exchange rates.

Samsung says that customers have already begun placing orders for 2027 amid concerns over chip shortages. “Based on the orders received so far, the supply gap relative to 2027 demand is expected to widen even further compared to 2026,” the head of Samsung’s memory business Kim Jae-june said during the earnings call.

The company’s memory division was responsible for 93.7 percent of the first quarter's operating profit. But even within the same company, the report shows the effect the limited supply has on other electronics. For example, Samsung’s mobile division profit dropped as the segment warned of the increased cost of memory required to build those smartphones.

The report comes as photographers, videographers, and content creators are already seeing the effects of the increased demand for storage sparked by the rise of AI. Memory card prices have already tripled in some instances, for example.

Some memory card makers, including ProGrade, have indicated that memory card prices will be increasing.

Lexar has indicated the change could be long-term. “We have to accept that this situation could be long-term because the industry has shifted to a new era,” a Lexar representative told Digital Camera World earlier this year.

The effect plays a role in more than just memory cards and hard drives, however. Memory is essential to building the processors in the cameras themselves. Canon, for example, says that it has already secured most of the memory that it needs for 2026, but still expects a cost increase of about $50.3 billion yen – that’s about $318 million / £235 million / AU$445.5 million / CA$435.6 million at current exchange rates.

For photographers, the price increase is a double whammy – not only are creators paying more for memory, but the cause is the artificial intelligence that generates images trained, in many cases, on unpaid images scraped from the internet.

While companies like Samsung are predicting that AI-related storage pressure will only get worse in the next year, that’s only a prediction based on current conditions and the orders that have already started trickling in for 2027. The insight, however, may encourage creators to treat memory cards like expensive cameras and house them in protective cases – and not wait if a memory need is on the horizon.

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Building on its Best in Show award at the Global Mobile Awards 2026, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has now been honored as the Best Photo Smartphone at the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) World Awards.

The TIPA World Awards 2026 recognize the best new photo and imaging products each year, celebrating innovation in technology, design, and user experience across the industry. The awards are widely regarded as one of the most respected honors in the imaging world.

The winners are decided at TIPA's General Assembly, where leading photography publications – including Digital Camera World – vote on the most impressive launches. Out of 40 categories, Samsung's flagship was named the top camera phone for photography.

200MP image power: the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

The TIPA highlighted that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a standout example.

"The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra features one of the most advanced smartphone camera systems available today, with a quad-camera setup, a 200MP main sensor and powerful zoom capabilities. Those ultra-high 200MP resolution images result from utilizing the “wide camera” f/1.4 sensor.

"In all, the S26 Ultra camera sets the new standard in zoom capability and range, low light and night shots, and high-detail photos, making it a good choice within the smartphone field."

Samsung's flagship features a 200MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP 5x periscope lens – and excels in zoom versatility. While competitors like Oppo and Vivo may edge ahead in pure image processing, Samsung offers one of the most complete and consistent camera experiences in an Android flagship.

That said, improvements over the previous generation are incremental, and Samsung's image processing can sometimes appear slightly over-enhanced. Even so, the Galaxy S26 Ultra remains a top-tier choice for users who want a powerful, all-in-one smartphone camera system.

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Looking for competitions to enter? Here are 10 global photo contests now open for entries from April to December.

French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson once said, "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst" – and he's right: practice makes perfect. And today, thanks to camera phones, every aspiring photographer can learn, experiment, and create, right from the device in their pocket.

The 15th Annual Mobile Photography Awards (MPA) celebrate exactly that – photographers pushing the limits of mobile cameras, from basic devices to high-end 50MP flagship smartphones.

Connecting to Cartier-Bresson's idea to modern technology, MPA says: "If your first 10,000 photos are your worst, mobile photography has given humanity a historic opportunity to quickly get past 10,001," awarding photographers who fully embraced this era of instant and accessible creativity.

15th Annual MPA – Category winners

1st Place Winner: People
How Long Can We Stay Down Here? by Louise Rayner
Phone: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Exposure: 1/4000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 32

1st Place Winner: Macro & Details
The White Masked Sentinel by Steven Grogin
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
Exposure: 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 20

1st Place Winner: Street Photography
A Gazing Cat by Yajun Hu
Phone: Xiaomi 14 Ultra
Exposure: 1/900 sec, f/4, ISO 50

1st Place Winner: Architecture / Design
Folded Passage by Ma Shuolong
Phone: Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Exposure: 1/440 sec, f/1.8, ISO 32

1st Place Winner: Portraits & Self Portraits
Flower Power by Beata Smutek
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S23
Exposure: 1 sec, f/1.7, ISO 12

To discover all category winners and the competition's overall winner, visit the Mobile Photo Awards website.

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The Photography & Video Show is in full swing with all the biggest names in the world of photo, video, and content creation showing off their latest gear. Canon has some pretty incredible VR tech, you can try Fujifilm’s GFX Eterna medium format cinema camera, and Loawa has some crazy magnification macro probe lenses – but my highlight is already Samsung’s Creator Playground.

The Creator Playground is always a regular attraction at the show, but this year it’s bigger and better than ever, with an entire globetrotting photo experience, and even a quick trip into outer space – take that Katy Perry.

Starting off in Europe, the trail kicks off in my home city of London, where you can pop into one of the city’s iconic red phone boxes. After that, take a quick bike tour through the orange groves of Spain before heading further through the Mediterranean, and living your own Mamma Mia fantasies on your private Greek island.

Next, it's a quick hop over to the Americas. Wrap up warm for some tobogganing while the snow falls in Canada, throw down some chips in Las Vegas, before finishing in Mexico for some Day of the Dead celebrations.

A quick visit to Asia lets you head through India on a rickshaw before ending up in South Korea for some noodles under fluorescent lights.

Head next to the Middle East and a Moroccan tea house, before heading over to Africa and taking your jeep out on safari, where you can tick off two of the big five. Finish your world tour down under in a tropical paradise before hitting up an Australian BBQ.

Finally, suit up and blast off into outer space!

If you want to go and create some content in the Creator Playground, head along to The Photography & Video Show at the NEC in Birmingham and have a play. For more information and tickets, visit the official website.

Samsung's 2026 flagship is a camera upgrade and downgrade on paper, with faster lenses but a smaller 3x sensor and a few other less obvious drawbacks compared to the S25 Ultra. Alongside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro, though, it's still a powerful player packing impressive specs and plenty of shooting modes. Set against the best from Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, though, the camera struggles to stand out. But can features like Privacy Display and the new AirDrop support help it shine? Actually, yes.

Starting with the camera, the most notable changes in the S26 Ultra’s specs are an aperture upgrade for the primary 200MP camera, which now has a faster f/1.4 lens (down from f/1.7), and the 5x periscope telephoto. There’s also an on-paper downgrade: the 3x bridge camera between the primary and periscope has a smaller, albeit newer, sensor, and both the primary and 5x cameras don't focus as near as the S25 Ultra, so it's generally much weaker for macro photography.

With the latest Snapdragon for Galaxy power, an excellent new feature – Privacy Display – which keeps prying eyes at bay, the most seamless AirDrop support we've ever seen on an Android phone, faster charging and plenty of smarts under the hood, though, the S26 Ultra could still be an excellent smartphone even if it isn't the best camera phone around.

Galaxy S26 Ultra design and screen

The Galaxy S26 Ultra feels immediately familiar, but Samsung has softened the harder edges of the S25 Ultra, giving the phone a slightly gentler, more cohesive look. It still feels every bit the flagship, with premium materials, matte-finished sides and an integrated S Pen that remains a genuine differentiator. The small hardware tweaks are modest rather than transformational, and anyone upgrading from a Galaxy S25 Ultra or even an S24 Ultra should feel right at home.

The S26 Ultra is 7.9mm thick and weighs 214g, which makes it 0.85mm thinner and 17g lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, despite the fact both phones feature 6.9-inch displays. Samsung’s panel is excellent: a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X running at 3120 x 1440 with a peak brightness of 2,600 nits and a pixel density of roughly 498ppi. By comparison, Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max uses a 6.9-inch OLED at 2868 x 1320, 460ppi, and claims up to 3,000 nits outdoors. The real standout, though, is Samsung’s new Privacy Display, a hardware-based system that dynamically controls wide and narrow pixels to reduce off-angle visibility in public spaces. This works exactly as advertised and can be set to specific apps, making it a true point of differentiation.

One caveat for photographers is the rear camera layout. While there's no MagSafe or Qi2 built into the phone, the large camera array can still make cases that add the feature incompatible with wallet-style accessories and many MagSafe chargers and mounting accessories. Even so, between the excellent display, slim build and genuinely useful Privacy Display, the S26 Ultra remains a strong design package.

Galaxy S26 Ultra camera specs

Samsung’s quad-camera formula has held strong since the S23 Ultra, with an ultra-wide, primary, 3x, and periscope camera.

The S26 Ultra’s primary camera is a 200MP 1/1.3-inch sensor, the same physical size as the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s main sensor. But with its faster f/1.4 lens, it captures a shallower depth of field and should do a fine job in low light, even if it can’t match the 1-inch sensor size of the new Xiaomi 17 Ultra.

The ultra-wide camera is a 1/2.52-inch sensor and f/1.9 combo, a solid spec for an often-neglected element in the smartphone camera mix. It’s also very wide at 13mm equivalent, so it captures plenty of detail, and the 50MP resolution means it can benefit from pixel binning to capture native 8K content.

The 10MP 3x camera remains a weak point. Because it uses a small 4:3 sensor, it lacks sufficient native 16:9 resolution for full-detail 4K capture, which shows up as softer results, especially in low light. This year, Samsung has actually shrunk the sensor, dropping the pixel size from 1.12 microns to 1 micron, resulting in a tiny 1/3.94-inch size. It is a newer sensor, so it could still offer improvements, but its spec is still an across-the-board head-scratcher, especially when set against the improvements to the other cameras and what else is on the market from Honor, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

Finally, the 5x periscope camera with a 115mm equivalent focal length combines a faster f/2.9 lens with the same 1/2.52-inch sensor as the S25 Ultra, which should help in low light, when capturing moving subjects, and compensate a little for hand shake.

All things considered, the hardware mix isn’t necessarily exciting, but it’s still competitive with Apple and Google, Samsung’s main competition in the West.

Processing, AI, and camera software

Samsung loads up the S26 Ultra with its latest computational photography smarts, but at a base level, its photo processing remains very Samsung. Colors are handled with the same characteristic boosting, sharpening is aggressive in auto mode, and pinching in on shots reveals the mottling characteristic of Samsung’s specific brand of noise suppression.

Shooting modes – Standard + resolutions

Shooting modes are mostly unchanged, with modes including Portrait, Photo, Video, Pro, Pro Video, Food, Panorama, Slow Motion, Hyperlapse, Portrait Video, and Expert RAW, which can be downloaded through the Galaxy Store. Photos are captured at 12MP by default, with a 200MP option available for the primary camera, and 50MP options for the ultra-wide and 5x cameras.

Expert RAW and Camera Assistant

Expert RAW, Samsung’s downloadable bracketing RAW capture mode, gets an added feature for 2026: Virtual Reflector, which simulates a reflector to create more balanced exposure in shadows. This gives you a live preview and seems to work best with faces. It doesn’t work with the front camera, but it’s a novel on-device tool for RAW fans.

In addition to Expert RAW, you can download Camera Assistant through the Galaxy Store, and this is a must for photographers picking up the S26 Ultra. It's where you can customize which zoom shortcuts appear on-screen, turn off auto lens switching, and enable handy video tools like audio monitoring via Bluetooth headphones.

Shooting experience

Samsung’s camera UI is very flexible. You can rearrange and remove shooting modes that appear on-screen when you fire up the camera, and Quick Launch is on by default, so a double-tap of the power button quickly gets you into the camera.

The camera is really fast in bright light, so you can snap without waiting. Like with most phones, when the lights drop, computational photography extends the shutter speed, and a steady hand means you’ll get a much sharper shot. This is especially true of the 3x and selfie cameras, which have the smallest sensors and the slowest lenses.

In auto mode, Samsung does have filters, but we would have really liked a Vivo or Xiaomi-style set of default shooting modes, like Zeiss Natural, which dials back punch and over-processing a bit while retaining the benefits of computational photography. In Pro mode, you can adjust contrast, saturation, and more, but in doing so, you sacrifice some of the dynamic range and processing benefits of auto mode.

On the plus side, the Pro photo and video modes are fully featured. And the addition of APV video on top of Log and Expert RAW means enthusiast photographers and videographers will have plenty to sink their teeth into.

Galaxy S26 Ultra photo quality

The good

The S26 Ultra’s 200MP primary camera remains the star of the show, not because you’ll be shooting 200MP all day, but because it gives Samsung a ton of latitude to work with. In default 12MP mode, it’s reliably sharp across the frame, with enough micro-contrast to make textures pop without you having to fight focus or motion blur in decent light. It’s also one of those cameras you can lean on in almost any scenario: landscapes, food, quick street shots, indoor portraits. It rarely feels out of its depth, and when you do want to crop in, there’s still meaningful detail there, even if Samsung’s sharpening is excessive when you start pixel-peeping.

Night photography is also better than previous Ultras, and it’s one of those improvements you notice without having to go hunting for it. The S26 Ultra still brightens scenes aggressively, but it’s less heavy-handed with the sky. Older Galaxy phones often lifted night skies until they turned into a weird, muddy, overly saturated gradient, like the phone was allergic to true blacks. Here, Samsung seems more comfortable letting darkness look like darkness. You still get that Samsung punch, but it’s toned down just enough that night scenes feel cleaner and more believable, with fewer strange color shifts where street lighting meets the sky.

The ultra-wide is another solid shooter. Samsung’s f/1.9 lens paired with a 50MP sensor means it pulls in a lot more light than many ultra-wides, and that helps in exactly the situations where ultra-wides usually struggle: indoors, at dusk, and in mixed lighting. It also gives you a touch more subject separation than you’d expect at 13mm equivalent, which makes close-up shots feel less flat. And because it doubles as a macro camera, it’s versatile. Detail holds up well, focusing is quick, and it’s the kind of ultra-wide that won't totally distort your shots. That said, fans of expansive photos and videos should check out the Vivo X300 Ultra, featuring a best-in-class ultra-wide setup.

Samsung’s 5x periscope remains a strong option, especially if your comparison set is the iPhone and Pixel rather than the China-first camera champs. It isn’t best-in-class for raw detail or natural rendering, and if you’ve used the top Vivo or Xiaomi flagships, you’ll know Samsung still isn’t matching that level of finesse. But alongside the phones most people are realistically buying in the West, the 5x holds up well. I still prefer Apple’s slightly wider 4x focal length for general portrait and everyday tele work, but Samsung’s processing does a better job of keeping hand shake and noise under control when light drops, so you end up with more consistently usable shots.

One area the S26 Ultra compromises is macro photography, with the primary and 5x cameras doubling the nearest focus distance. This results in significantly weaker detail for close-up shots and, ultimately, a worse phone for fans of that specific type of photography.

Anyone considering an alternative that excels in this area should look to the Oppo Find X9 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro.

A subtle wins this year is how smoothly the S26 Ultra moves between cameras in photo mode. Switching focal lengths feels less like jumping between four different cameras and more like moving through a single system. Exposure and white balance still aren’t perfectly matched in every situation, but the transition itself is fast and fluid, and that matters when you’re shooting quickly and don’t want the phone to feel like it’s catching up to you.

HDR is also generally handled well, especially with backlit subjects. The S26 Ultra is happy to lift shadows, but it doesn’t always turn the scene into that over-processed HDR look where everything is equally bright and equally flat. Backlit faces tend to be protected well, highlights are usually controlled, and the end result is often pleasing rather than obviously “fixed.” It’s not the most natural HDR style on the market and can pull up ghosting with moving subjects, but it’s typically one that works, and it keeps the camera feeling dependable in tricky lighting.

Samsung’s AI processing improvements are mostly incremental, but they do add up in day-to-day use, especially when zooming in. The phone feels a little better at resolving fine detail without turning everything into a crunchy mess, and it’s slightly more controlled about how it cleans up noise in darker scenes. You can still spot Samsung’s heavy processing when you zoom in, but the straight-out-of-the-camera success is higher than it used to be.

The selfie camera has been leveled up by software. Skin tones are still warm, mostly flattering, and very Samsung, but they’re less hit-or-miss, especially under indoor lighting.

The bad

Color is the S26 Ultra’s biggest weakness. Skin saturation is pushed hard and regularly swings too far into red, especially indoors and in mixed lighting. It’s a very Samsung look, but it isn’t subtle, and it can make people shots feel more stylized than lifelike.

Color accuracy also varies between cameras, and it’s most obvious once light drops. Jump from the primary to the ultra-wide or telephoto and you can see shifts in white balance and overall tone, so a scene that looks neutral on one lens can look warmer or more saturated on another. It doesn’t always ruin a shot, but it chips away at the “pro” feel when you’re shooting across focal lengths.

Noise reduction is another recurring issue. Samsung cleans up grain so aggressively that it creates a mottled texture, particularly in shadows and night scenes. At a glance, it looks tidy, but as soon as you crop in, fine detail gets smeared and then sharpened back up, which leaves images looking a little synthetic.

That processing pipeline ties into the phone’s default warmth. The S26 Ultra often prioritizes a warm, punchy look over realism, which can be flattering in some scenes, but it also means neutrals drift and skin tones get an extra push toward orange-red.

Bright light sources can also bloom and bleed at night, softening parts of the image and making high-contrast scenes look less clean than they should.

And then there’s the 3x camera, which remains the weak link by a wide margin. In anything but strong light, it produces softened images that are then over-sharpened, and the results don’t hold up to cropping. It’s usable, but it’s the least “Ultra” part of the whole setup.

While the 5x camera is mostly reliable, its nearest focus distance is frustratingly limiting. Unlike phones like the Honor Magic 8 Pro and Vivo X300 Pro, the S26 Ultra doesn’t support telemacro, so it won’t capture close-up shots with super-high-impact detail.

Finally, contrast is still dialed up too high in auto mode. It makes shots look bold on a phone screen, but it can crush subtle tones and exaggerate the already heavy saturation.

Samsung Galaxy S26 video quality

Video is where the S26 Ultra feels a bit more consistently “Ultra,” given it’s a weak area for all phones.

The big upgrade is night video. Samsung’s latest Nightography video processing makes a meaningful difference, pulling in more usable detail and keeping scenes cleaner than older Galaxy Ultras. It still can’t match the low-light video you’ll get from the 1-inch-sensor crowd like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, but if you’re upgrading from a Samsung phone, you’ll notice the improvement.

In daylight, video is a strong point. Clips are smooth, detailed, and nicely impactful, especially when you’re shooting close-up subjects on the ultra-wide and primary cameras. Focus is mostly reliable, but it can get a bit fiddly when you’re moving between subjects, and the lack of telemacro on the 5x limits your creative options for close-up detail work.

All that said, the primary camera makes the S26 Ultra an excellent quick-capture and vlogging tool when you turn it around. Point it at anything when the light is right and 4K footage looks great, and in bright light, 8K is genuinely usable if you want the option to crop in later.

The pro features are also a real plus, but APV Log comes with a major caveat: file sizes are huge – around 2GB for a 10-second clip – which means you’ll want an external SSD like the Lexar ES5 if you plan to shoot in the codec. And a point to note when picking up a Lexar or SanDisk SSD: pairing it with a MagSafe-style case is a must so you can keep the drive attached as part of your workflow.

Galaxy S26 Ultra performance and battery

Performance is one of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s clearest strengths. Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the spec boost compared to the S25 Ultra translates well. Whether gaming, multitasking or exporting high-resolution video, the S26 Ultra feels fast, stable and unflustered. Samsung has also redesigned the vapour chamber and says it now spreads heat across a larger surface area for a 21% thermal improvement, which helps explain how well the phone sustains performance under load. In testing, it also handled APV clips relatively swiftly, and that is a lot of data to move around on a phone.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra comes in 256GB and 512GB versions with 12GB of RAM, while the 1TB model steps up to 16GB. That compares reasonably well with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which offers 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities. Future-proofing is also a strong point: the S26 Ultra ships with Android 16 and One UI 8.5, and Samsung promises seven generations of OS upgrades alongside seven years of security updates.

Software adds value too. Galaxy AI and One UI remain useful, but the bigger win is Samsung’s new AirDrop support inside Quick Share, which rolled out at the end of March 2026. Transfer speeds still do not quite match Apple-to-Apple for very large files, but the integration is impressively frictionless.

The S26 Ultra's battery life is solid rather than class-leading: the 5,000mAh cell is good for a full day of moderate use, and Samsung claims up to 31 hours of video playback. Charging is stronger, with Super Fast Charging 3.0 rated for up to 75% in around 30 minutes, and Samsung’s own charger guidance confirms USB PD/PPS support, so you aren't locked into a proprietary ecosystem.

So is the S26 Ultra's camera really "Ultra"?

After six weeks with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, it is clear Samsung has built one of the most complete flagship phones of the year. Its excellent Privacy Display is a genuine point of difference, the software support is class-leading, performance is consistently strong, and the new Quick Share support for AirDrop makes it one of the most seamless cross-ecosystem Android phones yet. Add in a premium design, long-term software support and faster charging, and the S26 Ultra feels thoroughly future-proofed.

For photographers and videographers, there is still plenty to like. Samsung continues to offer one of the richest pro-grade camera experiences on any mainstream phone, with deep manual controls, advanced shooting modes, and enthusiast-friendly codecs, including Log, Expert RAW, and APV. Video is also a strength from the main camera in particular, especially with the improvements to Nightography.

The problem is that the camera hardware doesn't stand out. The main and ultra-wide cameras are dependable, and the 5x telephoto remains competitive against Apple and Google, but the weaker 3x camera and the loss of close-focus flexibility on the primary and 5x modules hold the system back. Samsung’s processing also leans too heavily on saturation, contrast, and noise reduction.

As a result, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is not the best camera phone you can buy, especially when Oppo and Vivo are currently delivering more impressive pure photo quality. But it may still be the best Android flagship overall for buyers who want a brilliant screen, outstanding software longevity, polished performance and a camera system that is versatile, ambitious and very capable.

You might have heard about solid state memory becoming a prized commodity, and its makers cashing in on the dramatically increased demand for flash memory. SanDisk in particular has been making headlines for its soaring stock price. But what's good news for shareholders doesn't leave the average photographer much cause for celebration. That increased demand for memory is pushing prices of memory cards and SSDs sky high, and the price jump is now clear to see.

We've selected some of the best-selling SD and microSD cards at Amazon.com, and tracked their prices over the last few months: the increase is staggering. For instance, the mid-range SanDisk Extreme 128GB microSDXC card was consistently selling for around $17 in October last year, but since November its price has risen considerably, and now you'll need to part with almost $40 to get your hands on one. It's a similar story with Samsung's EVO Select 512GB microSD card - around $35 late last year, but now it's closing in on $70. Fancy a full-size SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB SD card? $30 at the start of this year; now around $50.

And it's not just Amazon that's been ramping up its memory prices. It's the same story across the retail sector: Independent photography store Gene's Camera in South Bend, Indiana is also reporting huge price increases:

"You know a card that was $2.99 is now $4.99, and that's a big chunk to swallow. You know, $9.95 to $19.95 is like okay, it's 20 bucks, yeah, but $300 to $500 is ouch," said Jon Gilchrist, co-owner of Gene's Camera.

So why is it so much more expensive to get hold of what seems like such a basic, commonplace piece of tech like an SD card? Well, it's all thanks to unstoppable rise of AI. AI data processing centers devour high-bandwidth memory and fast SSD storage, causing AI companies to buy up huge stocks of solid state memory. This in turn is having a knock-on effect in other sectors that require DRAM and NAND flash memory, such as the memory card industry. Manufacturers of memory cards and SSDs have to fight for the remaining memory stock after the AI tech giants like Google, Meta, Nvidia and Open AI have paid top dollar to fuel their data centers. And when the demand is high, prices go up, resulting in the hugely inflated memory card prices we're now seeing around the world.

Check out our guide to the best memory cards, and to the best CFexpress cards

No sooner has Samsung launched its S26 Ultra flagship, rumors are already circulating about the camera tech that could be in next year's S27 Ultra. In late February prolific leakster Digital Chat Station claimed Samsung is working on a brand new sensor set to launch in 2027, called ISOCELL HPA. This is said to have a 200MP resolution like previous flagship Samsung sensors, but with a claimed 1/1.12" sensor size, it would be slightly larger than any previous 200MP Samsung sensor. This would also make it the same size as Sony's new 200MP LYT-901 sensor. A physically larger sensor is good news for image quality, as more sensor area leaves room for larger, more light-sensitive individual pixels, which in turn should reduce image noise and increase dynamic range.

More recently, renowned tipster Digital Chat Station has stepped in to suggest that the S27 Ultra could use a derivative of the ISOCELL HPA sensor, called HP6. This is said to be slightly smaller at 1/1.3", but could pack exciting new technology that would negate any image quality shortcomings from its smaller physical size. The tech in question is called LOFIC: an acronym for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor. This would store extra charge from intense highlight saturation and render it in the final image, instead of clipping that data and over-exposing the corresponding areas in the image. The result is what's being called ‘ultra-high dynamic range’. This seems like good news for the S27 Ultra's image quality, but Samsung will have to be careful how it processes additional dynamic range. HDR done right can work wonders for preserving highlight and shadow detail, but we've all seen over-processed HDR images that look completely unnatural.

If the S27 Ultra does ship with LOFIC technology built in, and assuming Samsung implements it successfully, then this could be a welcome camera hardware improvement - the kind we haven't really seen for several generations of flagship Samsung camera phones.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus feel like the sensible siblings in the 2026 lineup. While the S26 Ultra grabs attention with its Privacy Display party trick and quad-camera, the regular models stick to a proven (arguably tired?) formula: clean, slim, premium feeling, and camera hardware that’s essentially unchanged from last year’s Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus.

That might sound a little underwhelming on paper, and out of the gate, these won't be no-brainer upgrades from the S25, but if you're coming from an S22, S23, or S24, the levelled-up AI could make all the difference. Specifically, the entire S26 family gets the brand’s latest AI processing, camera modes including improved night video and horizon locking, auto framing, and more.

Design: familar feeling

If you’ve held a Galaxy S phone recently, you’ll feel right at home with the S26 and S26 Plus. Both keep the same overall look as last year’s models: flat front and back, tidy camera rings, and a minimalist styling.

The big decision is size. The Galaxy S26 is the compact choice, with a 6.3-inch display and a lighter, easier-in-the-pocket build. The Galaxy S26 Plus steps it up with a 6.7-inch screen, a little more heft, and a more immersive feel for watching, gaming, and photo editing. Both feel comfortably premium in the hand without pushing into Ultra or Pro Max territory.

Slimmer than most flagships, the S26 and S26 Plus are 7.2 and 7.3mm respectively, with both available in six colors: Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black and White, plus two online exclusive colours: Silver Shadow and Pink Gold.

Screen: small to big, sharp to sharper

Samsung’s AMOLED screens rarely miss the mark, and that continues here. The Galaxy S26’s 6.3-inch display runs at FHD+ resolution with an adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate, and it still looks crisp and punchy for everyday use, making it great for fans of one-handed use and smaller phones.

The Galaxy S26 Plus is the one that big-screen lovers, gamers and on-the-go movie watchers will prefer. Its 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel is almost Ultra-sized, bumps up to QHD+ resolution, which gives you more fine detail, and takes the crown as the sharpest display of all three S26 phones.

Frustratingly, the headline feature of the series, Privacy Display, is only available on the Ultra, which leaves the S26 and S26 Plus with very few highlights compared to their predecessors.

Camera: AI and aperture upgrades

If you were hoping for a big camera hardware shake-up on the S26 and S26 Plus, this isn’t the year. Samsung has essentially carried over last year’s camera approach, which means you’re getting a triple-camera setup that's competitive without being class-leading.

Both the S26 and S26 Ultra have the same camera mix: a 50MP main camera with a 1/1.56-inch sensor size and an f/1.8 lens, a 12MP ultra-wide with a 1/2.55-inch sensor and an f/2.2 lens, and a 10MP 3x telephoto with a 1/3.94-inch sensor and an f/2.4 aperture.

That 3x module offers the same modest zoom Samsung has used for a while, and it’s also the same 10MP, 1.0-micron pixel 3x unit found on the S26 Ultra. If past-gen Galaxys are anything to go by, it's handy in good light, but the phone will switch out for the primary camera when zooming in low-light scenes.

There are a few software upgrades for the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus cameras. The first is nightography video, which leverages AI to improve lowlight video capture detail, color reproduction, and smoothness. Samsung's also added support for APV video, which unlocks higher-bitrate video capture and takes on Apple's ProRes support on its iPhones. The mode offers either Log or HDR capture, with astronomical file sizes: 10 seconds of Log recording costs around 2GB of storage space. Thankfully, you can capture to external storage.

Interface: OneUI with added AI

Diving into Samsung’s interface, OneUI might as well be called OneAI at this rate. New features aplenty, the S26 series’s Creative Studio can create sticker packs and edit photos using text prompts using gen AI, and the phone also analyzes screenshots and auto-sorts and indexes them, making them searchable and arranged in folders, and Bixby, Samsung’s voice assistant is smarter, acting like a ChatGPT-style LLM that can control your phone settings and pull online information all in one place.

Probably the neatest AI addition is Audio Eraser. We’ve seen it baked into the sound and video recorders, cleaning up audio recorded on phones, but now it works with third-party video apps as well. Whether watching YouTube or Netflix, you can dial out the background crowd during a gig or a football match, and it worked surprisingly well when we tested it.

Power, pricing, and availability

Samsung's S26 and S26 Plus use different chips from the Ultra: the latter gets Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, while the S26 and S26 Plus use Samsung's own Exynos 2600. This is a shift in strategy compared to last year and new chip performance can vary wildly, so we'll have to watch this space to see how Samsung's 2nm 2600 fares.

Both phones ship with 12GB of RAM, with either 256GB or 512GB of storage, with Samsung ditching the 128GB starting capacity, which goes some way to justify the price bump for the base model this year.

Battery-wise, Samsung hasn’t reinvented the wheel with the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus, but the capacities make sense for the two sizes. The Galaxy S26 packs a 4,300mAh battery, while the larger S26 Plus bumps that up to 4,900mAh, giving it more headroom for heavy screen time, gaming, and longer camera sessions. Both support Samsung’s Super Fast Charging 2.0 on the wired side, plus Fast Wireless Charging 2.0, and the Galaxy S26 also keeps Wireless PowerShare for topping up accessories on the go.

The Galaxy S26 starts at $899/£879/AU$1,549 for 256GB and $1,099/£1,049/AU$1,849 for 512GB. The Galaxy S26 Plus starts at $1,099/£1,099/AU$1,849 for 256GB and $1,299/£1,269/AU$2,149 for 512GB. Both are available to pre-order now and go on sale on March 11.

If you want the full Samsung “everything phone,” the Ultra is still the way to go. For a smaller, slimmer, lower-cost alternative with Samsung's AI features and familiar, premium styling, the S26 and S26 Plus could be sensible upgrades even if they don't offer much in the way of new hardware.

Samsung has updated its flagship smartphone for 2026, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra packing its finest mobile camera tech to date with a quad-camera setup that brings back the mighty 200MP primary sensor. While this year’s camera hardware is very familiar to anyone upgrading from last year’s Ultra, from the design through to the software, there’s enough new here to get excited about.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s headline feature is Privacy Display, a hardware-and-software one-two punch that prevents prying eyes from seeing what’s on the phone’s massive 6.9-inch screen. It also sports a fresh new chip courtesy of Qualcomm, some nifty AI tools, our favorite being Audio Eraser for third-party apps, and should run cooler for gamers and long bouts of 4K or 8K video capture, thanks to the upgraded vapor chamber.

Starting at $1,299 / £1,279 / AU$2,199, the S26 Ultra is Samsung’s priciest non-folding phone to date, so what other tricks does it have up its sleeve?

Design: the S Pen’s back, but Titanium isn’t

The Galaxy S26 Ultra brings back much of what we know and love from the S25 Ultra, including the S Pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity that stows neatly in the bottom corner. Expect Samsung’s trademark look and feel with a flat Armor Aluminum frame set against a flat glass front and back, and raised cameras around the back.

Despite its big screen, the S26 Ultra is relatively skinny at 7.9mm. The corners have been slightly rounded off, making it more comfortable in the hand and less angular than last year’s Ultra, and it’s also a comfortable 214g, a little lighter than an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Available in six colors, you can pick up the S26 Ultra in Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black, White, plus a couple of online-exclusive colors: Silver Shadow and Pink Gold. The phone’s also as durable as flagships get with an IP68/69 dust and water resistance ratings and Corning’s Ultra Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the front, complete with a glare-free finish.

Our biggest gripe with the S26 Ultra is its lack of MagSafe-style Qi 2 magnetic mounting, which is extremely handy for hands-free capture. Samsung will be dropping official cases that add the feature, or you can opt for one of the best Galaxy S26 Ultra cases from the likes of Mous or Pitaka, but if you’re a fan of case-free phones, magnets are out.

Screen: privacy please

If you’ve used a privacy screen protector before, then you know what Samsung’s headline feature for the Galaxy S26 Ultra does: it limits off-angle viewing, but unlike other phones, the S26 Ultra does it out of the box. Just press a button in the quick settings panel to toggle Privacy Display on or off, making it impossible for anyone on either side of you to see what’s on-screen.

Outside its foldables, many techies have felt Samsung smartphones have lacked serious wow-factor in recent years, so it’s great to see a headline feature that’s both practical and impressive land on its latest flagship. After using the phone, Privacy Display is easy to activate and effective, with the option to only fire up in specific apps, and you can adjust the effect's strength for maximum control.

Samsung product expert Kadesh Beckford confirmed that the Privacy Display works with third-party screen protectors for anyone who wants extra durability, and they also explained how the tech works: Samsung activates individual pixels to narrow the viewing angle, allowing only front-on viewing. Very cool.

The rest of the screen is less groundbreaking but a good box-checking exercise, with its Dynamic AMOLED 2X tech, 3120 x 1440 resolution creating a crisp 500 PPI pixel density, and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate for iPhone 17 Pro-matching smoothness.

Camera: AI and aperture upgrades

On first glance, the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera is virtually identical to its predecessor with the same pixel counts and focal lenghts, but dig a little deeper and there are some differences.

Starting with the primary camera, it has a 1/1.3-inch primary sensor with a 200MP resolution. The upgrade comes from the faster f/1.4 lens, down from f/1.7, which should help with low-light performance. The 50MP 5x telephoto camera’s lens is also faster, f/2.9 versus f/3.5 in the S25 Ultra, paired with a 1/2.52-inch sensor, while the ultra-wide camera’s 50MP setup is identical across the board, with an f/1.9 aperture and a 1/2.5-inch sensor.

Our biggest issue with Samsung’s flagships of late has been the 3x camera. Sitting between two powerhouses (the primary camera and 5x zoom), it always delivered a noticeable drop in quality when it fired up, especially in low-light scenes. This year, Samsung seems to have confusingly dropped the sensor size from 1/3.52 inches to 1/3.94 inches. This could be a newer, better-optimised sensor, so we’ll have to get the S26 Ultra in for review before we write it off. But with a smaller sensor, this could be a downgrade in the 70-100mm range.

You can expect Samsung’s finest AI photo processing to debut on the S26 Ultra, which should help eke out more from the hardware mix than older Galaxy phones, and video also gets a solid set of software updates. Action camera fans will appreciate Horizon Lock, which takes stabilization to a new level, keeping the horizon level even with extreme tilts. Nightography video is another area AI has overcome challenges faced by small smartphone sensors. And a feature that seems perfect for gigs is Auto Framing: when zooming in beyond the telephoto camera’s native focal length, it uses AI to keep the performer centered in the frame.

The S26 Ultra also brings back Log capture, while adding support for APV codec capture at up to 8K resolution. If you haven’t used APV before, it stands for Advanced Professional Video and is a royalty-free alternative to Apple’s ProRes. Unlike Log capture, APV doesn’t flatten the tone curve. Instead, it’s a codec that captures higher bit depth, producing less gradient banding and artifacting, and delivering a crisper image.

Interface: OneUI with added AI

Diving into Samsung’s interface, OneUI might as well be called OneAI at this rate. New features aplenty, the S26 series’s Creative Studio can create sticker packs and edit photos using text prompts and gen AI, the phone analyzes screenshots and auto-sorts and indexes them, making them searchable and arranged in folders, and Bixby, Samsung’s voice assistant is smarter, acting like a ChatGPT-style LLM that can control your phone settings and pull online information all in one place.

Probably the neatest AI addition is Audio Eraser. We’ve seen it baked into the sound and video recorders, cleaning up audio recorded on phones, but now it works with third-party video apps as well. Whether watching YouTube or Netflix, you can dial out the background crowd during a gig or a football match, and it worked surprisingly well when we tested it.

Power, pricing, and availability

Qualcomm saves its higher clock-speed flagship chips for Samsung’s Ultra model, and this year is no exception, with the S26 Ultra powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. Packing the largest vapor chamber of any Galaxy phone and delivering 20% better cooling, so gamers, 8K video fans, and video editors should see the benefits of this upgrade.

The S26 Ultra’s battery capacity remains unchanged at 5,000 mAh, though Samsung upgrades charging speeds with 60W wired charging, powering it to 75% in 30 minutes, and 25W wireless charging.

Available to pre-order now and on sale March 11, the Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,299 / £1,279 for the 256GB model, climbs to $1,499 / £1,449 for 512GB storage, and tops out at $1,799 / £ 1,699 for the maxed-out 1TB, 16GB RAM configuration.

Competing head-on with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Pixel 10 Pro, thanks to its Privacy Display, the Galaxy S26 Ultra could be the most interesting of the three, but can it really command such a high asking price even with its new party trick? Check back for the full review to find out.

We're just hours away from the rumored launch time for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Not only have we already seen leaked images of the phone itself, the first sample images taken using the S26 Ultra's cameras have also been posted, courtesy of Sahil Karoul on X.

As these are low resolution uploads, we can't really make many definitive judgements on the phone's image quality yet. The shots seem vibrant, well exposed, and for the most part contain a decent level of fine detail. The only exception is the night-time portrait shot, where the subject's face has been smoothed and is lacking in detail.

The most notable observation made by Karoul is how the S26 Ultra seems to produce slightly brighter, more exposed shots under harsh sunlight than the S25 Ultra. Again, without seeing the exact testing procedure it’s hard to establish if this is a fundamental change in Samsung's image processing, or something as basic as the two phones randomly selecting a different spot in this particular scene for their metering, resulting in slightly different exposures.

Check out the sample images below and see what you think. We'll be sure to bring you a full review of the S26 Ultra as soon as we can, with a comprehensive analysis of its camera quality.

The first images of the Galaxy S26 Ultra have leaked, and it's given us the chance to more closely inspect the camera hardware that might be inside Samsung's next flagship phone. At first glance, the S26 Ultra appears to have a similar camera module layout to the S25 Ultra. But looks more closely and the bottom lens in the main stack of three seems to have a slightly different shape. Where that lens on the S25 Ultra has the signature square opening of a periscope lens, on the new phone the rectangle has changed to a circle. It may be nothing significant, as periscope telephoto lenses don't have to have a square opening, but it's also possible this might be a hint at a completely new telephoto lens design.

Read more: What is a periscope lens?

Back in late 2024, Samsung revealed what it called an ALoP - All Lenses on Prism - zoom lens. With a conventional periscope lens, light enters through the back of the phone and is immediately redirected through 90 degrees by a prism. The light then passes sideways within the phone, through the lens elements and into the image sensor. With the optical stack and sensor placed at right-angles to a conventionally-mounted phone camera module, there's more room within the width of the phone to space out the lens elements for a longer telephoto focal length.

But, according to Samsung, arranging lens elements in this way restricts the diameter of each element, as well as the size of the image sensor. To enlarge either of these means increasing the overall thickness of the phone, and that would be at odds with Samsung's aim of slimming down its new phones.

An ALoP lens retains the basic periscope lens principle of angling incoming light via a prism to an image sensor placed at right-angles to the main body of the phone. But the lens elements are repositioned so they're ahead of the prism, back in their conventional location on the same plane as the phone's back panel. By positioning the lens elements in this orientation, lens diameter (and therefore the lens aperture) can be increased without affecting the thickness of the phone. Another benefit is the space occupied within the phone body by this new telephoto module is also reduced, freeing up room for other phone components.

Despite Samsung revealing this technology over a year ago, we've yet to see a phone actually incorporate it. Could the S26 Ultra be the first?

Samsung is tipped to unveil its Galaxy S26 series tomorrow, at its next Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco. But we've got a sneak peek of the S26 ultra already, courtesy of the Independent Photographers Association on Weibo. The new phone is photographed on the front and back, and the images clearly show Samsung's new design for The S26 Ultra's camera island. Though the positioning of each lens follows the same layout as previous Ultra phones, the camera bump is now far more pronounced around the three main lenses. This is similar to the S25 Edge's camera island design, and as likely due to Samsung slimming down the rest of the phone chassis. The camera bump now looks thick, relative to the rest of the phone, but the thickness of the bump is probably no greater than that of the S25 Ultra. Even so, the result can hardly be called elegant: it looks more 'wart' than 'island', at least to my eyes.

This new leak also specifies the exact camera hardware that'll be in the S26 Ultra: Samsung's venerable 200MP HP2 sensor is back again for the primary camera, teamed with a 50MP ultra-wide module, a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x zoom, and a 50MP periscope telephoto camera. Elsewhere, the phone is predicted to sport a 6.9-inch 2K display, Snapdragon 8E5 SoC running at 4.74GHz, and a 5000mAh batter. These camera specs match what's been reported in previous rumors and leaks, so at this late stage we've got little reason to suspect the S26 Ultra will emerge with any surprise new camera hardware.

MWC 2026 has kicked off! As one of the most significant events in the mobile phone industry, MWC traditionally showcases a vast array of new handsets, all vying for the title of best camera phone.

We already previewed several new devices featured at this year's exhibition, held in the vibrant city of Barcelona (and a few that might be launched at competing events). However, with the show doors now open, there are plenty more surprises as manufacturers offer peeks of their latest innovations.

What is MWC 2026?  

MWC stands for Mobile World Congress, and is the world's largest expo on the mobile industry. It's also where a lot of big-name phone brands debut their latest products, as well as teasing concept devices for the future.

MWC was first held in 1987 in Brussels, switching cities every year, before settling in Barcelona's Fira de Barcelona since 2008. The event is organized by the GSMA, the global industry association, first formed in 1995 to promote the first 2G GSM digital phones. In 2025, MWC attracted over 109,500 visitors to its exhibition halls from all around the globe. There have also been additional MWC spin-off shows in Shanghai, Kigali, and Las Vegas.

When is MWC 2026?

MWC 2026 takes place in Barcelona from Monday, March 2, to Thursday, March 5. The halls are open to visitors from 8.30am to 7pm on the first three days, and from 8.30am to 4pm on the final day.

But there will be lots of speeches from leading industry figures. Many of the sessions will be centered on the themes of the 5G and 6G, eSIM, mobile security, the Internet of Things, and, of course, Gen AI. As ever, the keynotes and industry sessions will discuss how cellular technology can be used in much, much more than just our phones.

What to expect at MWC 2026

Thanks to the ever-churning rumor mill and the inevitable teasers from the key manufacturers, we already had a pretty good idea what the highlights will be at this year's expo.

Most of the biggest names in the industry will be there, although Apple and Samsung are the two notable handset manufacturers who do not reveal new products at MWC – but this year, both have their own rival events to steal the MWC spotlight.

Apple at MWC 2026

Like every other year, Apple has no plans to directly take part in MWC 2026 – but – that doesn't mean it doesn't have plans to hijack the entire event with its own events throughout the week.

Apple has unveiled its first devices of the week with a new iPhone 17e – Apple's cheapest way into the iPhone ecosystem – which brings a new processor, MagSafe support, and double the base storage. Full details below.

However, Apple isn't done yet, with at least one more reveal due later this week. Not much is known about what exactly Apple has up its sleeve, but there are rumors abound that it has been gestating its first foldable iPhone for some time now, and might finally be ready to show the world. Apple's entry into the foldable market would certainly be monumental for the industry and surely catapult the foldable category into the mainstream.

Honor at MWC 2026

Fresh off becoming the fastest-growing smartphone brand in 2025, Honor has plenty of big announcements at MWC to keep the momentum going.

Honor has replaced its flagship folding phone a little earlier than expected. The Honor Magic V6 is set to take over from the Honor Magic V5, which was only launched around six months ago. Honor clearly sees foldables as a category it can stake a claim in. There is a new 200MP camera system borrowed from the Honor Magic 8 Pro, an improved 7,000mAh+ battery, and the latest Qualcomm chip.

Honor has also been teasing its Honor Robot concept gimbal camera device for the last few months, and we've now seen it up close at MWC. With Insta360 and Vivo set to enter the gimbal camera market that is currently dominated by DJI's Osmo Pocket 3, Honor's concept device comes at an exciting time, although it's still unclear if it become a mass-market reality.

Leica at MWC 2026

Leica is a suprise addition to this years MWC. We might be used to co-designing Xiaomi cameras, but this year it has a phone all of it's own. Leica is bringing it's previous Japanese exclusive Leitzphone line of phones to more markets.

The new 'Leica Leitzphone powered by Xiaomi' is Leica's interpretation of the 'Xiaomi 17 Ultra by Leica', with a more Leica-centric design in line with thier cameras, a rotatable lens ring, and some classic Leica camera and lens emulation in the camera app. Read the full story below.

Nothing at MWC 2026

Nothing has its press conference booked in for March 5 at 10.30am GMT (05.30am EST / 02.30am PST) – although it is skipping the halls of MWC and heading to Nothing's home city of London for the announcement.

Nothing has already teased the Phone (4a) with Nothing's unique signature transparent design and brand new pink and blue colors. This will be the sequel to Nothing's budget-friendly Phone (3a), and from the early teases, it will include three cameras and Nothing's hallmark glyph lighting. The full announcement will be on March 5.

Last year, Nothing also announced a (3a) Pro version alongside the more vanilla option. While we don't have any official teasers yet, rumors point to Nothing launching sequels to both devices again this year, so watch this space!

Oppo at MWC 2026

Oppo is coming off one of its strongest years yet, with the Find X9 Pro being DCW's top phone of 2025.

Oppo has revealed that the next generation of Ultra phone is coming soon, following in the footsteps of last year's sensationally good, but Chinese-exclusive, Oppo Find X8 Ultra – but this time, it will be launched more internationally, with a European launch confirmed. These devices tend to come out a little later in spring; perhaps we might see a few more teasers before the show is over.

Otherwise, Oppo is not showing anything at MWC, but it was around MWC last year that Oppo released the Oppo Find N5 – at the time, the thinnest book-style foldable. We haven't yet got any conclusive leaks, but could MWC 2026 bring the next generation of Oppo's foldable phone – and will it finally be available in more markets?

Samsung at MWC 2026

Like most years, Samsung is forgoing any large-scale announcements at MWC 2026 and is instead grabbing its own spotlight before the show kicks off.

Samsung has just hosted its own Galaxy Unpacked event, where it debuted its latest 2026 flagships – the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, as well as the Galaxy S26 and Plus models.

The phones have all-around camera updates, but the headline feature is a very cool-looking privacy screen mode for hiding sensitive information, and of course, there is lots and lots of new AI. Check out more in our hands-on below.

Vivo at MWC 2026

Vivo has confirmed the first details of its upcoming flagship X300 Ultra – and Vivo is bringing the phone to more markets, with a European launch confirmed for later in the year.

The Vivo X300 Ultra will come with a brand new 400mm Zeiss lens attachment that combined with the 200MP telephoto sensor, Vivo claims can shoot up to a lossless 1600mm! The design is still under wraps at MWC, with the phone appearing only behind it's newly announced pro camera cage. We're expecting more details soon.

Xiaomi at MWC 2026

Xiaomi has already unveiled both its Xiaomi 17 Series and Xiaomi 17 Ultra phones in its Chinese home market, but now it has launched both phones globally.

The Xiaomi 17 Ultra utilizes another huge 1-inch sensor, but this model is updated with LOFIC technology, which increases how much light the sensor can hold for improved night photography and HDR. That's not all, the phone also comes with a newly designed mechanical optical zoom – just like a proper camera zoom lens – which can physically move between 75mm and 100m. Check out the full story and my review of the phone below.

Xiaomi has also launched it's latest iPad challengers – the Pad 8 and Pad 8 Pro bringing new chips, a larger battery, and an updated workstation mode – alongside a new floating keyboard – to make the tablet experience more like a laptop.

Read more:
• Best camera phone
• Best Android phone for photography
• Best budget camera phones
• Best iPhone for photography

If the rumors are true, then we are only one week away from the reveal of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. And as the February 25 Galaxy Unpacked launch event draws closer, Samsung is continuing to tease features from its next flagship camera phone.

The latest taster, perhaps unsurprisingly, shows off some of the phone’s AI camera features. In a trio of Shorts, Samsung shows off how the Galaxy camera will be able to reconstruct missing elements of an image using AI, as well as adding an element into a photo simply by asking for it in your own words, or sketching it into your image - multimodal input, in Samsung speak. The last short demonstrates how an element from a photograph - in this case a puppy - can instantly be turned into a selection of graphical stickers.

The emphasis here is the "fluid creative experience". Samsung wants to integrate AI into every aspect of the camera system so its use is completely natural, with a seamless capture, edit and share experience - no switching between apps, and no messing about in menus or fine-tuning tools. Traditional prerequisites for creating a compelling photo - experience, technical skill, etc - are no longer required, as thanks to AI this is "the easiest and most user-friendly Galaxy camera experience yet".

Past leaks have suggested that the S26 Ultra is unlikely to have much new camera hardware, so it was inevitable that Samsung would instead focus on software improvements when promoting the S26 Ultra. But as much as we love to tear into Samsung for its lack of camera hardware innovation, does this even matter any more? With AI now able to essentially magic an image out of nothing, it could be argued that the camera itself offers little more than suggestions to the Neural Processing Unit, whereupon AI modifies that raw image data so much that you'd never know whether the original exposure was captured on a 12MP or 200MP sensor.

Samsung has released three short teaser videos showing off several camera features in what's likely to be the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The videos hint at the phone's zoom ability, as well as its low light performance. Don't get too excited though: there's very little to go on here, with no real information, plus the videos themselves are simulated and not actually shot on using the phone's cameras. Check out the teasers yourself below:

If you want an idea of what camera hardware the S26 Ultra could end up with, the leaks and rumors we've seen over the last few months give us much more to work with. It's been widely rumored that the S26 Ultra will inherit the S25 Ultra's 200MP image sensor for its wide-angle camera. This ISOCELL HP2 sensor has been the cornerstone of Samsung's flagship camera phones since it was introduced with the S23 Ultra, but that's not to say it won't get some subtle improvements. Samsung will almost certainly boost the core hardware with a new generation of image processing and AI image enhancement. It has also been speculated that the new phone could ship with a larger f/1.4 lens aperture for its primary camera (up from f/1.7 in the S25 Ultra), thereby letting more light through to the image sensor for improved low-light performance.

Elsewhere, it's predicted that Samsung could equip the S26 Ultra with a 50MP periscope telephoto module with 5x optical zoom. Another rumor suggests that the phone's 3x telephoto module could possibly be downgraded to a smaller 10MP sensor than that used in the S25 Ultra, with no compelling upside for this switch.

The general picture we currently have is that Samsung is highly unlikely to implement any significant camera hardware improvements for the S26 Ultra. But we won't have too long to find out, as reports suggest the S26 Ultra will be revealed at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on February 25th, with retail availability possibly set for March 11th.

As the launch of Samsung's next flagship phone looms larger, further camera-related leaks are emerging. This time it's not about the S26 Ultra's camera hardware, but rather its expected image quality. A post on X by serial tipster Ice Universe claims that images shot on the S26 Ultra will exhibit less banding in areas of subtle gradients than have been visible in similar shots taken on the S25 Ultra. This issue was first observed shortly after the S25 Ultra's launch, and it seems Samsung has never quite eliminated it. Despite the S26 Ultra reportedly using the same image sensor for its primary camera, it seems Samsung may now have tweaked the new phone's image processing to reduce banding visibility.

In another Ice Universe leak we're told that one of the S26 Ultra's colors will be called 'Very White'. The tipster describes this as "pure white and very charming" - itself a charming description!

We've already reported that Samsung might equip the S26 Ultra with a new type of display that can be configured to restrict viewing angles when private content is displayed. The new Flex Magic Pixel OLED display is said to be the culmination of over five years of development and let's you control the level of privacy protection you want, including whether to shield specific screen elements such as notification pop-ups.

Sadly, it's likely the S26 Ultra will cost more than the S25 Ultra did at its launch. Late last year it was forecasted that phone prices were expected to increase, primarily due to the soaring cost of DRAM memory, brought about by much-increased demand from companies running AI datacenters. These tech powerhouses have huge bulk buying power and are happy to pay top dollar to fuel their AI monster machines with all the RAM they can devour. Hence to compete for the limited supply of DRAM and NAND flash, phone manufacturers like Samsung will have to pay more for it, and that means passing this extra cost on to consumers.

As for when the Galaxy S26 Ultra may break cover, it's rumoured that it'll be revealed at Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on February 25th, with retail availability possibly set for March 11th.

According to Counterpoint Research's Global Handset Model Sales Tracker, Apple's iPhone 16 was the world's best-selling smartphone of 2025 – not the Pro, Pro Max, or Ultra model you might expect.

Across the global Top 10, Apple captured seven of the ten spots, underlining just how dominant its ecosystem remains – even as Android brands push harder on mobile photography with ever-higher megapixels, extreme periscope zooms, and increasingly aggressive AI features.

So, let's dive in and take a look at the numbers, and explore why this smartphone might not be the smartest choice for mobile photographers...

Global Top 10 best-selling smartphones, 2025 (Counterpoint)

1. iPhone 16
2. iPhone 16 Pro Max
3. iPhone 16 Pro
4. iPhone 17 Pro Max
5. Galaxy A16 5G
6. Galaxy A06 4G
7. iPhone 17
8. iPhone 15
9. Galaxy S25 Ultra
10. iPhone 16e

The iPhone 16 doesn't win spec-sheet battles. It lacks ProRaw, skips long optical zoom, and relies on a simpler dual-camera setup.

It isn't Apple's cheapest phone – that role belongs to the iPhone 16e – nor is it the most powerful camera-rich model in the lineup.

What it is, however, is Apple's most balanced mainstream phone.

With a 6.1-inch display, manageable size, and familiar setup, the iPhone 16 hits the sweet spot for buyers upgrading from older models. For many users, it's a meaningful step forward without pushing into Pro-level pricing.

The mass appeal – rather than photographic ambition – is what puts it at number one.

The iPhone 16 cameras: good but not camera class-leading

From a photography standpoint, the iPhone 16 is very capable, but it's also clearly positioned below Apple's Pro models.

Photographers will quickly run into limitations like no ProRAW, no dedicated telephoto lens, and limited optical zoom compared to Pro and Ultra rivals.

As we noted in our iPhone 16 review, it's a fantastic camera for travel, social content, and everyday shooting, but it isn't designed for photographers who want control and flexibility.

That helps explain why it sells so well – and why it doesn't top DCW's list of the best camera phones for photography.

Samsung's split strategy: volume vs photography

Samsung placed three phones in the Top 10, but they tell two very different stories.

The Galaxy A16 5G and Galaxy A06 4G succeed on value and availability, not camera innovation.

The outlier is the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

With its 200MP main camera sensor, long periscope zoom, and growing suite of AI-powered tools, it's one of the most ambitious camera phones on the market.

Counterpoint notes strong regional growth, particularly in Japan and India.

What the Top 10 tells us

Phones like the iPhone 16 dominate, while more photography-focused devices remain niche.

The world's best-selling phone does not feature the best cameras.

But looking ahead to 2026, Counterpoint expects rising memory prices to put pressure on entry-level devices, potentially giving flagship camera phones more room to grow.

If that happens, we could see imaging-led models gain ground – but sales leadership will still be about balance, not brilliance.

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Want a cheap microSD card, but don't fancy ordering by price=lowest and choosing the cheapest no-name brand? The Samsung Evo Select could be the answer. It's very well priced, yet has the reassurance of being from a respected brand. Heck, it's even capable of 160MB/s read speed, which is barely slower than some premium UHS-I microSD cards.

Capacities vary from 64GB up to a generous 1TB, and all are V30-certified, so they can sustain 30MB/s when recording video. That should be enough oomph for capturing compressed 4K video.

You even get an A2 app loading speed rating, which is quicker than the A1 rating you'll find on most budget cards. This signifies that the Evo Select will provide snappy performance if used in an Android phone.

Surely there has to be a catch somewhere? Let's find out...

Read more: the best microSD cards

Performance

Keen memory card enthusiasts (we're a fun bunch, honest) may have noticed that Samsung doesn't quote a maximum write speed for the Evo Select - it only advertises that aformentioned 160MB/s read speed. If you dig into the product specs, it simply says that write speed is "Lower than Read Speed". Not very encouraging. To see just how low, I plugged our 256GB Evo Select test card into a fast USB4 Windows laptop, via a ProGrade Digital PGM0.5 USB 3.2 SD card reader. This hardware set-up has a maximum bus speed of 625MB/s, so there's no chance of anything bottlenecking the Evo Select during testing. I then fired up my trusty storage benchmarking software, CrystalDiskMark.

(Note: we're testing a slightly older version of the Evo Select which is rated at 130MB/s. You can still buy this card, but the newer 160MB/s version is now the more widely-available option)

At 131MB/s, read speed is right in line with Samsung's claims for our test card. But then we see why Samsung isn't too keen on advertising the write speed of the Evo Select. 34MB/s is pretty slow compared to most of the microSD cards we test, and it only just qualifies the card for its V30 video write speed certification. Even so, I've personally been using this exact microSD card in my 2.7K dash cam for over a year and have had no recording issues, proving that even with a relatively mediocre write speed, it's still possible for a cheap microSD card to work fine in an average use case like this.

Although this probably isn't a card you'll be using for frequent data transfer to and from a computer, where outright read and write speed matters in the quest for reduced wait times, we always test these real-world transfer speeds anyway.

Sure enough, read speeds are healthy enough, matching those achieved in benchmarking software, as well as Samsung's 130MB/s claim for this generation of Evo Select.

While there's no miraculous boost in write speed past the 34MB/s recorded in CrystalDiskMark, thankfully neither is there a significant drop in write speed, even when writing multiple small image files - traditionally the slowest scenario for write speed - so at least you can expect the card to work at its best, regardless of workload.

Would the newer, 160MB/s read speed Evo Select also have a faster write speed? Maybe, but Samsung still doesn't advertise a write speed figure for this card, so it probably isn't going to be much better.

Verdict

The Samsung Evo Select isn't going to win any transfer speed races or break any records, but if you just want a well-priced, reliable microSD card for your phone, security camera or dash cam, it's a solid option. Sure, it could be argued that you only need to spend a little more to get a microSD card with a higher write speed, but when the majority of use cases simple don't require a card faster than the Evo Select, why pay more? You'd be better served by spending the equivalent amount on a higher capacity Evo Select.

Apple beat fierce rival Samsung to claim the largest share of the global smartphone market in 2025, while global smartphone shipments grew by two percent year-on-year (down on 2024’s four percent growth). That’s according to Counterpoint Research’s preliminary Market Monitor report, which had both Apple and Samsung neck-and-neck with 19 and 18 percent market share in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The latest results put Apple’s share of the global market at a whopping 20 percent, with Samsung occupying an undisputed second place with 19 percent. Apple also enjoyed the top five brands' highest year-on-year shipment growth at +10% percent, with Samsung lagging behind at +5%.

Counterpoint has attributed Apple’s upward trajectory to a successful iPhone 17 launch, with the iPhone 16 bolstering its traction thanks to strong sales in Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. The outlet's findings also revealed that shipments were bolstered by millions of consumers who purchased devices during COVID, reaching an “inflection point” regarding the decision to upgrade.

Elsewhere, global market share hasn’t changed dramatically within the top five brands, with Xiaomi dipping from 14 to 13 percent in third place, yet still enjoying a commanding lead over Vivo and Oppo, retaining 2024’s joint eight percent. However, it’s worth noting that Oppo’s year-on-year shipments declined by four percent. And while both brands sit beyond the top five, Nothing and Google grew exponentially year-on-year with 31 and 25 percent, respectively.

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As we get closer to the rumored February 25th reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, we're seeing more tips that suggest Samsung could be planning a range of subtle camera improvements for the S26 Ultra. There's talk of larger lens apertures for the wide and periscope telephoto modules, but according to a new leak from renowned leakster Ice Universe, Samsung might also be adding a 24MP capture option for the camera's Photo and Portrait modes.

By default, the S25 Ultra's primary, wide-angle camera records at 12.5MP, as the 200MP sensor groups 16 adjacent pixels into 4x4 clusters in a process called pixel binning. This enables 16 small pixels to act as one big pixel, increasing light sensitivity and allowing for faster shutter speeds and improved dynamic range. There has also been the option to capture 50MP images (2x2 pixel-binned clusters), or to unleash the full sensor resolution for 200MP images. However, both of these options have resulted in slower capture times and increased file sizes.

Samsung has previously added a 24MP resolution option to existing Galaxy phones, but only when using the Expert RAW app, and it too was not without issues, resulting in over-sharpening and chromatic aberration (at least according to Ice Universe). The Galaxy S26 Ultra's 24MP implementation is said to "feel much more like a daily-use shooting mode", with image quality being "very fine and clean". The new 24MP mode isn't completely without compromise, however. It's said that each image takes around 3 seconds to process (though this does happen in the background), and the mode isn't accessible via the default camera app. To make it visible, you apparently need to toggle it on via Samsung's Camera Assistant app in the Good Lock module.

But, the results are supposedly worth the initial activation effort, and the increased processing time, as they’re said to be "clearly better than 12MP". According to the leak, the new 24MP mode is still in development, so it's possible it might get even smoother. But if you're hoping this upgrade could be added to older Galaxy devices, then prepare to be disappointed: the rumor states that this would be a feature exclusively reserved for S26 phones.

It's been widely rumored that the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra is likely to inherit the S25 Ultra's 200MP image sensor for its wide-angle camera. This ISOCELL HP2 sensor has been the cornerstone of Samsung's flagship camera phones since it was introduced with the S23 Ultra, but that doesn't mean the S26 Ultra's primary camera won't receive any improvements.

According to tipster AhmedQwaider, Samsung may be widening the lens aperture of the S26 Ultra's primary camera to f/1.4 (up from f/1.7 in the S25 Ultra). Furthermore, Samsung could pull the same trick with the S26 Ultra's telephoto camera, which is expected to be the same 50MP periscope module used in the S25 Ultra. This currently features an f/3.4 aperture in the S25 Ultra, but it's said that the S26 Ultra might get an f/2.9 lens.

Relatively incremental improvements like this don't grab headlines like an all-new sensor would, but there is a tangible image quality advantage to be gained from increasing lens aperture. A larger aperture means more light can travel through the lens to the sensor. This additional light hitting the sensor means the camera can use a faster shutter speed to capture your subject, reducing the likelihood of blur from camera shake. It also reduces the need for higher ISO sensitivities, which would result in increased image noise and grain - especially handy in low light situations.

We'll have to wait a little later than in previous years for the launch of Samsung's new flagship phone. Reports suggest the S26 Ultra will be revealed at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on February 25th, with retail availability possibly set for March 11th.

Just days after renowned tipster Ice Universe suggested the Galaxy S27 Ultra will have mostly new camera hardware, we've got a new leak from the same source with more detail about exactly what this hardware may be.

The latest rumor claims the S27 Ultra will use a new Samsung 200MP sensor for its primary camera, named ISOCELL HP6, which is 1/1.3-inch in size.

I've previously speculated about the possibility Samsung might switch to rival Sony's new Lytia LYT-901 200MP image sensor, but that now seems unlikely.

If the rumored specs are correct, the ISOCELL HP6 would be the same resolution and physical size as the ISOCELL HP2 that's been used in every flagship Samsung phone since the S23 Ultra (and looks as though it'll also feature in the S26 Ultra). However, the leak claims "there are more new technologies being added" to the HP6, which presumably will help it produce better image quality than the HP2.

It's also speculated that the S27 Ultra may get a new ultrawide camera, though the telephoto modules could be carried over from the S26 Ultra. This would potentially mean the S27 Ultra would get a 50MP 5x telephoto camera, along with a 10MP 3x module. This could well be a decent enough telephoto system, but it still looks a little weak when compared to a phone like the Vivo X300 Pro, which boasts a 200 MP, 1/1.4" sensor for its periscope telephoto module.

Obviously we're still a long way off the official S27 Ultra launch, so any rumors about its possible camera specs should be taken with a handful of salt. The S26 Ultra is of course coming much sooner, with February 25th being the most likely launch date.

Story credit: IceUniverse / X

The launch of the Galaxy S26 Ultra is now pretty close, with February 25th seeming to be the likely date, but rumors are already surfacing about the potential cameras specs for its replacement, the 2027 Galaxy S27 Ultra.

Obviously at this very early stage you have to take such speculation as exactly that - vague speculation - as plenty could change in the next 12 months. But on the flip side, this new rumor does come from a well-regarded and long-time tipster, Ice Universe.

The tip states that the S27 Ultra could get a new primary (wide) camera, as well as fresh ultra-wide and selfie cameras. Frankly, it's about time Samsung upgraded the main camera in its flagship phone. The current ISOCELL HP2 sensor we have in the S25 Ultra was first introduced for the S23 Ultra, so assuming it also finds its way into the S26 Ultra, it'll have featured in 4 consecutive generations of Ultra phones. While the sensor is still competitive, it's no longer the benchmark in camera phone image quality it once was. By 2027 it'll certainly be due for replacement if Samsung wants to compete with the likes of Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi, all of which certainly haven't played it so conservative with their camera hardware.

The rumor states that only the telephoto camera in the S27 Ultra might remain unchanged, but that would make sense as it's been rumored that the S26 Ultra could be getting a fresh telephoto module.

As for what sensor Samsung could choose to replace the venerable ISOCELL HP2? We've recently seen Sony reveal its first 200MP sensor, which is physically larger than any of Samsung's 200MP offerings, so that would theoretically be an upgrade over the HP2. But it remains to be seen whether Samsung would be prepared to switch to a rival sensor manufacturer for the primary camera in its flagship phone.

Story credit: IceUniverse / X

Having spent the past decade pushing foldable camera tech, Samsung has now announced a new chapter, the Galaxy Z TriFold. This is the second tri-folding phone to hit the smartphone market, with the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate being the first.

Aside from a flagship camera system, the main highlight is the 10-inch display that turns the standard smartphone (when folded) into a full-size tablet (when fully unfolded). At this size, and with premium hardware, the Galaxy Z TriFold will no doubt appeal to consumers who want to be able to work, game, and watch a movie all on the same device.

Top-tier flagship cameras

The triple camera system is housed inside a sizable bump and features a 200MP wide-angle, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP telephoto. The wide-angle camera boasts Quad Pixel AF, OIS, an f/1.7 aperture, an 85° field of view, and 2x optical quality zoom. The ultra-wide has a 120° field of view and an f/2.2 aperture. The rear camera setup is polished off with the telephoto lens that features OIS, an f/2.4 aperture, a field of view of 36°, 3x optical zoom, and a digital zoom up to 30x.

On the front, Samsung has included two selfie camera cutouts, one 10MP camera on the cover screen and another 10MP camera on the main screen. Both have an f-number of 2.2, although the main screen camera has a wider 100° field of view over and above the 85° that is present on the cover screen camera.

This is a flagship set of camera specs that puts it amongst the best on the market right now for folding devices. We've seen Samsung repeatedly pushing the boundaries of camera tech with the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and now they're bringing the same A-game to the Galaxy Z TriFold.

A serious set of specs beyond the cameras

Moving on to the internals, the Galaxy Z TriFold features a Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform and 16GB of RAM. This is identical to the top-tier model of the Z Fold 7. In terms of storage, there will be 512GB and 1TB options.

Samsung has also packed the Galaxy Z TriFold with a 5,600 mAh three-cell battery system, which is the biggest battery they've ever had in a foldable phone. To ensure balanced power across the whole device, the cells have been spread across all three panels. The device also supports 45 W super-fast charging.

In terms of materials, the titanium hinge housing introduces a thin piece of metal that protects the folding mechanism. The frame of the device is supported by Advanced Armor Aluminum, which aims to deliver rigidity without increasing bulk. And the back panel is made of a ceramic-glass fiber-reinforced polymer.

Availability

The Galaxy Z TriFold will be available in South Korea on December 12, with a US launch expected in early 2026, but as of yet, there's no indication of timeframes.

There are also no details of pricing for Western markets, although the price in South Korea will be a whopping KRW 3,590,400, which is the equivalent of around $2,500. This is unbelievably high and significantly more expensive than many other folding phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

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The launch of Samsung's Galaxy S26 series is getting closer, and we're seeing multiple leaks suggesting how the camera island of the S26 Ultra could look. In September long-time tipster Ice Universe leaked images of a new, more prominent camera bump. Now that leak has been made more credible by a new image shared by @TarunVats on Twitter/X:

This shows two S26 Ultras - one inside a case, and the other bare. What's clear here is that, as with the Ice Universe image, we see the stack of three camera lenses now grouped onto a single raised camera bump, where previously these would have been set individually against the back panel of the phone. And this latest image again shows a new design choice we saw in the September leak: more-obviously rounded chassis corners. The S25 Ultra moved away from the S24 Ultra's square shape, and now the 2026 flagship design appears to be even rounder, aping the iPhone 17 Pro.

It's been reported that the S26 Ultra could require a thicker camera bump due to a combination of two things: the rest of the phone being thinner (7.9mm, versus 8.2mm for the S25 Ultra), and the primary camera getting an f/1.4 lens (the S25 Ultra uses an f/1.7 lens), along with a variable aperture.

If both these rumors are true, then a new camera island becomes essential. This is because if Samsung was to retain the same separate lens design we've seen in its last few flagship phone generations, the main camera lens on the S26 Ultra would stick out of the phone way too far. The use of a camera island serves to soften the thickness transition between the main body of the phone and the end of the camera lens.

Samsung has already used a double thickness camera array for the S25 Edge, so it'd make sense for the S26 Ultra to adopt a similar design language. It's likely we'll only have to wait a few months to find out for certain, assuming Samsung continues its usual launch schedule.

Samsung is celebrating 15 years of Galaxy camera phones. These days the ubiquity of camera phones makes it all too easy to take for granted the incredibly powerful cameras we all have in our pockets, but wind the clock back only to 2010 and the camera phone landscape was very different, if arguably more exciting.

This period marked a turning point in how we define a typical 'camera'. Where in the 2000s the conventional compact camera was king, it was around 2010 when the camera phone became a genuine threat to the dominance of the typical 'point-and-shoot'. Of course, there were plenty of camera phones prior to 2010, but for the most part their cameras were too basic to be considered a viable alternative to a 'proper' camera. Even early iPhones, as innovative as they were in some areas, weren't renowned for having particularly sophisticated camera hardware. It wasn't until 2010's iPhone 4 (and particularly the following 4s) when Apple really stepped up the iPhone's photographic game, and terms like iPhoneography started to enter the popular vernacular.

Over in the Android camp and 2010 marked the release of the Samsung Galaxy S - the first Galaxy S phone, and only the second Samsung phone to ever receive the Galaxy nameplate. This was also one of the first Samsung phones to run Android - in this case, Android 2.1 Éclair. This was the era when each new Android versions wasn't just numbered, it was also given a name, with the theme always being sweet treats.

There were a few Android-based Samsung camera phones prior to the Galaxy S, as well as some Windows-based handsets, but for the most part Samsung's touchscreen phones ran on the company's proprietary TouchWiz UI (my own phone at the time was a Touchwiz-driven Samsung S8000 Jet).

The I9000 Galaxy S, to give it its full name, featured a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and could record 720p video at 30fps. Humble beginnings, but just a year later and the Galaxy S II bumped resolution to 8MP, added 1080p video capability and introduced an LED flash, thereby bringing the camera phone within striking distance of average compact cameras of the era, which tended to be around 10-12MP.

Come 2013 and the writing was well and truly on the wall for the compact camera. Not only did the Galaxy S4 feature a 13MP sensor, which was also almost as large in size as a typical 1/2.3-inch compact camera sensor; that same year Samsung took its most blatant swipe at the legacy camera industry yet, in the form of the Galaxy S4 Zoom:

This was a true phone/camera hybrid, featuring a 16MP 1/2.3-inch image sensor that could genuinely compete with what Canon and Nikon had in their contemporary PowerShot/Coolpix line-ups. But the big selling point here was the S4 Zoom's camera lens, with its 24-240mm focal range giving 10x optical zoom. Add the sculpted rear panel, a proper shutter button, and even a high-power Xenon flash and the S4 Zoom, along with phones like the now-legendary Nokia 808 PureView from 2012, defined what I would argue was the most exciting time in the camera phone sector. Unlike today, when each new generation of Galaxy S or iPhone is essentially the same as the last, in 2013 there was real innovation: it was now clear that the camera phone was on its ascent, and we could only wonder at how high it would go on its rise to dominance.

Fast forward to 2018 and the Galaxy S9+ introduced dual rear facing cameras - the standard wide-angle module, flanked by a telephoto module giving 2x optical zoom. In 2019 the S10 increased the rear-facing camera array to 3 modules, with the inclusion of an ultra-wide snapper. A year later Samsung stunned us by equipping the S20 Ultra with a 108MP sensor for its primary camera. And not content with winning the megapixel war, it upped the ante still further in 2023 when it dropped the 200 megapixel ISOCELL HP2 sensor in the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

By setting the camera hardware bar so high, it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise that the subsequent S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra haven't delivered anywhere near the same wow factor, at least in terms of hardware, instead relying primarily on AI to improve image quality. While camera purists like myself may lament this apparent stagnation of camera hardware, there's no denying the incredible power of AI, from subject recognition to image quality enhancement at extra-long focal lengths.

While the camera phone is inevitably advancing at a slower rate than in the early 2010s, we shouldn't take for granted what an incredible 15 years it's been for the camera phone industry.

A leak from prolific (and often reliable) tipster Ice Universe has given us some clues about what the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 series phones could look like. The leak shows a photo of protective film panels seemingly cut to fit over the camera islands on the S26 Pro, S26 Ultra and S26 Edge.

If the leak is legitimate, then the S26 Edge would have the most obviously different camera island design when compared to the current S25 Edge. Where the existing model has a small (if thick) camera bump, the S26 Edge looks to have a far wider camera island, much like the full-width protrusion sported by the iPhone 17 Pro.

Quite why Samsung would want to emulate Apple for the S26 Edge is hard to fathom. The whole point of the Edge is to minimize phone thickness, so giving the S26 Edge a significantly larger camera bump than its predecessor seems counterintuitive.

By contrast, the camera islands for the S26 Ultra and S26 Pro (the Pro is allegedly what the vanilla S26 will be known as) look to be far more conservative. Both follow Samsung's typical triple lens in a vertical stack design language, albeit with a slight change from the S25 phones. Where those featured three distinct camera lenses, each protruding out of the phone's rear panel, with no surrounding camera island, Samsung does appear to now be grouping all three lenses into one raised camera bump.

From a technical standpoint, this does make sense. Samsung is on a mission to make its phones thinner, and not just the Edge model. There are reports that the S26 Ultra could be 0.4mm thinner than its predecessor, while other rumors suggest it could also have a larger aperture lens for its primary, wide-angle camera. If both rumors are true, then a camera island becomes essential. Why? Because if Samsung was to retain the same separate lens design we've seen in its last few flagship generations, the main camera lens on the S26 Ultra would stick out of the phone way too far. The use of a camera island serves to soften the thickness transition between the main body of the phone and the end of the camera lens.

However, in giving the S26 Ultra a camera island, Samsung would potentially be sacrificing what was a relatively clean design language to make the S26 Ultra look like any other flagship phone with a big camera bump. The leaked S26 Ultra image also shows the phone's frame corners are more rounded than those on the S25 Ultra, which in turn deviated from the completely square corners of the S24 Ultra.

The new rounded look appears to ape the iPhone, which is sure to come as a disappointment to many Samsung fans who'd prefer the brand to retain a more distinctive look.

If the rumors and leaks turn out to be correct and the S26 Ultra has to rely on little more than a larger aperture lens to differentiate itself from the S25 Ultra when it comes to camera hardware, and that in turn compromises the phone's styling, the likely January launch could be a disappointment.

Samsung's latest premium (but not quite flagship) smartphone, the Galaxy S25 FE, was announced at IFA 2025 alongside the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, and after 48 hours with it, there's plenty for Samsung fans to get excited about.

It's called the S25 FE, but a more accurate name would be S25 Plus FE, as its screen size matches the middle child Galaxy, missing out on that small phone charm of the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S25. With a lower price than both flagships, the S25 FE could be a great entry point to Samsung's AI tools across language and imaging. This is all part of Samsung's strategy to "double the number of devices using Galaxy AI to 400 million by the end of this year", set out by Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience VP of Product and Marketing, UK & Ireland, at the phone's launch in Berlin.

Looking over the specs, the S25 FE's main compromises when compared to the flagships seem to be camera and performance, with smaller sensors and a less powerful chipset. And while in the Samsung camp, the Galaxy S25 FE represents the value flagship option – similar to the Pixel 10 and iPhone 17 – alternatives like the OnePlus Nord 5, Poco F7 Ultra, and Vivo V60 all undercut it.

So is the Samsung experience really worth a premium, or would you be better off stumping up for a flagship Galaxy or spending less elsewhere?

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE price

While it costs less than the S25 series, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE isn't cheap at $649 / £649 / AU$1,099 for the starting 128GB version of the phone with 8GB RAM. Storage capacities and memory configurations will vary depending on where you are, with 256GB and 512GB options also available in the UK.

However, while the S25 FE's price is significantly lower than the launch prices of the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, those phones were launched at the beginning of the year, and even Samsung is offering some attractive discounts on them.

Outside the Samsung camp, the Nothing Phone (3) costs a similar amount for the 256GB options, the Poco F7 Ultra undercuts it by around £100 in the UK, as does the Xiaomi 14T Pro, which launched at the end of 2024 but stacks up very well on paper.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE design and screen

The S25 FE isn't reinventing the wheel when it comes to design, with a very Galaxy-by-numbers look and feel. The corners are rounded, the sides and frame are flat, as is the back panel and display, and there are three cameras, each raised with a metal rim.

On first impression, the S25 FE is a relatively big phone with its large screen size, and the fact that the screen or back doesn't curve in to meet the frame stops it from feeling particularly skinny. The Armor Aluminum band surrounding the display and IP68 water and dust resistance should help with durability, while the front panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus Plus.

The Galaxy S25 FE is available in four colors: Navy, Icyblue, Jetblack, and White, with all flavors sporting glass backs with matte finishes, adding a sense of premium to the in-hand feel.

Power up the screen, unlock the S25 FE with the under-display fingerprint scanner, and the large 6.7-inch front panel does a great job of showing off movies and games and giving you plenty of room to navigate. With a peak brightness of 1,900 nits when playing back HDR content, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a Full HD+ resolution.

Galaxy S25 FE cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S25 FE has a 50MP primary camera with OIS, an f/1.8 aperture, and a 23mm wide-angle. The 12MP ultra-wide camera has an f/2.2 aperture, a fixed-focus lens, and a 13mm field of view, while the 8MP telephoto camera, with its 3X 76mm equivalent focal length, is helped along by OIS. The main upgrade, as far as the cameras go, comes in the form of a 12MP front camera, which combines a higher resolution with a larger sensor size for better selfies.

If you've used an S23 FE, you may have a serious case of deja vu, with the rear camera mix being identical, resulting in some disappointing numbers when it comes to sensor sizes: a 1/4.5-inch tele sensor and a 1/3-inch ultra-wide. But Samsung's product experts emphasised that with the latest generation of AI-powered photo processing, the S25 FE delivers significantly better results across all three rear cameras in all environments, and based on our early testing, the main camera at least delivers on that promise.

Where prosumer photo and video enthusiasts might struggle with the Galaxy S25 FE is the lack of RAW capture or Log video, two features all the flagship S25 series devices support. Nevertheless, the S25 FE can capture 4K video at up to 60fps, or 8K video at up to 30fps.

Galaxy S25 FE performance and battery

Running Android 16 with Samsung's One UI 8, one of the biggest draws of the S25 FE for Samsung fans will be the fact that it ships with the full-fat suite of Galaxy AI tools. That means generative rotating and object removal, as well as a suite of language tools ranging from meeting transcription and summarization through to call translation and writing support.

The S25 FE also comes with Samsung's flagship-grade future-proofing promise, offering seven years of OS support and security updates, matching the best from Google. Powered by a Samsung Exynos 9400, while the phone misses out on flagship power, it's good enough for a bout of 3D gaming or 4K video editing, and in the last couple of days with it, the experience has been smooth and responsive.

Just like the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, the S25 FE has a 4900mAh battery which has been comfortably getting us through a full day with regular WhatsApps and picture taking. It also charges at up to 45W, charging up to 65 percent in 30 minutes with a compatible Quick Charge standard charger.

Galaxy S25 FE early verdict

Our main concern with the Galaxy S25 FE, based on our initial impression, is the camera setup. While it excels at upgrading photography compared to the S23 FE, thanks to Samsung's latest AI processing, early video tests have been more hit or miss, particularly when using the telephoto and ultra-wide cameras in low-light conditions. That limitation, plus the lack of RAW capture or Log video, could turn off enthusiasts and video fans, though the selfie camera is a clear improvement.

Just like with Apple iPhones and Google Pixels, Samsung charges a premium for its Galaxys, and the Galaxy S25 FE definitely costs more than some similarly specced alternatives. Considering it could easily be mistaken for an S25 Plus, though, and delivers all of Samsung's AI upgrades plus seven years of future-proofing, its long-term value could sway Samsung fans looking to spend a bit less.

Until now, Samsung has monopolized the market for 200-megapixel camera phone image sensors. It started in 2021 when it revealed the 200MP ISOCELL HP1: a 1/1.22" chip that first saw use in the Motorola X30 Pro, and later the Xiaomi 12T Pro.

The first Samsung phone to get a 200MP sensor was the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which featured Samsung's 1/1.3" ISOCELL HP2, and the same sensor has since been used in the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra. Samsung also produces an ISOCELL HP3; another 200MP sensor, which we've seen in phones from Honor, Xiaomi and Realme. There's even the more recent ISOCELL HP9: a 200MP 1/1.4" chip designed specifically for use in telephoto modules.

But now Sony wants a piece of the 200MP sensor action. There's been speculation for some time that Sony might be developing such a sensor, but a new leak has come to light suggesting possible details. According to long-time tipster Digital Chat Station, the new chip will be called the IMX09E and could measure 1/1.12-inches in size, giving it 0.7µm pixels. Other details in the Weibo post suggest the sensor may be capable of 100+dB ultra-high dynamic range and support up to 4x lossless zoom when used in conjunction with the rumored Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. If these specs turn out to be correct, then the IMX09E would be the largest 200MP sensor we've seen, if still marginally smaller than Sony's current flagship image sensor, the 1/0.98", 50MP Lytia LYT900.

We don't yet have any information about which phones could actually feature this 200MP Sony sensor. The next flagship handsets from Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo are likely only a few months away, so it's possible we may see the IMX09E show up in at least one of those phones.

Samsung has refreshed its flagship tablet series with the new Tab S11 and Tab S11 Ultra. Announced alongside the almost flagship Galaxy S25 FE smartphone and a host of smart home tech at IFA 2025.

After a bit of time with the oversized Tab S11 Ultra, Samsung's latest flagship slate takes on the iPad Pro and iPad OS 26 with its huge screen and new desktop-like interface, with newly added support for virtual desktops and extended mode for external monitors. The tablet also overhauls the S Pen for the first time in generations, with the latest looking less like a pen, and more like a pencil.

In the flesh, one of the most striking aspects of the Tab S11 Ultra is just how thin it is, a move that mirrors the direction Samsung's taken with its stunning new Z Fold 7. After speaking with Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience VP of Product and Marketing for Samsung UK & Ireland, this move is an intentional response to customer feedback and Samsung research, confirming that thin is definitely in when it comes to tech in 2025.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra price

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is the most expensive of Samsung's latest slates, with a punchy starting price of £1,199 / $1,199 for the 256GB option, £1,299 / $1319.99 for 512GB, and £1,549 / $1,619.99 for the 1TB option. If you want the 5G option (available in the UK only through Samsung direct), add £150 to all those prices, and all versions support microSD card expansion for easy storage boosting.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra design and screen

The Tab S10 Ultra was already thin at 5.4mm, but the Tab 11 Ultra is an iPad Pro-matching 5.1mm. Despite its huge 14.6-inch screen, it's lighter than its predecessor, making the whole tablet feel like a slice of screen, an impression compounded by the slightly smaller bezels and selfie camera notch.

Available in two colors, Moonstone Gray and Platinum Silver, the Tab S11 Ultra has a glass front and an enhanced Amor Aluminum frame, and with IP68 water and dust resistance, can be submerged in 1.5m water for up to 30 minutes.

While past Galaxy tablets used an active stylus (which had a battery), the Tab S11 Ultra switches out to a passive stylus (no battery). That means Samsung has dropped some of the hover, clicker interactions for remote shutter release and other features, but it also means the tab stows magnetically on the top rather than the back, which is much more convenient.

The star of the Tab S11 Ultra show has got to be its huge 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ brightness, and a peak HDR brightness of 1600 nits, ultra-high for a tablet with a screen this big. The peak full-screen brightness of 1000 nits is paired with an anti-reflective coating that makes it one of the best tablets for comfortable outdoor viewing around.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra performance and One UI 8

A new tablet, a new chipset and a new version of One UI, Samsung’s Android interface, and this year the Tab S series gets a feature I’ve been wanting for years, extended desktop support. Before diving into the interface, though, the specs are primed to keep everything running smoothly, with a MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip matched with either 12GB or 16GB RAM. While the 16GB RAM spec is reserved for the 1TB version of the tab, I’ve been able to run three top-tier games split-screen with the 12GB RAM Tab S11 Ultra without any issues, leaving me very impressed with its multitasking and gaming performance on first impression.

Starting with 256GB storage, and going all the way up to 1TB plus optional microSD card expansion, the Tab S11 Ultra should give you plenty of space for your offline content and apps, and with a massive 11600mAh battery – 400mAh higher-capacity than the Tab S10 Ultra – it even doubles up as a power bank for your phone, while offering fast 45W wired charging.

As for OneUI 8 for tablets, it’s matched with Android 16 and Samsung promises seven years of software updates, making the Tab S11 Ultra exceptionally future-proofed across spec and software. The extended desktop support unlocks more PC-like interaction when plugged into an external monitor, allowing you to drag and drop windows across the tablet and display. The new virtual desktop feature, along with floating windows, also blurs the lines between laptop and tablet, setting the S11 Ultra up as a productivity workhorse.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra keyboard folio

If you really want to unlock the potential of the Tab S11 Ultra for work, you’ll want to pick up a keyboard. Samsung makes two official options for its tablet series: a one-piece folio Book Cover Keyboard Slim (£199) and a two-piece detachable kickstand solution, the AI Book Cover Keyboard with Trackpad (£TBC).

For lap typers, the cheaper Book Cover Keyboard Slim is actually the better shout, with the tab secured to the keyboard more robustly – perfect for trains and rattly planes – but if you want the flexibility of using a kickstand without a keyboard, the AI Book Cover adds a trackpad to the mix and could be a better shout for watching and presenting. Any existing Tab S series owners will be sad to know that the past-gen keyboards aren’t supported by Samsung’s latest line of slates.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra early verdict

On first impression, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra checks a lot of boxes – which it needs to considering its punchy price – and could be the first Tab S series upgrade that’s truly compelling since the original Tab S8 Ultra in 2022.

The upgraded power courtesy of MediaTek, improved interface that finally takes advantage of the big screen and extended displays, and the brighter, more immersive display matched with its lighter weight and slimmer profile all take the fight to Apple’s latest iPads and win in a few key areas.

If the Tab S11 Ultra is too big or too pricey for you, check out our best tablet of 2025 picks, and check back for the full review in the coming weeks.

Samsung is reportedly developing a new phone camera module featuring variable optical zoom, but apparently it's not for use in the brand's own Galaxy devices. The report states that Samsung Electro-Mechanics has been commissioned to produce a variable zoom module by Xiaomi for use in its camera phones.

At this point it's worth clarifying exactly what is a variable/continuous zoom module. Plenty of camera phones have what's often referred to as 'zoom', however these telephoto modules use a lens with a fixed focal length. The word zoom in this context merely refers to the difference in focal length between the telephoto lens and the phone's primary, wide-angle module.

Very few camera phones actually feature true optical zoom. That's where a single camera module contains lens elements which can move to cover a seamless focal range, just like a zoom lens for a standalone mirrorless or DSLR camera. If a camera phone offers what appears to be seamless zoom, this is usually achieved through tricks like on-sensor cropping that covers the focal length gaps between the fixed ultrawide, wide and telephoto lenses.

There are some exceptions though - phones that do have true optical zoom. The Sony Xperia 1 VI and VII have telephoto modules that can continuously zoom between 85mm and 170mm. And even Samsung itself has a history of making camera phones boasting true optical zoom. Back in 2013 it released the Galaxy S4 Zoom - a phone with a 24–240mm (35mm equivalent) f/3.1-6.3 lens, providing 10x optical zoom. A year later it followed this with the Galaxy K Zoom (a phone I personally reviewed at the time) which also had 10x continuous optical zoom.

However, where the Xperia 1 VI and VII's zoom lenses are small enough to fit inside a typically slim smartphone form factor, The Galaxy S4 Zoom and K Zoom required much bulkier camera lenses that extended out of the phone chassis as they zoomed in, just like a conventional compact camera of the day. This made the phones relatively thick, and that would never be acceptable today when Samsung is on a drive to make phones ever-slimmer, evidenced by the current S25 Edge.

So whatever Samsung is developing for Xiaomi, it'll almost certainly be an ultra-compact zoom module that's unlikely to increase the size of the phone's camera bump beyond that of Xiaomi 15 Ultra. I wouldn't expect more than 3x optical zoom either, in order to minimize the physical size of the lens. But with the power of AI image enhancement, extra zoom reach is possible, and with minimal image degradation.

It remains to be seen whether Samsung will use the technology in future Galaxy phones, or if the tech is being developed exclusively for Xiaomi.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is, in my opinion, the best-looking foldable of them all. Its confident corners, skinny frame, subdued camera bump, and stylish finish, especially in the blue version I reviewed, look exquisite. On paper, it drops very few balls with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite power, a huge 200MP primary camera sensor and the best cover screen of any Samsung Fold-Series phone to date.

On closer inspection, it becomes clear the Z Fold 7's battery isn't huge, its secondary cameras miss a few tricks – most notably a periscope telephoto – and, as I'll come onto, the phone isn't as powerful or good at dealing with heat as I wish it was. It's also the first Galaxy Z Fold in generations to ditch the S Pen, making it one of the few current-gen foldables with no pen input options available.

Costing $1,999 or £1,799, you'd be forgiven for expecting no compromises, but with so few alternatives available in the US, Samsung still has a clear edge for any wannabe foldable owners, for now. But with Honor's Magic V Fold 5 hot on its heels in Europe, and both Oppo and Vivo launching ultra-slim alternatives in Asia, is the Z Fold 7 really the new foldable to beat?

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Specifications

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Design & Screen

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 gets closer to foldable design perfection than any of the competition, as far as I’m concerned right now. Its confident, angular lines create an almost architectural stature, it’s both slim and robust-feeling, and after a month of using it as my work and personal phone, it feels no more cumbersome in a palm or pocket than a flagship phone when closed.

Closed, the Z Fold 7 feels like a regular phone with its large cover screen and comfortable width. A huge improvement over last year’s Z Fold 6, it feels like Samsung has finally arrived to the party Honor, Oppo and Vivo have been enjoying for a couple of years. When open, Samsung’s new unfolded screen is a large, square tablet panel that adds true two-in-one function to the Fold 7’s form.

As good as it looks, there are some considerations that the angular styling adds to the mix: the right-angle corners are less soft in the hand than all the competition, the totally flat back and sides make it grippy, but less curved and comfortable for long bouts of use, but on the flip side, it’s great for holding sideways and watching content, delivering a secure hold.

What also sets the Galaxy Z Fold 7 apart from much of the Chinese competition is the camera bump. Rather than a centered circle, the Fold 7 has an S25 Ultra-style triple camera nuzzled into the top left corner around the back. More understated in both position and size, it’s another way Samsung wins out the foldable design wars in 2025.

While historically, Samsung’s screens have always been major sticking points on its Z Fold series, this year, the extra size and reduced crease make both the cover and inner display two of the best around.

Before dishing out more praise onto the screens, fans of Samsung’s S Pen should take note – the Z Fold 7 ditches S Pen support – making it the first in generations not to offer stylus input. By contrast, the Honor Magic V5 does offer pen input, with foldable pens available to buy separately.

Anyone looking for pure screen quality, the Z Fold 7 is sharp, bright, and brilliant with vibrant, saturated visuals and HDR10 support inside and out. Movies look fantastic on it, whether closed or open; there are plenty of screen settings to adjust. With a low minimum brightness, it’s also comfortable to use in dark environments. However, Honor still wins out when it comes to PWM dimming, so anyone sensitive to screen flicker may be better served by the Magic V5.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Camera Performance

Main camera

200MP, f/1.7, 24mm, 1/1.3" PDAF, OIS

Telephoto camera

10MP, f/2.4, 67mm, 1/4", PDAF, OIS

Ultrawide camera

12MP, f/2.2, 120º, 1/2.7", PDAF

Main camera

Samsung’s photo processing is notoriously blunt, with unapologetic sharpening, visibly boosted saturation and contrast, as well as a visible HDR look in highlights and some shadows. But – and this is a very big but – clumsy processing is always much more noticeable on weak hardware, and the fact that the Z Fold 7 has a flagship-grade primary camera sensor makes up for a lot of the processing shortcomings. In fact, it has one of, if not the best, primary cameras of any foldable.

The 1/1.3-inch size means it can capture low-noise shots, creating a solid foundation for enthusiasts. Samsung’s Pro mode unlocks manual controls and RAW capture, and matched with the 200MP resolution, photos are packed with detail and easy to crop into when shot in bright environments. This also means 2x and 3x shots taken using the primary camera are very usable, compensating slightly for the weak telephoto camera.

Auto mode photos from the primary camera are crisp with pleasing depth when capturing close-up subjects. Open up the phone, take selfies or vlog with the main camera, and enjoy flattering, warm skin tones and impressive stabilisation. Pairing the large sensor with the Fold 7’s unfolded form makes it a superb vlogging phone.

When the lights drop, the Fold 7’s main camera saves the day, doing a good job of holding a scene together and managing highlights.

Telephoto camera:

The excellent primary camera only serves to highlight how weak the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s secondary cameras are, especially in dark scenes. The telephoto lens feels like a false promise: you get some compression, but cropping into the main sensor often delivers a cleaner shot with more detail. Even when it fires up in bright conditions, lens artifacts are noticeable, especially when compared to higher-quality periscope alternatives.

Because the telephoto lens relies on a small sensor, image quality drops off quickly when the lights dim, with muddy textures and poor color accuracy creeping in. There’s no tele-macro capability, so it can’t double as a close-up camera either. Samsung’s choice of a simple stacked lens over the periscope structures used by rivals like Honor and Oppo leaves the Fold 7’s zoom hardware trailing the competition, and that gap shows in the results.

Ultra-wide camera:

The ultra-wide angle fares better than the tele camera, capturing with an expansive view and benefiting from a higher 12MP sensor. The new, slightly larger sensor helps with detail, but just like the tele, things get muddy in darker scenes. Part-fold the phone, place it on a surface, and you can take a steadier shot. For handheld use, though, you’re usually better off switching to the already wide primary camera.

Video:

The Z Fold 7 is an excellent foldable camcorder thanks to that main sensor. Its 4K 60fps footage looks clean and well-stabilised, and as mentioned, it’s exceptional for vlogging. Video highlights the extent the secondary cameras are major downgrades, so it falls behind for ultrawide and far-reaching-zoom clips, but with up to 8K capture, manual controls, Log video, and unfolded vlogging supported, the primary camera carries the experience, edging it ahead of the competition at the wider end.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Phone Performance

On paper, the Z Fold 7’s performance should be off the chart, but reality doesn’t always match up. It runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, a tuned-up version of Qualcomm’s flagship chipset, and with plenty of RAM, day-to-day performance is smooth, even when juggling multiple apps.

When gaming, however, frame rates are inconsistent, and the phone dims its screen aggressively on hot days. These measures keep the Z Fold 7 cool to the touch but impact the experience, making it a worse gaming phone than the Vivo’s X Fold 5, which uses a last-gen chipset, and the Oppo Find N5, which runs a lower-spec Snapdragon 8 Elite. In cooler conditions and when not 3D gaming, though, it keeps pace, even when editing 4K video in CapCut and LumaFusion.

Samsung’s One UI 8, running on Android 16, feels familiar. It’s packed with Samsung services like Galaxy Apps, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Calendar, which loyalists will welcome, and its multitasking tools with floating windows are robust. That said, Honor, OnePlus and Oppo, offer more elegant off-screen multitasking. Samsung also layers in a full suite of AI tools across language and imaging, adding value for anyone considering the Fold 7 as a work phone.

Samsung promises up to seven years of OS upgrades, which is excellent for future-proofing and matches Google and Honor. But the 4,400mAh battery may not last quite so long. It comfortably delivers a full day now, but with natural battery degradation likely within a couple of years, it misses out on the extra mAh of the key competition. Charging is also underwhelming: 25W wired and 15W wireless pale in comparison to Honor’s Magic V5, which packs a 5,820mAh cell with 66W wired and 50W wireless charging.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Verdict

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung’s best foldable yet, and in design terms, the best-looking foldable on the market right now. Its slim build, excellent cover screen, and standout main camera sensor make it a joy to use day-to-day, and for vlogging, it’s better than anything else in the 2025 foldable space.

But it’s also a phone of compromises. The telephoto and ultrawide cameras feel weak next to the main sensor, battery life and charging are underwhelming, and heat management dents its gaming credentials and performance on hot days. Dropping S Pen support also makes it less of a productivity tool than earlier Folds, though we didn’t mind the omission.

At £1,799/$1,999, those shortcomings matter, especially when rivals like Honor, Oppo, and Vivo are pushing harder with lower prices, bigger batteries, and more versatile cameras. In the US, Samsung still has the foldable space on lock, but in Europe and Asia, the Z Fold 7 feels like it has earned a seat at the table, without managing to best the competition in every respect.

Alternatives

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.

It isn't long since foldable phones were clunky, pricey and liable to break. The cameras were bad. The battery life wasn't great. In short, they were more of a novelty than a serious purchase.

But a lot of that's changed. And specifically, it's seeing people actually use these devices in the wild that's making me realise what a gamechanger they could be. 

For instance, last month at a press conference, I watched a journalist with her Galaxy Z Fold 7 lying open like a tiny laptop. On the left side, she had the press release pulled up. On the right, she was making notes in real-time, cross-referencing technical specs as the speaker went through each point. 

What struck me was how natural it all looked. She wasn't in any way straining or fumbling with this new workflow. She looked like she'd been doing this her whole life.

Workflow possibilities

I'm intrigued by the possibilities for photographers' productivity. Imagine editing a photo while keeping your reference image or client feedback open on the other screen. Reviewing a shoot while updating your shot list, or communicating with your team. This multitasking potential might end up finally matching how photographers actually work in the real world.

The general public seem to be warming to foldables too. I was in the pub on Friday night, when a friend pulled out her Pixel 9 Pro Fold to show me shots of her granddaughter's first steps. When she opened it up to its tablet-sized display, the pics truly popped. 

For the first time, sharing mobile photos felt like a proper viewing experience, and required no squinting whatsoever.

Up to the job

In short, it seems we're reaching the point when foldable tech is finally delivering on its promises. The latest devices from the likes of Google and Samsung are so thin and light that using them closed doesn't feel like you're carrying a brick. 

The cameras are becoming genuinely competitive too, not just "good for a foldable." And while the durability concerns haven't vanished entirely, they've certainly become more manageable.

So I think a lot of people will soon be starting to ask a new question. Not "Why would I want a foldable?" but "What am I missing by not having one?" And when the conversation moves from justifying early adoption to worrying you've been left behind, that's massive.

We saw it with mirrorless cameras, we saw it with 4K displays, and we saw with fast charging. Now, it feels like we're seeing it with foldables too. Mark my words: the foldable future is coming—and for some of us, it's already here.

It's been widely reported in recent weeks that Samsung doesn't look like its planning any major camera hardware upgrades for next year's flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra. Apart from a rumored small bump in resolution for the 3x telephoto module, early signs point to the S26 Ultra inheriting the same primary camera and periscope telephoto module from the S25 Ultra.

But now Chinese tipster Fixed Digital Focus has claimed on Weibo that the S26 Ultra could feature a new sensor for its primary (wide-angle) camera, specifically a 1/1.1" 200MP Sony sensor. Yes, you read that correctly: Samsung, one of the main manufacturers of camera phone image sensors, is rumoured to be switching to arch rival Sony sensors, and for its flagship camera phone, no less.

It's a bold claim, and one I'm deeply sceptical of. Though a 1/1.1" sensor would be marginally larger in size than the 1/1.3" ISOCELL HP2 sensor Samsung introduced with the S23 Ultra and continues to use in the current S25 Ultra, it's not necessarily a large enough size difference to offer a meaningful boost in image quality. What's more, switching to a different sensor of the same resolution also limits any marketing benefit, while binning Samsung's own sensor tech in favour of a competitor's chip would be a marketing nightmare.

The tip says there's a chance the alleged sensor may actually appear in the following S27 Ultra rather than next year's S26, presumably because the chip might not be ready in time for the traditional January release window for Samsung's flagship phone. Either way, the prospect of Samsung switching to a non-Samsung image sensor for its halo camera phone just doesn't seem plausible to me. The change seems even more unlikely given that Sony is yet to release a color camera phone sensor anything close to 200MP in resolution.

If Samsung does decide to upgrade the primary camera sensor for the S26 Ultra, it'd seem more likely that it would fit a new, home-grown ISOCELL chip to showcase the Korean brand's imaging prowess. And frankly it needs to, as recycling that same HP2 sensor year in, year out, is disappointing for consumers and it leaves Samsung vulnerable to the competition implementing larger, more modern sensors in their flagship camera phones.

After two days with the new Galaxy Z Flip 7, I’m no longer a Samsung flip phone naysayer. I’ve tested every Galaxy Flip to date, and by the Z Flip 6, the series, which was supposed to be all about newness and style, started to feel stale. This had less to do with Samsung and more to do with Motorola. After all, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 was facing off against the impressive RAZR 40 Ultra, and the Z Flip 6 against Motorola’s RAZR 50 Ultra. While Moto was lavishing huge cover screens with no notches and tiny bezels on their RAZRs, Samsung was sticking with its clunky-looking six-sided cover display. But no more.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip seems to masterfully evolve the design. When closed, the entire front of the phone has become a display, save for an ultra-slim bezel and dual punch-hole camera, and when open, Samsung has upped the size of the inner screen to a massive 6.9 inches, creating two very usable ways to use its new flip phone.

Samsung hasn’t shaken up the cameras too much, with the 50MP primary camera and ultra-wide combination, but considering flip phones are typically suited to selfies and vlogging, it’s still a competitive mix.

So, how does the Z Flip 7 stack up after a couple of days, and how does it compare with the fantastic new Motorola RAZR 60 Ultra?

Bigger screens, smaller bezels, slimmer body

The big deal here is the 4.1-inch Super AMOLED display on the front of the Galaxy Z Flip 7. If you think back to old school iPhone screens, they were around 3.5 inches, so when folded up, the Flip 7’s front display is bigger than phone screens of yesteryear.

Unlike OG iPhones, the Flip 7’s ample cover screen has some of the thinnest bezels I’ve ever seen, giving it a futuristic vibe, which is compounded by the cutouts for the two cameras and flash. It’s a great-looking setup.

What’s especially excellent about the Z Flip 7 is that it looks totally different from the RAZR 60 Ultra. While Motorola’s flip phone curves out the corners for some streamlined style, Samsung sticks to its flat sides, front and back. So while the Flip 7 catches up, it doesn’t copy, giving customers a new meaningful choice when it comes to flip phone flavors.

Available in Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow, and Jet Black, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 has matte Armor Aluminum sides, and the cover screen is Gorilla Glass Victus 2, with the phone feeling super-premium in-hand. It’s also IP48-rated, so can handle a splash or a dunk, and while the dust resistance is modest, it still bests most foldables.

At 188g and just 6.5mm when open, the Z Flip 7 is both thin and light, but don’t be fooled. Folded up, the phone turns into a squat, chunky 13.7mm-thick square-ish slab. It’s still significantly thinner than its predecessor, but given Samsung opts for flat sides, it doesn’t feel as sleek as the RAZR 60 Ultra.

If I had to nitpick, the power button, which doubles up as a fingerprint scanner, could be easier to find with a fumble. It’s slightly recessed, but still requires a bit of a feel around to press without looking.

Selfies, vlogging and part-folded capture

Flip phones’ superpower is their big cover screens so you can preview content you capture with the best camera on-device. No selfies with the tiny fixed-focus punch hole camera, just decent quality photos and videos that combine both OIS and EIS. They’re more practical than even the best camera phones out now, as when folded up, they’re perfectly palm-sized for confident vlogging, and when you need to prop them up, it’s easy to part fold them, place them on a surface and present, do a TikTok dance, or just check your hair and make-up.

So while the Z Flip 7’s primary camera can’t take on traditional flagships when it comes to camera hardware, ergonomics prevail if you’re a vlogger. A quick anecdote: I needed to capture clips of me wearing some smart glasses for a sponsored video, and I had three phones on me: a Sony Xperia 1 VII, a Nothing Phone (3), and a Motorola RAZR 60 Ultra. Despite trying my best to get the footage with the bar phones (which had better camera hardware), the RAZR’s footage won out. The practicality of flip phones shouldn’t be underestimated for self-shooting.

The Z Flip 7 has a 50MP primary camera with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture, plus a fixed-focus 12MP wide camera. But where the Z Flip 7 edges ahead of the RAZR 60 Ultra when it comes to imaging is in shooting modes. There's a comprehensive Pro mode with a long-exposure time of up to 30 seconds, Samsung’s Expert RAW, and Log video, introduced on the Galaxy S25 series.

Android 16, Exynos power and a modest battery

Samsung’s clearly working its close relationship with Google by being the first phone maker to launch devices running Android 16 out of the box. The reason this is such a big deal is because Samsung promises a full seven OS updates and seven years of security support to ensure your Flip 7 is future-proofed until 2032 and Android 23 (or whatever it ends up being called).

The Galaxy Z Flip 7’s interface, OneUI 8, doesn’t tread much new turf on first impression, though what is interesting is the processor powering it. Unlike previous Z Flips powered by Qualcomm chips, the Flip 7 sports Exynos internals. That’s Samsung’s own silicon arm, and when I first heard the news, I wasn’t thrilled.

Exynos chips have a reputation for running hot, and so too do Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip phones; the combination of hot plus hot didn’t spell good things. So far, it looks like I was worried about nothing, with the Flip 7 running cool and throttling less in early tests than its Qualcomm-powered Z Fold 7 sibling.

The final piece to the Z Flip 7 puzzle is its battery, and with 4,300 mAh of power, there’s no denying the capacity is small when compared to other phones with 6.9-inch displays. If you manage to get by using the cover screen for a chunk of the day, though, you shouldn’t have any trouble staying alive from morning to night.

The phone charges at 25W (QC 2.0 standard), which is pretty slow, but considering its modest capacity it doesn’t take too long to power up, and with wireless charging as well, it’s easy to top up throughout the day.

Early impressions

In addition to putting the camera through its paces, for the full review, the aspects of the Z Flip 7 that are most subject to change are performance and battery life, but after 48 hours, Samsung’s latest flip phone has made a great impression, surprising me after an iterative few years across its entire foldable line.

If you’re less flip and more fold, check out my 48-hour impressions with the ultra-skinny (ultra-expensive) Galaxy Z Fold 7, and check back in the coming weeks for the full Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review.

It's been two full days since I got the Galaxy Z Fold 7 to review, and one thing is clear: this phone marks a turning point for Samsung's foldables. After years of iterating, it makes some tough choices, ditching the S Pen and Samsung's traditional smaller, narrower book-style form factor. It seems like Samsung is (finally) responding to competition coming out of China, and has arguably made its most impressive phone to date. But this rethinking isn’t just in relation to the phone’s thinness; its camera has also been overhauled.

As the main choice for US and Western customers, Samsung had the luxury of setting the foldable tone with its Z Fold series. While phones launching abroad like Honor Magic V3 and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro had skinny profiles, periscope cameras, and super-smart multi-tasking software, Samsung and Google were launching objectively less impressive foldables.

But the Z Fold 7 is much thinner and lighter than the Z Fold 6 despite having a bigger screen, and it feels much more relevant at launch. It’s powerful with the latest internals from Qualcomm, is the first foldable with a 200MP camera which has a large 1/1.3-inch sensor, and as expected, it’s eye-wateringly expensive. Starting at £1,799 / $1,999 for 256GB storage, it climbs up to £2,099 / $2,419 for the 1TB option.

Having used the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in New York, taken it on a long-haul flight and had some time with it back in the UK, I’ve put its camera through its paces in new and familiar scenarios and can confidently say this is the first Z Fold camera that gives serious photographers and videographers a truly competitive shooting experience. And while it leaves its main competition, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold in the dust, the real question is: how does it stack up to more innovative alternatives like the Oppo Find N5 and upcoming Honor Magic V5 and Vivo X Fold 5?

Slimmed down and spruced up

Lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra – Samsung’s non-folding flagship – it’s hard not to be impressed by the 215g Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which weighs an impressive 24g less than last year’s Z Fold 6. At 8.9mm thin when closed, it’s the same thickness as the new Nothing Phone (3), and 26 percent thinner than the Z Fold 6. When unfolded, the Z Fold 7 measures just 4.2mm. These numbers play a huge part in making the foldable feel like a traditional phone when closed.

Despite a shrinking profile, Samsung’s managed to increase the cover screen size, making it 5mm wider than the Z Fold 6, and taking the cover screen size up to 6.5 inches, which should help improve the typing experience.

Samsung suggests its new thinner Z Fold is tougher than its predecessor with Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 around the back, and Samsung’s Armor Aluminum frame. The ultra-thin glass that protects the inner screen is 50% thicker, and the phone is IP58-rated for dust and water resistance. While my review device looks box fresh a couple of days in, Daniel, a creator from Zone if Tech built up a collection of micro scratches on the back of his phone, etched with his Galaxy Ring, suggesting the blue finish we were testing would benefit from a case.

More screen, less crease

Unfolded, the Z Fold 7’s screen is an 8-inch, Dynamic AMOLED 2X display that’s 11 percent larger than that of the Z Fold 6, with a resolution of 2184 x 1968. Samsung’s ditched the Wacom digitizer, so the new Z Fold doesn’t support an S Pen. It’s sharp with 368 pixels per inch, and with its larger 8-inch size, big-screen tasks like split-screen multitasking are a much less cramped affair.

Samsung’s new display and hinge tech also mean the screen crease is significantly less noticeable. While the Galaxy Z Fold 6 had a serious dip in the middle, the Z Fold 7’s is almost invisible when the screen's fired up at most angles.

So while quality has been fantastic for the most part when using the Z Fold 7’s unfolded display, there’s one caveat: throttling. Now, we typically talk about throttling when it comes to CPU performance, however, when testing the Z Fold 7 on a hot day, the screen brightness was throttled to the point I struggled to make out what being displayed, even at max auto brightness with Extra Brightness mode enabled. Five minutes in a pocket and the display was back to full-beam – maxing out at a respectable 2600 nits – but for anyone in a particularly hot country, this is a notable consideration.

When closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 6.5-inch cover screen does a fantastic job of being a phone with its wider, easier to type on footprint. It’s also excellent for movies and good for gaming on, though performance throttling may hold the Z Fold 7 back from being a gaming powerhouse if you play more intensive 3D titles.

A meaningful camera upgrade

Past Galaxy Z Folds had smaller wide camera sensors than traditional flagships and weak secondary cameras, with ultra-wides that were missing autofocus and lowly 10MP telephoto cameras with tiny sensors that wouldn’t even be used unless lighting was perfect. This year, Samsung fixes two of those three foldable foibles with the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 200MP main sensor and upgraded ultra-wide camera.

The 24mm 200MP wide camera has a Galaxy S25 Ultra-matching 1/1.3-inch sensor, and this is excellent for both product photography and vlogging when the phone's unfolded, using the cover screen as your live preview and shooting on the primary camera. The fast f/1.7 aperture lens creates natural depth separation and outclasses the foldable competition from Oppo and Honor.

Samsung has upgraded the 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, kitting it out with autofocus and macro focus for close-up shots, and there’s a 10MP 3x telephoto camera, the weakest performer on-device. In fact, just like the Galaxy S25, which shares the Z Fold 7’s 3x camera, when lighting isn’t ideal, zoomed-in shots are captured using the 200MP primary camera, not the 10MP telephoto camera.

The Z Fold 7 also has two 10MP punch hole selfie cameras, one in the cover screen and the other in the unfolded display. Eagle eyes will spot that Samsung has ditched the 4MP under-display camera, opting for a wider-angle, higher-resolution sensor, so this should result in a boost to unfolded selfies and video call quality.

I’m not typically a Samsung fan when it comes to photography, with over-sharpening and boosted saturation cheapening shots in certain scenes, but the Z Fold 7 has impressed me, especially with its primary camera. We can cut foldables a bit of slack, after all, there’s less space to squeeze in a flagship camera system, and having used all the current-gen options, the Z Fold 7 has climbed to the top of the pack, even with its weak telephoto. If Samsung includes a periscope camera in the Z Fold 8, it’ll have checked off our final wish list item.

Early impressions

It’s hard to argue with the design and screen upgrades to the Z Fold 7, and it’s refreshing to see Samsung’s return to form after years of iterative foldables. While there isn’t much to talk about when it comes to software updates, the fact that the Z Fold 7 ships with seven years of Android and security updates adds plenty of future proofing to the mix, which is critical when a phone costs this much.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy powering the phone also did a good job in my time with it, gliding through day-to-day tasks, including video editing in Lumafusion without any issues. Gamers should take note: the Z Fold 7 throttles demanding games readily, with Wuthering Waves dropping frames after less than 10 minutes of gaming when set to 60fps at maxed out graphics settings.

As for battery life, the phone’s 4400mAh battery is something I’ll need to test in more detail before posting any conclusive thoughts on it. Samsung claims the Z Fold 7’s battery life is better than that of the Z Fold 6, but it’ll take a couple of weeks using it to test that theory.

So check back for the full Galaxy Z Fold 7 review with more camera samples and a conclusive verdict on Samsung’s svelte foldable flagship, and if you’re more of a flip phone fan, head over to my 48-hour impressions with the impressive new Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Update, July 14th: We were hoping Samsung would announce its first tri-folding camera phone at its July 9th Galaxy Unpacked event, however it was only the Galaxy Z Fold7, Flip7, and Watch8 which were unveiled. But that's not to say Samsung isn't working on a future triple-panel foldable.

In a press conference following the July 9th Galaxy Unpacked event, Roh Tae-moon, president of the Device eXperience (DX) division at Samsung Electronics, announced that:

“We are working hard to release [a tri-fold phone] by the end of this year".

It's been rumoured for several months that Samsung might be working on a tri-fold phone to rival the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design. Until now there hasn't been many details available, but a recent beta version of Samsung's One UI 8 operating system contains an animation of a triple-panel foldable phone. The graphic is used to demonstrate NFC chip function, and while it's a highly simplified illustration, it does show some revealing details about the phone's design.

It looks as though the phone would fold inward, with the rear, externally-facing surfaces consisting of a left panel containing the camera island, a central panel housing an external cover display, while the right panel would likely have no exterior function as it'd be enclosed by the other two panels when the phone is folded.

Currently dubbed the Galaxy G Fold, the graphic does somewhat resemble the tri-fold prototype Samsung exhibited at Mobile World Congress earlier in the year. In another animation, we can see a warning message displayed on the main screen when the panel containing the camera island is folded first. This is likely due to the two hinges being of different sizes in order to allow the phone to fold up neatly. This would mean the non-camera panel wouldn't have a large enough hinge to enable it to wrap around the camera panel, thereby leaving the screen vulnerable to breaking if the panels were folded in the wrong order.

Story credit: Android Authority, Telangana Today

Recent rumors have suggested that next year's Galaxy S26 Ultra may have few (if any) camera hardware upgrades over the current S25 Ultra. But if a fresh leak from a "reliable" tipster is to be believed, Samsung could be readying some subtle camera improvements for its next flagship phone.

Samsung is reportedly testing a new 12MP sensor for the phone's 3x telephoto module, which would be an upgrade over the current 10MP unit that's remained unchanged since the Galaxy S21 Ultra. A new selfie camera has also been rumored, but there are no details about this. Additional leaked camera upgrades include an all-new laser AF sensor for improved focussing speed, plus a revised ProVisual Engine for enhanced image processing. Elsewhere, the 200MP primary camera is said to be getting a new lens, though the 50MP ultrawide and 50MP 5x periscope telephoto modules look like they'll be carried directly over from the S25 Ultra. Lastly, Samsung is said to be ditching the seemingly glued-on camera rings that currently adorn the camera lenses on the S25 Ultra.

Elsewhere, the S26 Ultra is expected to feature the same 6.9-inch display size as the S25 Ultra, though its bezels could be narrower to give an improved screen:body ratio. The phone is tipped to be IP68 dust- and water-resistant, and could be powered by Qualcomm's 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 chipset in all markets. A vapor chamber cooling system up to 1.2 times bigger than the S25 Ultra’s could also be employed, aiding cooling and performance. The S26 Ultra is also claimed to pack a generous 16GB of RAM across all storage variants (256GB, 512GB and 1TB).

Story credit: Android Headlines

A new rumor as reiterated previous speculation that Samsung may not be making significant camera hardware improvements for its next flagship camera phone, the Galaxy S26 Ultra. According to GalaxyClub, the S26 Ultra's primary (wide-angle) camera could have the same 200MP resolution as that used in the current S25 Ultra, though it's still possible the sensor itself may be slightly different. If Samsung does indeed reuse the exact same sensor for the S26 Ultra, it would be the fourth year running that the 200MP ISOCELL HP2 chip has been used in a Samsung flagship phone, having first seen service in the S23 Ultra.

It's also possible that the S26 Ultra's battery capacity could remain unchanged as well. According to tipster @UniverseIce, while battery capacity might remain at the same 5000mAh as it's been since the S20 Ultra, it's speculated that the battery itself may be physically smaller and more dense, which would help allow Samsung to reduce the overall thickness of the S26 Ultra. This would tally with prior rumors that Samsung could be aiming to roll out the slimline design ethos of the S25 Edge to other phones in the next S-series range. The same tip goes on to speculate that the S26 Ultra might boast faster charging speed, due to Samsung developing a "new technology to reduce the temperature of the battery during charging".

Of course all this should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt at this stage, as we're likely around six months away from the launch of the S26 Ultra. However, given Samsung's reluctance to make substantial camera hardware upgrades to its recent flagship phones, it's at least plausible (sadly) that the S26 Ultra may follow this trend and instead rely on enhanced AI to improve image quality.

It seems the phone industry may be working towards thinner and thinner camera phones. Earlier this year Samsung launched its thinnest-ever phone, the 5.8mm-thin Galaxy S25 Edge, and Apple is rumoured to have an equally svelte iPhone 17 Air in the works. Then there's the expected rise of the foldable phone. These require each section of the phone to be as thin as possible to keep the folded profile from being too chunky. When it comes to foldables, going thinner therefore makes sense, but I can see few benefits to making a conventional camera phone wafer-thin. Conversely, there are many downsides.

I'll use the Galaxy S25 Edge as an example here, as it's the newest and most extreme example of a thin non-foldable phone. Samsung is rumored to be doubling down on this design ethos for future Galaxy generations, and as a result it's been suggested that it may also postpone any significant camera hardware upgrades until 2028. There are other factors that could be influencing this hardware stagnation, but the move to thinner phones won't be helping. By compressing the thickness within a phone's chassis, you thereby also reduce the available space for camera hardware. Newer, larger image sensors are great for improving image quality, but they in turn require a bigger lens that covers that extra sensor area, and this also needs to be positioned a set distance from the sensor in order to correctly focus your subject. The only way to reduce the distance between sensor and lens is to shrink the sensor size, and that's never good for image quality.

It could be argued that one possible work-around is to utilize a periscope camera module, as these require lens elements to be arranged across the width of a phone's chassis, rather than front-to-back. However, a periscope lens still necessitates sufficient thickness within the phone body to accommodate the diameter of the lens elements (which are aligned at 90 degrees to the phone body), and as the sensor in such a module is also positioned facing across the phone, that too would have to be downsized in order to fit within a slimmer chassis, again compromising image quality. The only other option here is to slim down the phone but still retain a much thicker camera island/bump. While technically feasible, many find this design unsightly, and it leaves the exposed camera section more vulnerable to scuffs and chips, while also meaning the phone can never rest properly on a flat surface.

A thin phone is evidently bad news for camera quality, but it also leads to compromises elsewhere. Less space inside means a smaller battery and lower battery life, and consequently the Galaxy S25 Edge's 3900mAh battery is the smallest in the S25 range. Then there's the issue of heat management, which becomes harder to deal with when there's less space inside a phone for heatsinks. Samsung should be well aware of the perils of heat build-up within a phone by now though. In 2016 it was discovered that the Galaxy Note 7 had a fundamental design defect that resulted in its battery generating excessive heat and catching fire. The exact cause of this is said to be a lack of room within the phone, leading to the battery being crushed during thermal expansion and its electrodes then shorting out. Evidently, taking space-saving to extremes can be dangerous as well as just undesirable.

Finally, there's the issue of ergonomics. While a thin phone may be handy for slipping into a tight clutch bag, it's less than ideal to actually use. Gripping on to those wafer-thin edges is tricky at best, whether you're using the device for calls, or as a camera. Of course you could just protect the phone with a case, and you'd be very wise to, but then that partly negates the thinness of the phone. Heck, even speaker quality has the potential to be deteriorated, as the size of the speaker driver must be reduced in order for it to fit inside a thinner phone.

So there you have it. The camera phone may be getting a sliver thinner and a fraction lighter, but I personally don't think it's worth the numerous compromises which must be made.

For the past few generations of flagship Samsung S-series phones we've been disappointed at their lack of camera hardware innovation. Sadly, this might not change any time soon, if a new tip from the respected tipster Ice Universe proves correct.

The rumor claims that not only could next year's Galaxy S26 Ultra retain the same camera set-up as the current S25 Ultra, the following S27 Ultra may also remain unchanged. Consequently, it's possible we'd have to wait until 2028 to see a flagship Samsung phone with substantially uprated camera hardware.

As for why Samsung should be taking such a conservative strategy, the source suggests it might be instead focussing on producing thinner and lighter camera phones, following the lead set by the S25 Edge. Consequently, with these chassis thickness restrictions, there wouldn't be enough space for larger image sensors. I'd also question the viability of periscope telephoto modules in a thinner phone, as these require sufficient chassis thickness in order to fit the sensor and lens elements perpendicular to the front and rear surfaces of the phone.

It's also speculated that Samsung may be seeking to cut costs in its mobile division in order to offset losses made by its semiconductor chip division - the sector behind Samsung's Exynos chips and ISOCELL camera sensors.

If true, this would likely mean Samsung instead relying on software improvements and AI to boost image quality. However, you can be sure Samsung's rivals will also be leaning in to AI to improve their next generation of flagship phones, as well as making potential hardware improvements. Just because Samsung is currently a leader in the camera phone sector doesn't mean it can afford to play it safe in such a competitive market.

Story credit: Sam Mobile

Samsung's vanilla Galaxy S-series models never seem to grab any headlines, with the flagship Ultra variant stealing all the limelight. This is due in no small part to the base-model phone rarely boasting noteworthy new hardware.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S25 full review

For instance, the Galaxy S25's primary camera sensor - Samsung's 50MP, 1/1.57" ISOCELL GN3 - has been previously used in the base S24 and S23, and even the ISOCELL GN5 sensor in the vanilla S22, though technically different, still shared the same resolution and sensor size. Clearly it's about time Samsung's standard S-series phone got a camera upgrade, and if a rumor publicized by the Dutch website Galaxy Club is to be believed, that may be on the cards. The source claims that the primary (wide-angle) image sensor in the base S26 appears to be different to that used in the current S25.

However, there's a catch: while the sensor might be different, according to the source its resolution is still apparently 50MP. But that doesn't necessarily mean image quality wouldn't be noticeably improved. If the new sensor is physically larger than the current GN3, its individual pixels would also be bigger, potentially leading to reduced noise and wider dynamic range. This latest rumor doesn't reveal any additional detail about what form this 'new' sensor could take, and since we're around 8 months off a likely launch of the S26, any rumors should be taken with a hefty helping of salt.