Samsung S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra Camera: Should You Upgrade?

If you do a lot of photography, particularly at night, and don’t shoot many close-ups, the Galaxy S26 Ultra could well be worth its hefty $1,399.99 US price tag (for the 256GB model since 1 October 2026).

It sports the same four cameras as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but two of them have been tweaked: the 200MP main camera has a wider aperture (f/1.4) than its predecessor and so does the 50MP 5x telephoto camera (f/2.9, with a new prism design).

Camera specs compared

While Samsung hasn’t made any changes to the 200MP HP2 main sensor (thankfully), the 3x telephoto camera’s sensor is smaller on the S26 Ultra, judging by the specs listed on GSMArena’s spec sheet as well as in its review. The 3x camera still packs a 10MP sensor and f/2.4 aperture, but the sensor size is the same as the one found on Samsung’s non-Ultra S phones. That said, we should still see improved low-light photos from the main camera courtesy of the new, brighter lens and improved image processing.

Brighter lenses, and what reviewers measured

As SamMobile noted, Samsung says the f/1.4 aperture of the main camera allows 47% more light compared to the f/1.7 aperture of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, while the 5x telephoto with f/2.9 aperture lets in 37% more light compared to the f/3.4 aperture of the previous generation’s periscope camera.

A wider aperture not only lets in more light, which means you can use a faster shutter speed for the same ISO sensitivity (resulting in less motion and camera shake blur), but also provides a marginally shallower depth of field when shooting close-ups.

So how big a difference does that make in practice? Well, according to DXOMARK’s camera test for the Galaxy S26 Ultra (conducted in March 2026), low-light photos show significant improvements over previous Galaxy flagships, with reduced noise and better detail retention, although the S26 Ultra still lagged behind some of its key rivals.

GSMArena’s Galaxy S26 Ultra review (6 March 2026) meanwhile concluded that images captured in fully automatic mode in low light are fairly similar on both devices, with Night mode photos displaying more detail on the S26 Ultra and 3x telephoto images coming out marginally better on the S25 Ultra when shooting at night. Daytime images are almost indistinguishable, it added.

Close focus got worse

GSMArena’s best guess is that the prism 5x helped Samsung make a thinner phone, since a periscope takes more depth. The prism 5x can’t focus as close, though: GSMArena measured about 52cm, against 26cm on the S25 Ultra. Samsung’s own guidance says to stand at least 80cm away from your subject when shooting with the 5x camera. The increased minimum focus distance isn’t limited to the new prism 5x camera, either. The main camera’s minimum focus distance increases from about 8cm on the S25 Ultra to 18cm on the S26 Ultra, and the 3x camera’s minimum focus distance increases from 18cm to 22cm.

If you’re shooting flowers or food photography up close, the S25 Ultra is the easier phone. On the S26 Ultra, you might be better off stepping back to 80cm for 5x shots or using the 1x camera and cropping in post. (Unless, of course, you want to show off how much space surrounds your salad.) On the plus side, GSMArena notes that out-of-focus highlights captured with the prism 5x camera are circular, whereas on the S25 Ultra, bokeh highlights shot on the periscope 5x camera have rectangular shapes with rough edges. Our S26 Ultra zoom guide includes a distance measurement for each lens.

Video and software differences

GSMArena called the new APV codec ‘near-lossless’ (albeit with very large file sizes), and Samsung recommends recording to external storage if you choose it. It’s only available on the S26 Ultra. Horizon Lock stabilisation was also introduced on the S26, although Samsung has since added it to the S25 via the One UI 9 update. The One UI 9 comparison on SamMobile also reveals that the S26 has extra Pro Video frame rates, specifically 25, 50 and 100fps for regions that use 50Hz mains power.

Video capabilities aren’t the only camera differences between the two phones, and Samsung has also tweaked how night shots work on the S26. There’s now a Night option within Photo mode (set to Auto by default, but can be changed to Off or Max for brighter images), while the traditional Night mode is buried away and can only be accessed after being re-enabled through Camera Assistant. When we checked on a Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 9 in November 2026, there was still a Night shot option within Photo mode, as well as the separate Night mode in the list of shooting modes. You can also access 24MP shots in Photo mode on the S26, although again, only after enabling it through Camera Assistant, while on the S25 this option is exclusive to Expert RAW. Our S26 Ultra camera guide covers those settings. Our settings pages for the S26 Ultra and S25 Ultra give starting values for each phone.

Who wins in each situation

Pricing

Upgrade advice

• If you take lots of photos and videos in low light, or if you’re interested in shooting with APV for pro-level video editing, an upgrade makes sense.
• If you mostly take pictures during the day, the S25 Ultra and S26 Ultra are pretty similar, according to reviews.
• If you take a lot of close-up shots of food and objects, stay with the S25 Ultra.
• If you don’t own an Ultra and are interested in Samsung’s most zoom-forward phone, consider picking up a discounted S25 Ultra. It’ll save you some money and offer the same zoom capabilities, albeit with slightly worse performance at night and a year less support.

The S26 Ultra camera review and S25 Ultra camera review cover each phone individually. If you’re coming from an older phone, the S25 Ultra vs S24 Ultra comparison shows what the previous step changed.