Galaxy S26 Ultra may revive a legendary camera feature - while Apple still fumbles with AI Siri

The Galaxy S24 Ultra and its successor, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. | Image credit – PhoneArena

Reputable tipster IceUniverse has some excellent news for photography enthusiasts and Galaxy fans: the Galaxy S26 Ultra may get a fancy photography feature Galaxy S phones once had but for some reason, Samsung abandoned. Well, it seems Samsung may be bringing it back next year!

IceUniverse, who has a pretty decent track record of reliable leaks and rumors, says that Samsung may grace the Galaxy S26 Ultra's camera with variable aperture. Reportedly, the feature may be reserved only for the primary camera of the flagship.

Variable aperture is not something no other phone maker is offering. In fact, Huawei and Xiaomi are offering it on their flagships, but these two companies didn't come up with it first: it was Samsung who first introduced dual-aperture with the Galaxy S9 series.

Dual-aperture means that these phones could switch between an f/1.5 and an f/2.4, depending on the scene. Going for the f/1.5 setting lets the phone's camera gather more light into the sensor, giving you reduced noise in a low-light environment. But an f/1.5 also gives you a blurred background, which isn't ideal for landscape photos, for example.

An f/2.4 would be great for daylight conditions and situations where you need more of the photo to be in focus.

Well, Samsung nuked the dual-aperture feature from the Galaxy S20 series, and it hasn't been resurrected since then. According to Ice, it may come back.

It's not clear yet whether it will be truly a variable aperture (you can choose between multiple settings, just like a DSLR or mirrorless camera) or you will have a dual-aperture. For one, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra has a variable aperture setting, so I'm inclined to believe that if Samsung wants to include this feature, it won't be the same dual-aperture as on the S9 and S10.

The Galaxy S25 series was released not too long ago but the rumor mill is churning all sorts of talks about next year's flagships.

So far, we've heard that the Galaxy S26 Ultra may be an evolutionary, not a revolutionary thing. We've also heard about a highly anticipated upgrade of silicon-carbon batteries (which would enable a bigger battery life). In the meantime, we're not certain if Samsung will go with an Exynos or a Qualcomm chip to power the series.

The Galaxy S26 series will be a direct competitor to the iPhone 17 series and also the iPhone 18. There are lots of eyebrow-raising talks about the iPhone 17 Pro models sporting a new (and bizarre) design and even vapor chamber cooling (but the Galaxies have vapor chamber cooling for a while now). The iPhone 18 Pro may get a variable aperture, at least rumors say so, but given how early it is for talks about the iPhone 18, it's far from set in stone.

Of course, it's quite early to know about anything when it comes to next year's phones. But let's see who gets variable aperture and who doesn't!