Chinese mega flagship phones have set this trend to fit massive 200 MP periscope telephoto lenses in their camera setups. You must have heard that the Vivo X200 Pro and even X200 Ultra use this monstrous camera sensor. We’ve also seen reports that the Xiaomi 14 Ultra wants to do the same. Now, Samsung is feeling the competitive pressure building.
A leak came up yesterday from the Digital Chat Station’s Weibo post saying that the Galaxy S26 Ultra might be getting a 200 MP periscope telephoto of its own next year. Samsung is evaluating this possibility with a 1/1.5” sensor, which may be smaller than the X200 Ultra’s 1/1.4” type unit.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be a possibility for this year’s S25 Ultra. If Samsung did try to pull it off, the S26 Ultra might be it, so you must wait till next year. The lineup, which is about to debut now doesn’t have meaningful hardware changes, but the design is, for better or worse, overhauled.
Samsung was falling behind, but this move might put it back on the map as far as zoom photography stands. Another thing to note is that they haven't decided whether the 200MP telephoto camera is a good choice for Samsung's latest Ultra model or not. The decision isn’t final, so we must be ready if the company drops that idea entirely.
More on Galaxy S26 Ultra story: for the next year, Ultra might get named S26 Note, breaking away from the old naming convention. In August, a leaker on X posted about the S26 series’ possible pixel-style lineup hierarchy with Pro/Plus in their titles.
Another leak from @kro_roe on X went viral earlier, saying that the Galaxy S26 series wants to upgrade its battery to a Si/C anode cell for more energy capacity, which might even lead to upgrading its charging speed to 65W. Li-ion batteries are nearing obsoletion for premium phones. So, it might also be a legitimate possibility next year.
Even if the rumors are accurate, it is too early to know if the Samsung S25 Ultra's successor will go down this path, so we advise not to take everything at face value alone. Let’s just sit back and let the story unfold even more before reaching any conclusions.
