Galaxy S26 Ultra Leak Confirms f/1.4 Aperture — But Does It Default to 24MP?

A new leak may have just confirmed one of the biggest rumored upgrades coming to Samsung’s next flagship. According to reliable tipster Ice Universe, the Galaxy S26 Ultra will retain the same 200MP ISOCELL HP2 primary sensor used in the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra, but with a key improvement. It’ll get a much wider f/1.4 aperture, compared to f/1.7 on the current model.

Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 200MP main camera has a wider aperture

We’ve been hearing reports about this aperture upgrade for months, but the latest leak finally adds visual proof. A cropped image shared by the tipster appears to show metadata from a photo captured on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, clearly listing an f/1.4 aperture, strongly suggesting Samsung is indeed testing or finalizing this camera setup.

A wider aperture allows more light into the sensor, which can lead to brighter low-light shots with reduced noise, faster shutter speeds, less motion blur, better depth-of-field for subject separation, and improved dynamic range in dim environments. Combined with Samsung’s latest AI-based image processing, the S26 Ultra could deliver significantly better nighttime photography with the same hardware.

Rumors also point to faster 10.7Gbps LPDDR5X RAM, a substantial improvement over the S25 Ultra’s 8.5Gbps RAM. Faster memory directly benefits the camera system by enabling quicker multi-frame processing, faster HDR stacking, improved low-light image fusion, and smoother high-resolution capture.

Interestingly, the leaked image metadata also shows the photo was captured at 12MP. This raised eyebrows because earlier reports indicated the Galaxy S26 Ultra would switch to 24MP as the default shooting resolution. However, there’s an important detail: the photo appears to have been captured with Samsung’s Expert RAW app, which already allows S25 Ultra users to capture 12MP and 24MP shots manually.

This means the leaked shot doesn’t disprove a 24MP default mode. The photographer could have manually selected 12MP in Expert RAW. The stock camera app on the Galaxy S26 Ultra may still default to 24MP. With an official launch expected in February next year, more details are sure to surface soon, so stay tuned.

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