Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Hands-On: AI Camera System Rewrites Mobile Photography
Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and while the spec sheet reads impressively — Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, 16GB RAM, 6.9-inch LTPO AMOLED — the real story is the camera. The S26 Ultra introduces what Samsung calls "Neural ISP," a fundamentally new approach to mobile image processing that treats every photo as an AI interpretation rather than a sensor capture.
How Neural ISP Works
Traditional smartphone cameras capture raw sensor data and apply computational photography tricks — HDR stacking, noise reduction, sharpening — in a fixed pipeline. Neural ISP replaces this entire chain with a single neural network that was trained on 50 million professional photographs across every conceivable lighting condition and scene type.
The result is striking. In a dimly lit restaurant, the S26 Ultra produces images with natural bokeh, accurate skin tones, and noise characteristics that look more like a full-frame mirrorless camera than a phone. Side-by-side with the iPhone 17 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro, the Samsung consistently produced images that professional photographers in a blind test preferred 64% of the time.
The 200MP Main Sensor
The primary sensor remains at 200 megapixels but uses a new ISOCELL HP3 design with 20% larger individual pixels when shooting in the default 12.5MP binned mode. The 5x periscope telephoto has been upgraded to a variable zoom mechanism, allowing optical-quality results anywhere between 3x and 10x — a genuine first for smartphones.
Video capabilities have taken an equally large leap. The S26 Ultra shoots 8K at 60fps (up from 30fps) and introduces "Director's Mode 2.0," which uses AI to automatically cut between the front and rear cameras during recording based on who is speaking — essentially automated multicam editing in real time.
Beyond the Camera
Samsung's Galaxy AI suite has been expanded with on-device translation that now works in phone calls with 16 languages, a "Note Assist" feature that transforms voice recordings into structured meeting notes, and a genuinely useful "Circle to Search" upgrade that can now identify and price any product in your camera viewfinder.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at $1,399 for the 256GB model and is available for pre-order today, with shipments beginning March 21.
