Samsung has an… interesting approach when it comes to camera hardware on its flagship Galaxy S range. And, by interesting, I mean frustratingly slow.
The Samsung Galaxy S25, for example, shares many similarities with the Galaxy S22 – a phone released in early 2022 – when it comes to the camera setup.
In fact, it’s not just similar, it’s the exact same hardware. Regardless of whether you opt for the 2025 flagship or the 2022 flagship, you’ll get the same 50MP main camera, 12MP ultrawide lens, and 10MP 3x telephoto lens.
It’s not just the megapixel count that’s the same either; the actual underlying hardware remains identical too. The 50MP main has the same f/1.8 aperture and 1/1.56-inch sensor as its three-year-old counterpart, and it’s the same story with the other rear lenses.
Instead, it seems that Samsung puts all its camera-focused efforts into the top-end Ultra model; this year’s flagship sports a high-res 200MP main, along with a duo of telephoto lenses and an accompanying ultrawide.
Even here, however, the year-on-year improvements are fairly minor. The Galaxy S25 Ultra shares the exact same 200MP main, 10MP 3x telephoto and 50MP 5x periscope lenses as the S24 Ultra, with only the ultrawide lens getting an upgrade to a 50MP snapper this year.
Granted, there are more changes here than in any other Galaxy S model, with a completely different setup from 2022’s S22 Ultra, but the pace of change is still glacial compared to many other Android brands.
The hope is that Samsung is biding its time and gearing up for a huge camera overhaul, potentially with the Galaxy S26 series next year – but a recent rumour suggests that we could be waiting until the release of the Galaxy S28 in 2028 for any significant camera hardware upgrades.
Reader, I’ve never wanted a rumour to be inaccurate more.
No big Galaxy S camera upgrades until 2028
Ice Universe, a well-known leaker with a pretty solid track record in the Android-sphere, has claimed on X in a now-deleted tweet that Samsung won’t introduce significant camera upgrades to its flagship Galaxy S range for the next two years.
Per the leaker, the Galaxy S26 collection – due in early 2026 – will have largely the same configuration as the Galaxy S25, which in turn has the same camera setup as the S24, which has the same setup as… okay, you get the point.
Not even the Ultra model is safe from the lack of upgrades in the near future, with the leaker claiming that the S27 Ultra – due in 2027 – won’t feature any significant camera upgrades.
The reason? If the leaker is correct, it seems to be a combination of factors. Samsung allegedly wants to focus more on thin and light phones moving forward, which means space for camera upgrades comes at quite a premium, but it’s also down to internal pressures.
More specifically, it’s rumoured that Samsung’s smartphone division needs to generate as much profit as possible, as the company’s Electronics chip division is struggling, despite investments of billions of dollars.
No matter the reason, it’s a risky move
Regardless of the reasoning behind the change in tactic, it’s a risky move – especially at the premium end of the market.
Flagship smartphones in 2025 are increasingly hard to decide between; they all have high-end designs with solid durability, pixel-packed screens with retina-burning peak brightness, top-end power – usually from the exact same chipset – and solid battery life.
Really, it’s the camera setups that separate much of the flagship competition, and it’s the main reason why we’ve seen Android manufacturers like Honor, Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus invest heavily in camera tech over the past few years. As a result, camera performance is taking significant leaps forward on a yearly basis.
Not for Samsung, though – and it’s already starting to show.
Take the Honor 400 Pro as an example; despite costing £100 less than the Galaxy S25 at £699, the phone features an impressive camera setup headed up by a 200MP f/1.9 lens with a bigger 1/1.4-inch sensor than Samsung’s equivalent, along with a higer-res 50MP 3x telephoto lens and a slightly boosted 12MP ultrawide.
It’s also worth pointing out that the Honor 400 Pro isn’t even the best that Honor has to offer; the true flagship Honor Magic 7 Pro leaves the Galaxy S25, and arguably the S25 Ultra, in the dust when it comes to camera hardware.
If Samsung’s flagships are already challenged by cheaper mid-rangers, I can only imagine how that parity in camera performance will grow over the next few years, with much of the Android competition seemingly going all-in on camera performance.
For Samsung’s sake alone, I really hope that this rumour is just that – a rumour and nothing else – but we’ll be waiting quite a while before we know for sure.
