If you look over the specs of the last few Galaxy Z Fold phones, you’ll notice one thing hasn’t changed since the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The under-display camera is a cool idea, but performance has always been lackluster. Hopefully that’s changing, because Samsung may be adding one of the hidden lenses to the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
According to Korean leaker Kro, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra prototypes do not have a visible hole-punch for a selfie camera. This suggests that Samsung may be ready to ditch the standard selfie camera design in favor of one hidden under the display.
UDC https://t.co/S56we30xjaFebruary 3, 2025
The consequences of this decision are pretty big. For starters, the under display camera on the Z Fold series has always been pretty inconsequential. The phones still have a traditional hole-punch camera on the cover display, while the design also allows users to take selfies using the rear cameras — with the cover display acting as a viewfinder. The fact that the hidden camera is pretty crappy doesn’t matter too much.
That wouldn’t be true if Samsung brought this technology to the flagship Galaxy S series. If Samsung hopes to get away with bringing the under display camera to the S26 Ultra, we’re going to have to see a pretty big jump in quality.
If Samsung users are willing to make a stink about a downgraded S Pen, you can bet they’ll kick up a fuss if they end up with a single 4MP selfie camera on a $1,300+ phone.
Then again Samsung will no doubt be testing multiple Galaxy S26 Ultra prototypes right now, and is unlikely to have made a final decision on the selfie camera. So there’s no guarantee that the under display camera will jump to a non-foldable phone, even if there is a possibility it might.
Let’s just hope that, whatever ends up happening, the Galaxy S26 series has more on offer than the Galaxy S25 does. Otherwise Samsung’s going to have a lot of disappointed customers on its hands.
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