Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra camera test with real photo samples

I’ve only had the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra for a few days, but I’ve already taken it everywhere, capturing photos while walking around San Francisco during the day and at night, plus a few shots from the plane. Below are some of my first real-world camera samples. While the hardware isn’t dramatically different from last year, Samsung increased how much light both the main and telephoto lenses capture, which means photos snap a bit faster and low-light images already look noticeably better.

One quick note: these images were run through my usual optimizer to crop them, add a watermark, and remove metadata, so they’re not the direct full-resolution files straight from the camera. Still, they should give you a good sense of how the phone captures photos in real-world use.

You can also read my full impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series here.

You can also watch my TV segment on the Samsung Galaxy S26, where I share my initial hands-on impressions and coverage from the launch event. The full video is embedded below.