First cases of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra already leaked
It will be at least January 2026 before you can buy Samsung's new Galaxy S26 Ultra, but the first cases have already appeared.
It was @UniverseIce who first brought the images of the S26 Ultra cases. The images show well that Samsung will use a raised camera platform on which the three main cameras will be placed. The flash and auxiliary sensors will remain loose on the back, as they do now on the S25 Ultra.
We're soon going to see that raised platform on the S26 Pro as well. It will be a sort of signature feature of Samsung that previously placed the camera lenses loose on the back. Another completely different design applies to the S26 Edge. There, Samsung is going after Apple with module covering the entire back.
Modified camera island
This is not the first time Samsung is changing the camera island. Starting with the S20, the camera went from the center to the corner and the S21 introduced Contour Cut Camera making repairs extra difficult. Samsung said goodbye to it again starting with the S23 by putting cameras loose on the back. But after three generations, that design, too, is thus going on the rocks.
There were still rumors that Samsung wanted to trade the fourth camera for a larger battery but we now know that is not going to happen. In fact, the S26 Ultra will get the same 5000 mAh battery as its six predecessors. There is also talk that the 5x telephoto camera will remain the same. Possibly the overall thickness will go down a bit, but whether people are waiting for that remains uncertain.
S Ultra possibly first with Exynos chip
Another rumor is about the power source of the S26 Ultra. Samsung would not want to employ the fastest Qualcomm Snapdragon chip but its own Exynos 2600. Samsung more often used a strategy where the base S phone came with an Exynos chip but the Ultra, on the other hand, always got the usually better-performing Snapdragon variant.
Not this year so reports The Korea Herald. The S26 Ultra will also have to make do with an Exynos chipset this time around. Samsung has been unable to deploy its Exynos counterpart in recent years due to problems during manufacturing but that problem seems to be fixed this year. Production of the Exynos 2600 is on schedule and its performance seems good.
