I got a chance to travel quite a bit around the Easter holidays, and naturally, I was really curious how well the Galaxy S26 Ultra camera will perform.
From a walk in the park in a new city I visited, to a couple of dog walks and a dog birthday, and finally a bunch of night shots, it proved to be a reliable companion.
But can it go as far as replacing my dedicated camera? Let’s take a look.
Galaxy S26 Ultra 12/512GB: Get it now over at Samsung!
$1299
$1499
$200 off (13%)
Samsung is letting you save up on the Galaxy S26 Ultra with an eligible trade-in. Get up to $720 instant trade-in credit or $200 off without trade-in. This is Samsung's latest and greatest phone, and the first phone in the world with Privacy Display, so don't miss out!
One thing I noticed immediately with the S26 Ultra is that the photos it captures almost always look vibrant and cheerful, with a splash of added saturation to the colors. This usually makes for very pleasing photos.
The dynamic range is also excellent. There were no overblown highlights in the photos I took, which is a problem I still sometimes see when testing other phones.
Next, I continued my day with a walk in the nearby park. Photos once again have a bit of pop in the colors, and they are almost never dull.
Recommended For You
I have to admit, though, that sometimes that extra color kick can exaggerate reality a bit. I can occasionally spot this with the sky in pictures looking bluer than it was in reality.
Of course, a lot of the processing in these images happens behind the scenes, involving a lot of AI object recognition. This usually results in pleasing photos. The exposure on the S26 Ultra is now a bit brighter than on previous Galaxy phones, which I appreciate.
< BeforeAfter >
When you take pictures in a busy city, it's hard to get a photo of that one iconic square without a crowd in it. Samsung's AI magic eraser comes to the rescue for that. It is aware of the surroundings, and the generative fill was able to reconstruct busy backgrounds like complex tiles or unpredictable architectural elements.
On other phones, AI erase often results in a blurry mess, while the S26 Ultra produces cleaner reconstructions in busy scenes, whether you want to remove or move a subject in your picture.
People and Portraits
Of course, no visit to a new city is complete without some portraits. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is very versatile in that regard, as it has four different portrait focal lengths at 1X, 2X, 3X and 5X.
It's particularly nice to have both a 3X and 5X field of view. Most other phones are only limited to one telephoto camera, and here you have two.
These zoomed shots work great for people shots because they compress the background, and facial features look much more flattering. In comparison, 1X portrait photos can capture more of the background, but you usually have to take the picture up-close, and some facial features might look distorted because of that.
Notice the accurate separation of the hair strands from the background | Image by PhoneArena
And it's not just about the bokeh looking nice, but the extremely accurate edge detection that can separate individual strands of hair from the background cleanly. Samsung has further improved its skin tone processing that looks very natural.
It was a beautiful early spring weekend, and with flowers and trees in bloom, you are naturally tempted to take some macro pictures as well.
Traditionally, the Galaxy has relied mostly on the 0.5X ultra-wide camera for these pictures, but I like using the telephoto cameras to get a more isolated shot that focuses only on that flower, but not so much the background.
You can use both the 3X and 5X cameras here, as they can focus at a pretty close distance as well to get that macro effect.
Food close-up | Image by PhoneArena
While on the topic of close-up photos, I also have to mention that the Galaxy also captures very appetizing food photos.
I went out to dinner at a local cafe, and despite the limited light, I was able to get nice food shots as well.
Zoom
The two telephoto cameras on the Galaxy give you the option to cover both mid-range and long-range zooms with ease.
I mostly used the 5X camera for my weekend trip. It has a bigger sensor than the 3X camera, and the extra reach allowed me to get closer to some beautiful architectural elements to showcase the character of the city.
The 5X camera comes with a 50MP sensor, which supports sensor cropping, so you also get excellent, practically lossless zoom at 10X as well.
30X zoom on S26 Ultra | Image by PhoneArena
The S26 Ultra supports up to 100X zoom, which is very impressive. Of course, you cannot expect perfect quality at those extreme levels, but even at 30X zoom, the phone preserves a surprising amount of detail.
Night Photos
Night photo on main camera | Image by PhoneArena
And after the sun sets, the Galaxy also performs very well.
In this challenging indoor night photo, I appreciate not only the accurate skin tones, but also how the strong light sources were not overblown — notice the bottles in the fridge behind my friend are still well exposed. Shadows were also a big challenge in this photo, which the Galaxy S26 Ultra handles well, as the darker tones of her shirt and the black handbag are properly exposed.
Ultrawide photos retain that authentic nightt time feeling | Image by PhoneArena
For those night walks, you also want to have a capable ultra-wide camera as well. It can fit more in the frame and capture more epic landscape or city shots. I appreciate that the Galaxy does not get overzealous trying to brighten up a night photo. You still get an authentic nighttime feel with the images.
The S26 Ultra can keep up with challenging night time conditions with its ultrawide camera | Image by PhoneArena
In the above picture, the Galaxy took a few extra seconds to expose it because it was very dark. But the result is once again a balanced picture with pleasing nighttime colors.
Final Words
After a weekend of parks, portraits, flowers, and late-night walks, the Galaxy S26 Ultra camera performed reliably across various lighting conditions and lived up to the high expectations of being my travel companion over the Easter break.
From vibrant daylight shots and flattering portraits to impressive zoom and well-balanced night photos, it handled every situation I threw at it with confidence. I am also hooked on the AI tools. From removing photobombers to generating fun little versions of images and to AI styles, it's all surprisingly powerful and right there in your Gallery app.
Of course, there are still some feats on my wish list for the future. I would love to have a more "natural", less vibrant settings for the colors for once.
But overall, the S26 Ultra proved versatile, fast and consistently pleasing.
Get Visible as low as $20/mo for 1 year. Limited time offer with code: FRESHSTART
$20
/mo
$25
$5 off (20%)
Offer Ends 6.1.2026 at 11.59pm ET. New members get $5/mo off the $25/mg Visible plan, $35/mo Visible+ plan, or $45/mo Visible+ Pro plan for the first 12 months. Promo code FRESHSTART required at checkout.
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts:
New accounts created within the last 24 hours may experience restrictions on how frequently they can
post or comment.
These limits are in place as a precaution and will automatically lift.
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: