Samsung Galaxy S26 may not deliver the camera upgrade you’re expecting

What’s happening? It seems the base Samsung Galaxy S26 model will likely keep the same rear-camera hardware used in the Galaxy S25, rather than receiving an upgrade as originally planned.

According to a report from South Korea, this decision appears to be driven by a mix of factors such as rising semiconductor and memory costs, weaker-than-expected demand for the S25 Edge model, and a larger market context that includes the pricing of competing phones.

Why Samsung made this call

Samsung has had to deal with higher memory and semiconductor costs, which makes any new camera hardware more expensive to build into the phone. On top of that, sales of the Galaxy S25 Edge reportedly fell short of expectations, which not only resulted in getting the S26 Edge cancelled, but also making the company more careful about where it spends on upgrades.

There is also the Apple factor. Apple did not raise the price of its base iPhone 17, and that may have pushed Samsung to hold off on increasing the price of its own base Galaxy S26 for another year. Keeping the existing camera hardware is one way to avoid adding extra cost that would force a price hike.

What this means for Galaxy S26 buyers

If the report holds true, the Galaxy S26’s camera improvements will likely come through software enhancement made possible by the Exynos 2600 chipset, rather than new sensors.

Samsung’s decision to scrap the camera upgrade reportedly comes last minute, so it will slow down mass production of the Galaxy S26. Certain components now have to be redesigned after originally being built with the camera upgrade in mind. As a result, only the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to begin mass manufacturing this month, while the S26 and S26 Plus are said to start production toward the end of January 2026. This may be why some early rumors suggested Samsung could delay the Galaxy S26 launch instead of its usual January window.

It may now come down to whether Samsung can convince users that improvements they can’t see are still worth paying for.