TL;DR
- The Galaxy S26 Ultra replaces the conventional periscope 5x zoom with a new design, likely using Samsung’s ALoP (All Lenses on Prism) technology.
- While the new setup allows for a wider aperture and circular bokeh, the minimum focus distance has regressed from 26cm to 52cm.
- Samsung has removed “periscope” from its official S26 Ultra materials, despite the new hardware still using light-bending prisms.
Samsung reserved most of the highlight upgrades on the Galaxy S26 series for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, including a wider aperture on the primary camera and the 5x telephoto camera. One change that flew under the radar is that the 5x camera is no longer a periscope zoom lens. Instead, Samsung has switched to a different lens type for the 5x zoom camera.
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