Early Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra leak paints the picture of a thinner picture but minimally upgraded phone

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With Samsung's latest foldables, the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, in the rearview, some leakers are turning their attention to the main Galaxy S series and next year's Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Tipster Ice Universe, a regular leaker of Samsung devices, made a post today (July 28) with a number of specs and details concerning next year's flagship device. Largely it sounds much like this year's Galaxy S25 Ultra with some upgrades.

To start, they claim that the phone will be between 7 and 8 mm thick with a "slightly increased width and height" while weighing less than this year's model. Anything under 8mm would be thinner than the S25 Ultra which measures in at .32-inches or about 8.1mm.

The new handset will have a 6.9-inch display featuring "CoE depolarizer technology and third-generation anti-reflective glass."

They do not provide any megapixel information but it appears the cameras will get a new sensor with an "ultra-large aperture." There will be a 5x telephoto lens and a "new" 3x sensor.

Unfortunately, like with the S25 Ultra, Samsung is sticking with the same 5,000mAh battery, where again it will rely on software optimization to increase battery life. There are reports that Samsung might switch to a silicon-carbon battery for the S26 Ultra, which could lead to bigger, more compact batteries in the future. Ice Universe does say the S26 Ultra will have 60W fast charging, 15W more than the S25.

No surprise here, but the S26 Ultra will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite which Ice Universe says will have a 4.74GHz CPU and a 1300MHz GPU. They claim that Samsung's own Exynos 2600 is "under testing."

With Google moving up its Android release schedule this year, the S26 Ultra will likely run Android 16 out of the box with version 8.5 of Samsung's OneUI skin on top.

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Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him. He also handles all the Connections coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game since it released.

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