Samsung is prepping for the Galaxy S26 launch on February 25, and three new teaser videos reveal what the company wants you to notice most: camera zoom and nighttime video.
The first clip shows extreme zoom on a dog, pushing well past typical 5x or 10x magnification. But there’s a catch buried in the fine print: the background is AI-generated. That matters because the hardware improvements may be modest. The S26 Ultra is rumored to keep its 50MP 5x periscope camera, though with a wider aperture. The base S26 and S26 Plus are expected to use either a 10MP or 12MP 3x telephoto lens. Samsung appears to be leaning on software and new processors to stretch zoom performance beyond what the optics alone can deliver.
The other two videos focus on low-light video capture. One features a DJ in a dark room, the other a woman spinning fireworks at night. The tagline reads, “It looks dark. It films bright.” Samsung has branded this type of functionality as Nightography in the past, and the emphasis here suggests video performance in dim conditions will be a key selling point.
Leaked details point to support for the APV codec, which should improve video quality overall. Each teaser also highlights the new camera housing design and AI branding, reinforcing Samsung’s push into computational photography.
Other rumored features include scam detection, Linux Terminal support, and a 10-bit display on the Ultra. But based on these teasers, Samsung is betting that most buyers will care about how far they can zoom and how well the phone handles video after dark.
