Samsung could be digging into its past for a future phone upgrade to combat Apple – just don't expect it on S26

It's thought that Samsung and Apple might be planning to introduce variable aperture cameras onto future phones as the two companies compete to make their smartphones more competitive.

The news of Apple's plans to add variable aperture to the iPhone 18 surfaced late in 2025, originally coming from notable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Now it seems that Samsung is planning to rival the Apple tech by exploring options for a variable aperture system of its own.

This isn't a new technology, as Samsung flirted with the system on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10, before returning to a regular fixed aperture on the Galaxy S20. However, a report from ETNews cites industry sources who claim that Samsung has requested the development of a variable aperture technology for testing.

It's said that although the use of a variable aperture system on the rear camera isn't confirmed, Samsung is "strongly committed to using it". It appears on surface value that this is Samsung's reaction to Apple's plans for a similar system in the next generation of iPhone.

What is a variable aperture camera?

Aperture controls the amount of light that comes through the shutter of a camera and in simple terms refers to the size of the hole the light passes through. In recent years we've seen camera phones offering wider apertures (given as the F number) as the company aims to let more light onto the sensor.

This can improve the performance of the camera in low light and that's driven apertures like F/1.6 or F/1.4, for example. But increasing the aperture has the downside of narrowing the depth of field, which is how much of the resulting photograph is in focus.

That's led to a problem with some cameras: close photos can have a limited depth of field, so taking a picture of something close to the lens will mean a lot of the rest of the picture is blurred.

While that works for portraits – often referred to as bokeh – it's possible for the tip of the nose to be in focus and the ears not, which isn't ideal. This is often avoided by using a different lens, such as switching to macro for close photos, or a "portrait" lens with a wider aperture.

Adding variable aperture to a camera could improve its performance by allowing the user to use the largest sensor and best lens, while changing the photographic properties of the camera via the aperture.

The problem really is how it's presented: while those interested in photography will understand the concept, typical phone owners who just want to point and shoot probably won't be interested in the added complication that it could bring.

Ideally, such as system would be entirely automated to produce the best results in a range of situations, so that the cameras on these phones aren't unnecessarily complicated. Maybe AI can help.