Quick Summary
A report has suggested Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra will be slimmer than its predecessor, but there could be a compromise.
According to leaker Ice Universe, the camera bump could be almost double what it is now and there may not be a camera improvement.
Slim smartphones seem to be this year's hottest trend. Samsung not only announced the Galaxy S25 Edge at 5.8mm thin in May, but Apple has also just revealed the iPhone Air that's even slimmer at 5.6mm. While those two devices sit in their own league of skinny phones, other flagship phones around them are also slimming down.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 measures just 8.9mm and it looks great for it, while the Honor Magic V5 is the world's slimmest foldable phone. It's perhaps unsurprising then that rumours surrounding the Galaxy S26 Ultra also suggest a trimmed down thickness.
Will the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra be thinner?
The rumour comes from leaker Ice Universe, picked up by 9to5Google, and it shows a render of the Galaxy S26 Ultra from a profile view with detail of some measurements. Apparently, Samsung's next flagship phone will be 7.9mm slim, which would be a reduction of 0.3mm compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
It's not all good news however, with the measurements also detailing how far the camera bump will protrude from the back of the phone. Based on the leak, the camera bump will stick out from the rear glass by 4.5mm. To put that into perspective, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera bump sticks out by around 2.4mm so we're talking about almost double the protrusion.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's camera bump reaches 4.5mm (compared to 2.4mm on the S25 Ultra), driven by the large-aperture main camera and telephoto lens. Hopefully, the improvement will justify this increased thickness. Samsung could easily accommodate a larger telephoto sensor… pic.twitter.com/hyKT8KuHNnSeptember 9, 2025
Large camera bumps are certainly not new in the smartphone world with devices like the Oppo Find X8 Pro and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra embracing them.
The slightly disappointing news about the increase in the camera bump here is that the leak suggests it isn't going to translate to an improvement in camera performance. According to Ice Universe, Samsung is preparing for an eventual upgrade rather than an immediate one, with the telephoto lens said to be remaining at 50-megapixel.
Still, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The Samsung Galaxy S26 series isn't due to launch until the beginning of 2026 so there's plenty of time for things to change.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.