We’re still more than a week away from Samsung’s Galaxy S26 trio hitting store shelves, leaving plenty of time for fans to take advantage of some solid pre-order deals. But if this year’s refined design and Privacy Display haven’t convinced you to upgrade, say, your aging Note 20 Ultra, our first S27 Ultra rumor suggests you might be better off waiting after all.
Prominent leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Weibo that Samsung’s upcoming flagship imaging sensor, allegedly named ISOCELL HPA, will provide a pretty prominent upgrade to the 200MP sensor Samsung’s been utilizing on its recent flagships, keeping the same resolution but bumping its size up to 1/1.12″ and adding support for LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor). LOFIC is capable of capturing a wider dynamic range than traditional sensors through a separate capacitor within each pixel, increasing both highlight and lowlight performance within your image.
While Digital Chat Station didn’t specifically indicate that the S27 Ultra will use Samsung’s next ISOCELL sensor, their post does hint at it. Fellow leaker Ice Universe took this one step farther, taking to Weibo to echo the original post with some additional detail. Apparently, Samsung wants to use a modified HPA variant named the HP6, with a smaller 1/1.3″ sensor but similar performance. It’s also important to note that all of this comes as Apple, a company Samsung routinely takes inspiration from, is rumored to utilize LOFIC on this year’s upcoming iPhone lineup. Likewise, the just-announced Xiaomi 17 Ultra utilizes this same technology.
Obviously, it’s important to take any rumor this early with a grain of salt, and doubly so when it comes to Samsung. A large portion of early Galaxy S26 rumors, after all, ended up falling moot when the company reportedly rebooted the majority of this year’s lineup last fall. Likewise, Samsung fans have waited ages for a meaningful upgrade to its flagship camera performance, and while the S26 Ultra isn’t completely identical to its predecessor on the imaging side, most of its improvements come via software and processing. A wider aperture on both the main and ultra-wide sensors remains this year’s only big physical change.
But hey, if you don’t want to feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy’s football, here’s just a bit of hope: Ice Universe called that wider aperture upgrade on the S26 Ultra all the way back in July of 2025. Perhaps he’s correct this time around, too.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 series is now available to pre-order at Samsung.com, with up to $900 in trade-in value or $150 in store credit for additional devices if you forego a trade-in altogether.
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