The Galaxy S27 Ultra’s 200MP main camera might not be boring after all

Samsung debuted a 200MP main camera on its smartphones back in 2023, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra maintains the same fundamental 200MP primary camera. However, it now sounds like the Galaxy S27 Ultra could get a major upgrade to its 200MP shooter.

Weibo leaker Smart Pikachu asserts that Samsung (and HUAWEI) are both testing 200MP main cameras with variable apertures. Check out the machine-translated screenshot below.

We’ve seen phones with 12MP to 50MP variable-aperture cameras, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a 200MP camera with this tech. Nevertheless, this upgrade could bring a few benefits.

The vast majority of smartphone cameras have a fixed lens aperture, but a variable aperture lets you tweak the size of this opening. This approach gives you greater control over the amount of light hitting the camera sensor. That means you can open the aperture at night for maximum light capture and then close it a little during the day when there’s plenty of sunlight.

A variable aperture also lets you change the camera’s depth of field. Open up the aperture and you’ll get a shallow depth of field. That means the subject is in focus but the background is blurry, as seen in portrait mode snaps. Reduce the aperture size, and both the subject and background will be in focus.

Another reason to look forward to a variable-aperture camera is that a narrower aperture lets you get much closer to your subject. This is very handy for macro photography. In fact, a 200MP variable-aperture main camera would theoretically allow you to conduct a lossless-resolution crop for an even closer macro shot.

This news also comes amid persistent rumors that the iPhone 18 series will get a variable-aperture main camera. However, Samsung was the first major brand to offer a variable-aperture primary shooter, starting with 2018’s Galaxy S9 series. The feature has since been adopted by phones from OPPO, Xiaomi, HONOR, and HUAWEI. Still, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Samsung is only reviving the variable aperture camera because Apple might adopt it.

This might not be the only upgrade coming to the Galaxy S27 Ultra’s main camera, though. A previous leak suggests that the phone’s 200MP camera could be upgraded to a camera sensor with LOFIC technology for dramatically improved dynamic range.