The Galaxy S26 series might finally make 24MP photos worth using

Twitter tipster Ice Universe posted more apparent information about this shooting mode, corroborating reports that it needs to be enabled in the Camera Assistant app first. Once you’ve turned on this feature, it’ll be available as an option in the Galaxy S26’s default camera app.

The leaker claims that this 24MP shooting mode will differ from the Expert RAW app’s 24MP option in terms of execution. More specifically, the new 24MP mode might avoid current 24MP issues like over-sharpening and purple fringing when shooting backlit scenes or faces. Ice Universe explains that it’ll take roughly three seconds for the image to be processed, but claims that the final picture is “clearly better” than a conventional 12MP shot. The leaker later added that this processing takes place in the background, but that there was no lag when hitting the shutter key.

In any event, previous leaks suggest that this shooting mode will work in both Photo and Portrait modes. Ice also claims that this is a Galaxy S26-exclusive feature, so you might be out of luck if you’ve got an older Galaxy phone.

A 24MP shooting mode should offer a great compromise between conventional 12MP photos and 50MP full-resolution shots. More specifically, this mode should capture more details than a 12MP snap due to the increased resolution, but it should be faster and offer a smaller file size than a 50MP snap. We’re therefore happy Samsung is embracing this feature in the default camera app.

News of this apparent 24MP shooting mode also comes as rivals OPPO and realme embrace high-resolution photo capture by default. I recently used the realme GT8 Pro, and it’s capable of dynamically adjusting image capture resolution. For example, the device can shoot at 50MP or ~26MP in broad daylight, and then automatically switch to 12MP photo capture at night for brighter, cleaner images. So I hope Samsung offers a similarly dynamic image capture option down the line.