Samsung is considering adding a feature from the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra camera to the Galaxy S25 devices, namely Virtual Aperture for the telephoto camera. This could be added as part of a software update, since it is entirely a software feature.
Samsung Galaxy S26 5G
Samsung Galaxy S26+ 5G
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 5G
People on the internet have apparently been asking the Korean company to bring it to last year’s flagships, and an executive has confirmed that Samsung is looking into it.
Virtual Aperture already works on the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra via the Expert RAW app, but only for the main camera. Having it available for the telephoto as well would obviously improve its usability.
Samsung Galaxy S25
Samsung Galaxy S25+
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
As the name implies, Virtual Aperture lets you artificially simulate different apertures. This thus lets you effectively adjust the intensity of the background blur effect, which is most useful for portrait shots.
Interestingly, the Galaxy S27 could copy the iPhone 18 Pro series and come with a physically variable aperture for the main camera, a feature Samsung had on the Galaxy S9 in 2018 and the Galaxy S10 in 2019, but then decided to drop. Now that Apple’s doing it, things might change.