GoKawiilSanuj Bhatia / Android Authority
Every time a new Samsung Galaxy Ultra phone launches, comparisons with the latest hardware-focused Chinese flagships quickly follow. Over the past few years, brands like Xiaomi, vivo, and OPPO have aggressively pushed smartphone camera hardware forward with larger sensors, multiple periscope zoom lenses, and increasingly ambitious camera systems.
Samsung, meanwhile, has taken a much more iterative approach. While the Galaxy S26 Ultra doesn’t introduce major camera hardware changes this year, Samsung continues to rely heavily on its in-house computational photography and image processing.
But as we’ve seen time and time again, raw hardware no longer guarantees dramatically better photos. The biggest differences now often come down to image processing and post-capture philosophy, something we recently saw in our OPPO Find X9 Ultra vs. Pixel 10 Pro XL comparison.
With that in mind, how does the Galaxy S26 Ultra fare against the camera behemoth that is the Find X9 Ultra? I put both to the test in a camera shootout, and it’s closer than you might expect.
OPPO Find X9 Ultra vs. Galaxy S26 Ultra: Which do you think is the best camera phone? 53 votes Galaxy S26 Ultra 19 % OPPO Find X9 Ultra 70 % Honestly, both are equally impressive 11 %
OPPO Find X9 Ultra vs. Galaxy S26 Ultra: A closer look at the camera hardware
Stephen Radochia / Android Authority
Before we get into the actual camera samples, let’s quickly go through the hardware on both phones. The OPPO Find X9 Ultra features a 200MP primary sensor with PDAF and OIS. It’s paired with a 50MP ultrawide sensor, a 200MP 3x periscope lens, and a 50MP 10x periscope lens.
In fact, thanks to sensor crop-in, OPPO says it can even reach 20x zoom while retaining quality. Similar to the past few years, OPPO has also partnered with Hasselblad for image tuning and post-processing (which is now exclusive to OPPO phones), while Samsung continues to handle image tuning entirely in-house. Camera OPPO Find X9 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Wide (Main) 200MP, f/1.5, 1/1.12-inch, 23mm, PDAF, OIS 200MP, f/1.4, 1/1.3-inch, 23mm, PDAF, OIS Ultrawide 50MP, f/2.0, 1/1.95-inch, 14mm, PDAF 50MP, f/1.9, 1/2.5-inch, PDAF Zoom 1 200MP, f/2.2, 1/1.28-inch, 70mm, 3x periscope, PDAF OIS 10MP, f/2.4, 1/3.94-inch, 67mm, 3x periscope, PDAF OIS Zoom 2 50MP, f/3.5, 1/2.7-inch, 230mm, 10x periscope, PDAF, OIS 50MP, f/2.9, 1/2.52-inch, 111mm, 5x periscope, PDAF, OIS Speaking of Samsung, the Galaxy S26 Ultra also packs a 200MP primary sensor with PDAF and OIS. This is paired with a 50MP ultrawide camera, a 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, and a 50MP 5x optical zoom sensor.
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