Samsung Galaxy S26 with a Camera Button? At first, yes, but something changed

The new top-of-the-line smartphones of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series could have offered a Camera Button, according to the latest rumors. A Camera Phone feature – particularly suitable especially for the Ultra model – that, however, seems not to find space on the final version.

Samsung Galaxy S26 could have had a Camera Button

As of now, Android and iOS smartphones with a dedicated Camera button are numerous, although it is not a feature widely deployed. The Camera Control button is present on the iPhone 16 series and on the current generation iPhone 17; among the other names we have Sony Xperia 1 VII, OPPO Find X9 Pro, Honor 400 Lite and others.

As you can see the Android landscape is fairly varied but the button is not ubiquitous. Among the smartphones missing from the lineup are those from the Samsung Galaxy S series.

Despite the Camera Phone nature of the flagship model, even Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is lacking it. Things could have gone differently with the next generation, whose launch is expected in February.

A former Samsung employee revealed on LinkedIn that he contributed to an unprecedented initiative: a new Camera Button for Galaxy S26, with a swipe gesture. However the functionality has never been named by the industry’s leading insiders and does not appear in leaked renders.

Probably the idea was to introduce the new button but it was scrapped during development – although the reason is not clear. At this point it’s not to be ruled out that we’ll see this novelty in the future, perhaps on the upcoming Galaxy S27 family models!