Samsung’s Galaxy S26 AI camera features are a photography nightmare | The Verge

Skip to main contentThe homepageThe homepageNavigation DrawerLogin / Sign UpcloseSubscribeComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...PodcastsAITechThe Galaxy S26 is a photography nightmareOn The Vergecast: Another “what is a photo?” apocalypse, the uncertain future of Xbox, and Claude’s consciousness.On The Vergecast: Another “what is a photo?” apocalypse, the uncertain future of Xbox, and Claude’s consciousness.by David PierceFeb 27, 2026, 3:15 PM UTCDavid Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.In many ways, Samsung’s new phones are fairly normal upgrades. The S26 lines come with some useful new things — particularly the Privacy Display on the S26 Ultra, which looks like an extremely cool bit of tech and a really useful new feature — and a lot of iterative year-over-year changes. The new camera features, on the other hand, are neither of those things. They’re something worse. Something scarier.Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Vergecast wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here.On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay and David discuss the new phones, then dive into the ways in which the S26’s AI camera features seem to be clearly designed to change the whole idea of what happens when you try to take a picture. For that matter, it’s not even clear that what you’re taking is a “picture” anymore. We’ve been talking about the “What is a photo?” apocalypse for some time, and the S26 feels like a crossing of a line. All in the service of some cupcakes.After that, the hosts turn to the big shakeup inside the Xbox team. With Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond out, and Asha Sharma in, it’s time to wonder what happened to the Xbox, and whether Sharma or anyone can fix it. Microsoft’s gaming problems have been around for years and are the result of a string of bad bets and bad decisions. What would it take to get back on course, and is “back on course” even possible anymore?Finally, in the lightning round, we do another round of Brendan Carr is a Dummy, debate a truly astonishing chart, check in on OpenAI’s infrastructure spending, and decide once and for all whether Claude is alive. Or, at least, whether Anthropic thinks so. If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on the new Samsung devices:Samsung Unpacked 2026: live updates from the Galaxy S26 announcement event Samsung Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus hands-on: More of the same I’m super impressed with the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new Privacy DisplayGoogle Gemini can book an Uber or order food for you with new agentic AI featuresGoogle and Samsung just launched the AI features Apple couldn’t with SiriIf Big Tech cared about fighting AI slop, we wouldn’t be drowning in itAnd in Xbox news:Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving MicrosoftRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of XboxBillions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox isXbox, watch TV: inside Microsoft’s audacious plan to take over the living roomAnd in the lightning round:From the FCC: Chairman Carr Announces Pledge America CampaignOpenAI’s Stargate struggles.From the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas: Advances in AI will boost productivity, living standards over timeDoes Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’OpenAI’s first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a cameraFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.David PierceAIPodcastsSamsungTechVergecastMost PopularMost PopularPhones are going to get weird next weekNetflix walks away from its deal to buy Warner Bros. after Paramount came back with a better offerWhy no magnets in Galaxy S26? Samsung R&D chief explainsPokémon Presents 2026: All the news and trailersBurger King will use AI to check if employees say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native adMore in PodcastsXbox is in danger. Will Microsoft fix it or kill it?How Claude Code Claude CodesHank Green will gladly take billionaire money for education videosThe speech police came for ColbertMoney no longer matters to AI’s top talentYour next laptop could be a foldable phoneXbox is in danger. Will Microsoft fix it or kill it?Nilay PatelFeb 26How Claude Code Claude CodesDavid PierceFeb 24Hank Green will gladly take billionaire money for education videosNilay PatelFeb 23The speech police came for ColbertDavid PierceFeb 19Money no longer matters to AI’s top talentNilay PatelFeb 19Your next laptop could be a foldable phoneDavid PierceFeb 17Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native adTop StoriesFeb 27We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robotsFeb 27Warner Bros. Discovery agrees to $110 billion Paramount mergerFeb 27Phones are going to get weird next weekFeb 27AI deepfakes are a train wreck and Samsung’s selling ticketsFeb 27Smuggling podcasts into a Burmese prisonFeb 27The Trump phone sure looks a lot like this HTC handset