Samsung reportedly dropped Apple-style camera control button plans for Galaxy S26 series

The Samsung Galaxy S26 series is expected to launch in February 2026, but leaks have revealed most of the phones' design details. One of the previous reports suggested that the S26 Ultra would be offered in a Cosmic Orange-like colorway, though later reports suggested otherwise. Well, it seems that the colorway isn't the only thing that Samsung may take inspiration from.

An employee who seemingly worked at a Samsung supplier shares on LinkedIn that Samsung considered an Apple-style action camera button for the Galaxy S26 series. The person notes that this button was planned to have support for swipe gestures, similar to what the camera button on recent iPhone models offers.

However, it seems that Samsung eventually decided not to move forward with it, as the recently leaked renders don't show an action button. It's possible that Samsung took notes from iPhone users' feedback on the button and saw that it wasn't being used as much as Apple may have thought. But then again, leaked renders don't tend to be fully accurate, so there's still a chance that the Samsung Galaxy S26 series will have an additional button on the side.

Now, if Samsung actually implements a camera button on the Galaxy S26 series, it wouldn't be the first non-Apple brand to adopt it. Right after Apple introduced it on the iPhone 16 Pro models, Oppo and Vivo implemented a similar feature on the X8 series and the X200 Ultra (12/256GB curr. $909.80 on TradingShenzhen).

It's also worth noting that none of the prominent tipsters mentioned a dedicated camera button on the Galaxy S26 series phones. So, even if Samsung explored the idea and wants to implement it, the feature is less likely to debut with the upcoming flagship phone lineup.