Virtual Aperture was already on the S25 Ultra via Expert RAW, but it only worked with the main 200MP camera. The 3x and 5x telephoto lenses never saw a single drop of it — basically the camera equivalent of having a gym membership and only ever using the water fountain.
A Samsung moderator on a Korean community forum finally broke the silence — yes, the 3x and 5x lenses on the S25 Ultra are getting Virtual Aperture too.
S25 Ultra’s telephoto lenses finally get variable aperture
So what actually is Virtual Aperture? It’s Samsung’s software-based trick for mimicking DSLR-style aperture priority photography.
Your phone’s camera has one fixed aperture physically, but Samsung uses depth map data from its dual-camera array to simulate different aperture values in software — and apparently, it works well enough that people who’ve tried it on the wide lens have come away impressed.
On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung rolled this out for both the 3x and 5x lenses and also baked it directly into the stock camera app for easier access — no hunting through Expert RAW required.
And now the telephoto lenses on the S25 Ultra are finally getting the same treatment — which, for anyone who actually shoots at 3x or 5x regularly, is the update that should’ve been there from day one.
Backporting new features to older hardware: Good job Samsung
Nobody forced Samsung’s hand here. They could’ve sat on this feature for another upgrade cycle and milked it as an S27 talking point.
Instead, Samsung is separately rolling out several S26-era upgrades to the S25 series via One UI 8.5 — video zoom is jumping from 20x to 25x, and the update brings in a fluid Ambient redesign alongside a Bixby that now runs on Perplexity.
Video zoom on the S25 Ultra is quietly jumping from 20x to 25x, and the update also drags in One UI 8.5’s fluid Ambient redesign and a Bixby that now runs on Perplexity — so it actually knows things.
One UI 8.5’s stable rollout for the S25 series is expected in Q2 2026, while the Virtual Aperture telephoto expansion could arrive sooner via an Expert RAW app update. Either way, two meaningful camera upgrades are heading your way without spending a cent.
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