Samsung’s next Ultra may be about to make a trade it hasn’t dared to make in years: give up a camera to gain room for something people ask about constantly — battery life.
Fresh leaks tied to the Galaxy S27 Ultra suggest Samsung is considering dropping the separate 3x telephoto lens altogether. That sounds dramatic, but the logic is fairly straightforward. The current Ultra models already lean heavily on a 5x periscope camera, and leaker claims suggest Samsung now sees the old 3x module as the weaker link in the setup. If the company believes the 5x lens can handle 3x shots through cropping or computational tricks, then the smaller lens starts to look like dead weight rather than a selling point.
That idea lines up with the broader direction Samsung appears to be taking across the lineup. Recent chatter has Galaxy S27 Pro rumor chatter suggesting Samsung may blur the line between Pro and Ultra more than ever, while other leaks point to cost-cutting elsewhere in the family, including Exynos silicon and even BOE-made displays for some models. In that context, removing a camera isn’t just about simplifying the back of the phone — it could also be one way to keep the Ultra from getting even pricier.
There’s also a practical upside. Freeing up internal space could help Samsung finally move beyond the 5,000mAh battery ceiling that has defined its Ultra phones for years. That number has become a little stale, especially when rivals keep pushing capacity higher and newer battery chemistries are reshaping expectations. Samsung has already said it is exploring silicon-carbon technology, and a larger cell in the S27 Ultra would at least show the company isn’t standing still.
The camera change, if real, could cut both ways. On paper, losing a dedicated 3x telephoto sounds like a downgrade. In practice, it may be more complicated. Modern phones increasingly rely on sensor-crop zoom, image fusion and heavy software processing to bridge the gaps between optical focal lengths. Digital Trends notes that Samsung could be using the 200MP main sensor and the 5x periscope together to fake a 3x view, which would explain why the company might be comfortable retiring the separate lens.
Still, there are plenty of unanswered questions. A fixed periscope lens doesn’t magically become a 3x camera, so the real implementation matters a lot here. If Samsung gets clever with its processing, the Ultra could end up producing better 3x photos than before. If it doesn’t, users who rely on that middle zoom range may notice the loss immediately.
The design changes may be just as interesting as the hardware ones. One of the more surprising claims is that Samsung could shift to a horizontal camera bar on the S27 Ultra, a move that would make room for magnetic Qi2-style charging. That would bring the Galaxy line closer to MagSafe and Google’s Pixelsnap approach, something many Android users have wanted for ages.
It would also be a fairly big identity shift. Samsung has historically resisted built-in magnets, arguing they can interfere with the display and the S Pen. If the company is now reconsidering that position, it suggests the S27 Ultra is not just getting a few tweaks — it may be headed for a more fundamental redesign. Recent Galaxy S26 Ultra changes already showed Samsung experimenting with privacy-focused hardware and other unusual ideas, so the company clearly isn’t afraid to stir the pot.
The catch, of course, is that a horizontal camera strip could make the Ultra look a lot more like a Pixel. For a brand that has spent years trying to build a recognizable Ultra identity, that’s not a tiny detail. But if the trade-off is faster magnetic charging, a bigger battery and a cleaner camera layout, Samsung may decide the compromise is worth it.
None of this is official yet, and the S27 family is still months away from launch. Even so, the rumors are sketching out a phone that sounds more purposeful than incremental: fewer camera modules, more battery, and a charging system that finally catches up with the rest of the market. If Samsung can pull that off without dulling the Ultra’s imaging chops, the S27 Ultra could end up feeling less like a spec-sheet shuffle and more like a meaningful reset.
