This rumored Galaxy S27 Ultra change could annoy Samsung’s biggest fans

Samsung might be about to remove the one camera a lot of Galaxy Ultra buyers rely on.

A new leak from Ice Universe claims the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra will drop its dedicated 3x telephoto lens.

That would mean Samsung is moving away from the Ultra line’s usual four-camera setup and going with three cameras instead.

The remaining setup is said to include a 200MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP 5x telephoto.

The top Galaxy S model has had four separate rear cameras since the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and that fourth lens gave us a handy middle zoom range.

Samsung’s Ultra phones have long been the do-everything phone. If these leaks are right, that reputation could take a hit.

The 3x zoom is the everyday sweet spot

These details might sound like a niche complaint from photography enthusiasts, but hear me out.

On a phone built around a roughly 24mm main camera, a 3x optical zoom lands near a 70mm equivalent. That range is a sweet spot for everyday photography.

A 70mm lens pulls the background in closer and gives the person more separation, which makes faces look better.

The main camera on most phones is wide. That helps with landscape photography and small indoor spaces, but it can distort faces near the edge of the frame.

A 5x or 10x lens has the opposite problem. You get more reach, but you may have to move farther to frame your shots properly.

The 3x lens sits between those extremes. That's why it works for portraits without making people look warped and for food without forcing you to hover over the table.

Samsung had already started neglecting the 3x camera

The 3x camera became easier to cut because Samsung had already pushed it down the priority list.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra came with a 1/3.94-inch 10MP sensor for its 3x camera, which was a physical downgrade from the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 1/3.52-inch sensor.

I found the S26 Ultra’s 3x telephoto grainy and soft outside ideal daylight. It also lost some close-focus ability compared with the previous generation.

A 200MP crop is still not the same as optical zoom

The workaround is apparently an in-sensor crop. Samsung would use the extra resolution from its 200MP ISOCELL HP6 main sensor to fake a 3x zoom.

At 3x, an in-sensor crop would use only the center of the main sensor, so it gives up the full sensor’s light-gathering area and resolution headroom.

In bright light, it could look very good. In dimmer scenes, quality would depend heavily on the lens aperture and how much Samsung's AI can preserve detail.

Cropping a wide-angle lens also keeps the wide-angle perspective. The phone may frame a face like a 70mm lens, but it will not create the same depth of field as real telephoto glass does.

Removing the fourth lens is also a branding problem. A flatter or more horizontal layout with three rear cameras would make the Ultra look closer to the same template everyone else is using.

Software cannot fully fake a dedicated lens

Samsung is leaning harder on computational photography as it sells its next AI phones.

The Galaxy S27 Ultra is expected to run on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro. The likely bet is that new silicon can clean up the noise created by zooming into a cropped main sensor.

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Again, software can only rescue so many ugly captures; it cannot fully replace light passing through a dedicated lens.

When an image signal processor has to invent details the camera never captured, photos can look smeared or over-processed.

That is a bad bargain for the Ultra crowd, especially when skin texture gets smoothed over and edges start looking artificial.

Qi2 would be great, but not at the cost of a useful lens

According to leaks, part of the reason for the redesign is to create room for internal Qi2 magnetic charging accessories. I actually like the idea of Qi2, so this one has me torn.

Better charging would be great, but losing a useful camera to get there would sting. The Ultra badge is expensive because it means no compromise.

Don’t get me wrong. If Samsung removes the 3x telephoto lens, the S27 Ultra will still take excellent photos.

But as a photographer who uses that middle zoom every day, a digitally cropped substitute is still a downgrade for me.