Samsung’s next flagship does not arrive until early 2027. But on social media, leaks about its back panel have already started a fight.
Over the weekend of 22 to 24 August, three leakers published drawings and renders of the Galaxy S27 Ultra. All showed the same thing: a raised rectangular block across the top of the back, holding the cameras. It retires the floating lens rings Samsung has used on every Galaxy S flagship since the S21.
Well, Galaxy owners are saying the new back looks like an iPhone.
Ice Universe, a reliable Samsung tipster, addressed his 23 August post to Hubert H. Lee, Samsung’s head of mobile product design. He wrote that it was too late to change anything, and that Lee should brace for the most intense wave of criticism in Galaxy history.
What the renders show
We set out the full leak record on 24 August. The plateau sits in the top-left corner: two circular lens cutouts side by side, a pill-shaped cutout holding a third camera and the flash, and a ring of magnets below.
Make tech-ish your favourite source
Star us on Google — you'll see more tech-ish in Top Stories and AI results.
That is three lenses. The Galaxy S26 Ultra has four, and the 10MP 3x telephoto is the one going. Several outlets reported a drop to two, misreading the pill as a flash housing. The CAD renders from OnLeaks settle it at three.
The copying claim
Apple introduced its camera plateau on the iPhone 17 Pro in September 2025, and the iPhone 18 Pro arrives next month keeping it. Samsung is following a year later, which on its own looks damning.
It is also incomplete. Google put a horizontal camera bar on the Pixel 6 in October 2021, four years ahead of Apple, and says the reason was physical: bigger sensors need room, and spreading them horizontally stops the phone rocking on a table. Samsung has been here too. The Galaxy S10 wore a horizontal camera strip in 2019, which the company used and then abandoned.
The reason is magnets
Qi2 is a charging standard that puts a ring of magnets inside the phone, so a charger or a wallet snaps into place by itself. Apple has done this since 2020. Samsung has not, and its phones instead need a magnetic case bought separately. Samsung told 9to5Google this reflected its commitment to thinner, lighter designs.
The catch, as we explained on 17 August, is that the magnet ring needs the middle of the back panel, roughly where the S26 Ultra’s scattered lens rings already sit. Pull the cameras into one block at the top and the space opens up. These companies keep using similar shapes because they are solving the same problem.
Nothing, for now. Samsung has said nothing about the design, and dummy units normally leak around October.
If you want an Ultra this year, the S26 Ultra has already been through its price correction. We found it at KES 124,000 from one Nairobi retailer in June, against roughly KES 150,000 at major outlets. What to watch from here is whether the S27 Ultra gets a new main sensor, or a fifth year of the HP2 behind new glass.
Join the discussion